September 2, 1983…The Tom Brokaw Era Begins At NBC
In 1983, September 2 was a Friday. That was the day it was announced on the “NBC Nightly News” that beginning Monday, Tom Brokaw would take over as the sole anchor.
On April 5, 1982, Brokaw began co-anchoring NBC Nightly News from New York, with Roger Mudd in Washington. After a year, NBC News president Reuven Frank concluded that the dual-anchor program was not working and selected Brokaw to take over.
Along with Peter Jennings at ABC and Dan Rather at CBS, Brokaw helped usher in the era of the TV news anchor as a lavishly compensated, globe-trotting star in the 1980s. The magnitude of a news event could be measured by whether Brokaw and his counterparts on the other two networks showed up on the scene.
Brokaw’s retirement in December 2004, followed by Rather’s ouster from the CBS Evening News in March 2005, and Jennings’ death in August 2005, brought that era to a close.
In the clip, Tom talks about his early days in Omaha at KMTV and WSB in Atlanta. I remember him from Atlanta, along with fellow reporter Judy Woodruff who was there at the same time. – Bobby Ellerbee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfR6TXbnNTA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfR6TXbnNTAAs a new college graduate, journalist Tom Brokaw was newly married to a doctor’s daughter and desperate for a job. Watch as Tom reflects on starting out maki…
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