John Schubeck

John Schubeck (b. March 18, 1936 in Michigan – d. September 26, 1997 in Los Angeles, California) was an American television reporter and anchor, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network owned-and-operated stations in one major market.

A graduate of the University of Michigan and Loyola Law School, Schubeck began his broadcasting career at Detroit, Michigan radio station WJR, working with station legend J.P. McCarthy. He then worked at WRCV radio and television (now KYW Newsradio 1060 and KYW-TV, respectively) in Philadelphia and WGN-TV in Chicago before joining WABC-TV in New York City as an anchor of its early evening newscast in 1967, one year before "Eyewitness News" was launched. His run as anchor ended in 1969, and for the remainder of his stay with WABC which lasted until 1971, he was the station's theatre critic.

In 1972 Schubeck moved to KABC-TV in Los Angeles as an anchor, and in 1974 joined KNBC, where he remained until 1983. There he was part of a news team which, in the late 1970s, also included co-anchors Tritia Toyota and Kelly Lange, sportscaster Stu Nahan and weatherman Pat Sajak (who would go on to greater fame as host of "Wheel of Fortune" beginning in 1981). Schubeck made it a point, at the opening of each newscast, to acknowledge whichever announcer was on duty at the time (during his run as anchor at the station, KNBC's announcing staff included Donald Rickles, not to be confused with the insult comic of the same name; Peggy Taylor, who had been the resident singer on "The Stan Freberg Show" in 1957; Don Stanley; and Victor Bozeman), all of whom have since passed on. He also was an anchor of the prime-time "NBC News Update"s for airing in the Pacific Time Zone for much of his stay at channel 4.

After leaving KNBC, Schubeck joined KNXT (now KCBS-TV) where he remained until 1988. Among several of his last broadcast jobs included hosting a radio show on KIEV (870 AM) in 1993 and a brief anchoring stint at KMIR-TV in Palm Springs in 1995.

As would later be related by Peter Bart, towards the end of one of the 11 p.m. newscasts Schubeck anchored one night, a story he had read only ten minutes earlier was displayed again on the teleprompter. Faced with either repeating the story or doing an ad lib, Schubeck instead just sat motionless and silent, waiting for the correct story to come up, and remained that way until the newscast ended.

Schubeck was featured in an episode of the short-lived 1973 TV series version of "Adam's Rib", and appeared as a newscaster in the 1981 movie "Buddy Buddy".

Schubeck was one of the earliest millionaire local television news anchors. He generated around $1 million a year during his stints. However, through his life he had battled alcoholism, and spent most of his money on his habit without saving his money. He had been frequently treated for his problem and his family would soon bail out on him. Later in life, as his career came to an end, he was found homeless and living out of a car in the San Fernando Valley.

Schubeck died, penniless, of kidney and liver failure, aged 61. His death was often regarded as a great fall from grace and was merely covered by television stations or newspapers, though an obituary appeared in "The New York Times". In a tribute to a fellow journalist, close friend and co-anchor Tritia Toyota paid for his memorial services.

References

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFD81E3AF93BA1575AC0A961958260 Obituary] in The New York Times, September 28, 1997.
* [http://www.variety.com/article/VR111662118.html?categoryid=25&cs=1 Schubeck, TV Anchor, Dead at 61] (obituary). "Variety", September 29, 1997.
* [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117859603.html?categoryid=1&cs=1 "Requiem for an Anchorman"] by Peter Bart. "Variety", October 6, 1997.

External links

*imdb name|id=0775754|name=John Schubeck
* [http://broadcastpioneers.com/johnschubeck.html Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia]
* [http://www.laradio.com/wheres.htm Los Angeles Radio People]