Former WABC Anchorman Bill Beutel dead at 75

The former anchorman at WABC Channel 7 in New York passed away last Saturday. Beutel had hosted the news at ABC's flagship station for over 30 years.

Having been born in New York and grown up there till 1976, I remember Beutel very well. He anchored the 6 p.m. news with another anchor last name Hornsby. There was the drunk weatherman(who got fired for some rape joke) and a young reporter named Geraldo Rivera. ABC was the news of choice for my mother, so I remember all of this quite well. He gave the news straight which seems to be a dying art these days.

I am sorry to hear of Bill Beutel's passing. RIP.

Open Post- Blue Star, Rhymes with Right, Right Wing Nation,

NEW YORK -- Bill Beutel, the longtime television news anchor and host of the show that became ABC's "Good Morning America," has died, the network announced. He was 75.

Beutel, whose trademark signoff "Good luck and be well" closed WABC's nightly local newscast for more than 30 years, died Saturday at his home in Pinehurst, N.C., the network said.

In 1975, Beutel hosted "AM America," the network's national morning news show.

He "proved you could be a tough newsman and a gentleman at the same time," WABC president and general manager Dave Davis said Sunday in a statement. "He was never shrill, always measured, and universally respected -- the original class act."

Beutel, who won several Emmy awards and a Peabody award, began as a radio reporter in his hometown of Cleveland. He started working in television in 1962, appearing as a reporter for ABC national news and as an anchor for the local evening newscast.

After a stint as ABC's London bureau chief, where he worked with a young Peter Jennings, Beutel returned to New York to man the local anchor desk in 1970.

He stepped down in 2001, continuing to report for the network for another two years. He reported frequently from overseas and, at age 70, traveled to cover the dangers surrounding the diamond trade in Sierra Leone.