John Schubeck
Encyclopedia
John Schubeck was an American
television
reporter and anchor
, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network
owned-and-operated station
s 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. While at Channel 7, he also did newscasts for the American Contemporary Radio Network. 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
Updates 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.
During his college years in Ann Arbor, he was heard on WUOM and as a half-time voice of the Wolverine football games. As an Evans Scholar, he became the top ranked amateur golfer in the country, eventually participating in many pro am and celebrity golf tournaments.
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. Schubeck lost his life to kidney
and liver failure
, when aged 61. Friends say that the stress of covering news events, often involving calamity contributed to his alcoholism and his career setbacks and untimely death. He died in relative obscurity although an obituary
appeared in The New York Times
. In a tribute to a fellow journalism colleague, close friend and co-anchor Tritia Toyota
reportedly paid for his memorial services.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
reporter and anchor
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
s in one major market.
A graduate of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
and Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Like Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law , it...
, Schubeck began his broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
career at Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
radio station WJR
WJR
WJR is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It broadcasts a news/talk format. It is a class A clear channel station whose broadcasts can be heard throughout most of the Midwest, eastern United States and Canada at night, making it one of the most powerful radio stations in the...
, working with station legend J.P. McCarthy. He then worked at WRCV radio and television (now KYW Newsradio 1060
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
and KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
, respectively) in Philadelphia and WGN-TV
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
before joining WABC-TV
WABC-TV
WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company located in New York City. The station's studios and offices are located on the Upper West Side section of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as an anchor of its early evening newscast in 1967, one year before Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News
Eyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
was launched. While at Channel 7, he also did newscasts for the American Contemporary Radio Network. 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
KABC-TV
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...
in Los Angeles as an anchor, and in 1974 joined KNBC
KNBC
KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson...
, where he remained until 1983. There he was part of a news team which, in the late 1970s, also included co-anchors Tritia Toyota
Tritia Toyota
Tritia Toyota is a former Los Angeles television news anchor and a current adjunct assistant professor in anthropology, Asian-American studies and the media at the University of California at Los Angeles.- Early life and education :...
and Kelly Lange
Kelly Lange
Kelly Lange is an American journalist, most notable for being the first woman to be a nightly news anchor in Los Angeles...
, sportscaster
Sportscaster
In sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
Stu Nahan
Stu Nahan
Stu Nahan was an American sportscaster best known for his television broadcasting career in Los Angeles from the 1950s through the 1990s. He is also remembered for his role as a boxing commentator in most of the Rocky films. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6549 Hollywood Blvd...
and weatherman
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak
Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...
(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
Announcer
An announcer is a presenter who makes "announcements" in an audio medium or a physical location.-Television and other media:Some announcers work in television production , radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, news updates, station identification, or an introduction of a product in...
was on duty at the time (during his run as anchor at the station, KNBC's announcing staff included Donald Rickles
Donald Rickles (announcer)
Donald Newton Rickles was an American radio and television announcer, news anchor, and actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, Rickles began his announcing career at the age of 11 at KBPS in Portland. Later he was chief announcer for KUSC-FM in Los Angeles, California...
, not to be confused with the insult comic
Don Rickles
Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....
of the same name; Peggy Taylor
Peggy Taylor
Peggy M. Taylor was an American singer and actress who later became a radio and television announcer.-Biography:...
, who had been the resident singer on The Stan Freberg Show
The Stan Freberg Show
The Stan Freberg Show was a weekly radio comedy show that ran on the CBS Radio Network for only fifteen episodes in 1957 from July 14 through October 20...
in 1957; Don Stanley
Don Stanley
Donald Stanley Uglum , known professionally as Don Stanley, was an American radio and television announcer....
; and Victor Bozeman
Victor Bozeman
Victor Emanuel Bozeman was an American television announcer, voice-over artist, and actor.In the 1950s, Bozeman was a disc jockey at WLIB in New York City...
), all of whom have since passed on. He also was an anchor of the prime-time NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
Updates for airing in the Pacific Time Zone
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
for much of his stay at channel 4.
After leaving KNBC, Schubeck joined KNXT (now KCBS-TV
KCBS-TV
KCBS-TV, channel 2, is an owned-and-operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Los Angeles, California. KCBS-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KCAL-TV inside CBS Studio Center in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, and its transmitter...
) where he remained until 1988. Among several of his last broadcast jobs included hosting a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
show on KIEV (870 AM) in 1993 and a brief anchoring stint at KMIR-TV
KMIR-TV
KMIR-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Southern California's Coachella Valley. Licensed to Palm Springs, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter on Edom Hill in Cathedral City north of I-10/Redlands Freeway...
in Palm Springs in 1995.
During his college years in Ann Arbor, he was heard on WUOM and as a half-time voice of the Wolverine football games. As an Evans Scholar, he became the top ranked amateur golfer in the country, eventually participating in many pro am and celebrity golf tournaments.
As would later be related by Peter Bart
Peter Bart
Peter Benton Bart is an American journalist and film producer. He perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure as the editor of Variety, an entertainment-trade magazine....
, 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
Teleprompter
An autocue is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards...
. 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
Buddy Buddy
Buddy Buddy is a 1981 American comedy film directed by Billy Wilder that stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Paula Prentiss and Klaus Kinski. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on the 1973 French language film L'Emmerdeur, which screenwriter Francis Veber had adapted from his play...
.
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. Schubeck lost his life to kidney
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
and liver failure
Liver failure
Acute liver failure is the appearance of severe complications rapidly after the first signs of liver disease , and indicates that the liver has sustained severe damage . The complications are hepatic encephalopathy and impaired protein synthesis...
, when aged 61. Friends say that the stress of covering news events, often involving calamity contributed to his alcoholism and his career setbacks and untimely death. He died in relative obscurity although an obituary
Obituary
An obituary is a news article that reports the recent death of a person, typically along with an account of the person's life and information about the upcoming funeral. In large cities and larger newspapers, obituaries are written only for people considered significant...
appeared in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. In a tribute to a fellow journalism colleague, close friend and co-anchor Tritia Toyota
Tritia Toyota
Tritia Toyota is a former Los Angeles television news anchor and a current adjunct assistant professor in anthropology, Asian-American studies and the media at the University of California at Los Angeles.- Early life and education :...
reportedly paid for his memorial services.