Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 27, 2008 at 07:25:00:
Anchorman Ron Hunter left lasting legacy in Chicago
Anchorman's brief tenure left lasting legacy in Chicago news
For an anchorman who barely lasted two years in the market, Ron Hunter left an indelible impression on Chicago television.
Unfortunately, it was for all the wrong reasons.
Mr. Hunter, who died Tuesday in Las Vegas at age 70, became a favorite punching bag for critics during his tumultuous tenure as top news anchor at WMAQ-Channel 5 from 1976 to 1978.
No doubt anyone would have had a hard time succeeding the legendary Floyd Kalber, who'd left the NBC-owned station for the "Today" show in New York.
But Mr. Hunter came to stand for the type of preening, posturing, perfectly coiffed news actor fictionalized by Ted Knight's Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Will Farrell's Ron Burgundy in "Anchorman."
"He couldn't cover his nose, much less a fire," Sun-Times critic Frank Swertlow famously told Time magazine in a 1978 piece on overpaid and underqualified local news anchors.
The article attributed Mr. Hunter's departure later that same month to "stagnant ratings and intense vilification by the city's acerbic TV critics."
Mr. Hunter's career, which had flourished in New Orleans, also took him to Miami, Philadelphia and other markets.
He fell on hard times in the '90s, losing his job as a radio host after his wife, Marilou "Bunny" Hunter, called in to discuss their marital problems on the air. Just hours later, she took her own life.
(Feder)