Ron Cochran was a television news journalist for ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 and CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. He served as the anchor of the ABC Evening News (now known as World News) from 1962 to 1965. In November 1963, he served as the network's principal anchor for the around-the-clock coverage of the Kennedy assassination

Assassination of John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...

. Before that, he hosted the CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 drama television series Armstrong Circle Theatre

Armstrong Circle Theatre

Armstrong Circle Theatre is an American anthology drama television series which ran from 1950 to 1957 on NBC, and then until 1963 on CBS. It alternated weekly with The U.S. Steel Hour.-Synopsis:...

.

Cochran was born in Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Canada, near Moose Jaw. He grew up in Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 and attended Parsons College

Parsons College

Parsons College was a private liberal arts college in Fairfield, Iowa. The school, affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, was founded in 1875 and closed in 1973....

 in Fairfield, Iowa

Fairfield, Iowa

Fairfield is a city and the county seat of Jefferson County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,464 in the 2010 census, a decline from 9,509 in the 2000 census. - History :...

. After working in Midwest radio stations he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation for two years. Then, in 1945, he went to work at a Boston radio station.

In 1951 he was hired by CBS, where he did both television and radio based in Washington. It was in 1954 that he went to WCBS-TV, to reinforce its 11 P.M. news program. He also was the moderator of the CBS-TV programs "Man of the Week," from 1952 to 1954, and "Youth Takes a Stand," from 1954 to 1955, and CBS Radio's "Answer, Please!" from 1958 to 1959.

After moving to ABC, he anchored "The ABC Evening News with Ron Cochran" from 1963 to 1965. He then started Ron Cochran Enterprises, which produced radio and television programs.

Despite the rival networks' expansion in 1963 of their evening newscasts to a full half hour, ABC Evening News would run only 15 minutes during Cochran's tenure; the network deferred expansion until Peter Jennings

Peter Jennings

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...

, his successor, took over the anchor's desk for his first stint. He later went to KGO-TV

KGO-TV

KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...

 and anchored newscasts with Roger Grimsby

Roger Grimsby

Roger Grimsby was an American journalist, television news anchor and actor. Grimsby is known as one of the pioneers of local television broadcast news.-Early life:...

.

Cochran died July 25, 1994, aged 81, in Lake Worth

Lake Worth

Lake Worth is the name of several places in the United States:*Lake Worth, Florida, a city*Lake Worth Lagoon, a lagoon in Florida*Lake Worth, Texas, a town in Texas*Lake Worth , a lake in Texas...

, Florida, after a heart attack.