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Ron Hunter | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Moss Siegelin June 5, 1938 |
| Died | June 25, 2008 (aged 70) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcast journalist and talk show host |
| Years active | 1957–1990 |
Ron Hunter (June 5, 1938–June 25, 2008) was an American journalist, best known for reporting and anchoring television newscasts in several cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia.
Biography
[edit]Early life
[edit]Ron Hunter was born William Moss Siegelin on June 5, 1938 in Bogalusa, Lousiana, the second of four children born to Dorothy Ann (née Moss, 1914–1953) and Curt Siegelin (1907–1982). William was born into a family rooted in journalism: His maternal great-grandfather, Clyde Moss, founded the local newspaper, the now-defunct Bogalusa Enterprise and American; the family owned the paper until it ceased publication in 1954. In 1951 the newspaper purchased local radio station WIKC (defunct since 2009),[1] which was run by Dorothy Siegelin until her death in 1953. Curt Siegelin, born in Indiana, was the business manager of the newspaper prior to beginning a career in politics. The elder Siegelin served two stints as mayor of Bogalusa between 1946 and 1970.[2] After his wife's death, Curt assumed ownership of WIKC; he would sell the station in 1972.
As a child, William got his start as a cub reporter at the Bogalusa Enterprise, and was a copy boy for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
William attended Tulane University in New Orleans, but dropped out after his freshman year to begin his professional career. At the same time, his father Curt was serving as Louisiana's commissioner of commerce. Upon returning home to Bogalusa to work at WIKC, he began using the pseudonym "Ron Hunter" in order to avoid confusion with his political-official father; he retained his birth name legally.
Career
[edit]Ron Hunter's first television position was at WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate in New Orleans. He joined that station in 1967 as a reporter, and soon became the station's lead anchor on its evening newscasts.
In July 1972 Hunter relocated to Buffalo, New York where he joined NBC-affiliate WGR-TV as its news director. Upon arriving, Hunter found a news department which had long languished in last place among the city's three network affiliates; the station's 6:00 p.m. program was also drawing fewer viewers than reruns of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet on then-independent station WUTV. Hunter placed the entire news staff on an eight-week probation while implementing changes in staffing, staff assignments and the newscasts' format.
In January 1973 the station's upper management gave Hunter added responsibilities as lead news anchor; the weeknight programs were subsequently retitled The Ron Hunter Report. As anchor, Hunter fine-tuned his own on-air presence and was credited with bringing several innovations to Buffalo television. Blood, on bullets and knives, was seen in chroma-key images frequently during crime stories. Hunter's own use of rapid-fire delivery of stories, alliteration, and tight camera shots of Hunter positing in his chair or visibly displaying emotion–such as crying on cue–while delivering stories, sometimes under a mood-appropriate instrumental musical bed–drew praise and criticism from both viewers, critics, and even his own colleagues. These devices—derivatively regarded as "stunts"—helped catapult WGR-TV to a solid second place in Buffalo, behind ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (where Irv Weinstein, like Hunter, served as both news director and lead anchor) and ahead of CBS affiliate WBEN-TV. Hunter also produced and hosted several documentaries and specials while at WGR-TV, establishing a pattern of hosting programs outside of his regular newscasts.[3]
Hunter's next stop was ABC affiliate WPLG in Miami, which he joined in June 1974 as an anchor. As was the case in Buffalo, WPLG completely overhauled its news programs, relaunching them as Newswatch 10 and making Hunter its main face. Hunter increased his visibility as host of a public affairs program on WPLG, The Ron Hunter Review. During the week, Hunter's newscasts did enjoy increased viewership from its previous incarnation, but tough competition from then-CBS affiliate WTVJ (which featured Ralph Renick as anchor/news director) and then-NBC affiliate WCKT, along with weak lead-in network programs, kept WPLG in third place at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.. Station management opted to release Hunter in April 1976, two years into a three-year contract.[4][5]
Bigger stages, and career decline
[edit]In spite of perceived failure in Miami, Hunter found high demand for his services and looked towards positions in larger television markets. While he was still anchoring in Buffalo, WMAQ-TV in Chicago took notice and began a three-year courtship of Hunter in 1973, culminating with his joining the NBC-owned station as its new evening co-anchor in June 1976.[6] NBC reportedly signed Hunter to a four-year, $125,000-per year guaranteed contract–one of the largest in the industry at the time–to anchor three newscasts nightly and host a late-night interview program, Ron Hunter Today. On WMAQ-TV's NewsCenter 5 broadcasts he replaced Floyd Kalber, who had been reassigned by NBC News to become the news reader on the Today Show in New York City. Hunter's first co-anchor was Jane Pauley, who only a few months later would join Kalber on Today and would be replaced, albeit briefly, by Maury Povich in January 1977.
Hunter's on-air style was the subject of much criticism from fellow journalists, both in and outside of electronic media. An assessment of Hunter's work by Chicago Tribune media critic Jack Mabley described him as "a beauty contest winner from Miami who doesn't know the difference between Cottage Grove and Downers Grove". In a Chicago magazine article, Hunter was labeled a "pompadoured pomposity" and unflatteringly compared to "Ted Baxter", the character portrayed by Ted Knight on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Hunter did contribute to his station winning a local Emmy Award for team coverage of a hostage situation during a botched bank robbery on the South Side in November 1976. His work also gained notice from viewers during other subsequent breaking news events, such as the death of longtime Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley and the Loop subway derailment.[7] But WMAQ-TV's overall news ratings did not improve much during Hunter's tenure there–the station remained stagnant in third place behind WLS-TV and WBBM-TV, and he was let go by the station in July 1978.
His next stop was Philadelphia, and then-NBC affiliate KYW-TV in October 1978. Just as at WMAQ-TV, Hunter joined a news staff in transition: Over the previous two years KYW-TV lost two of its four main anchors, Mort Crim and Jessica Savitch, and the station's Eyewitness News broadcasts had fallen into last place behind the ABC and CBS stations. KYW-TV partnered Hunter with Beverly Williams on its 11:00 pm program, three months prior to an overall revamp of its newscasts. Ratings did not improve, and the station remained mired in third place in the market. Furthermore, Hunter's displacement of veteran lead anchor Vince Leonard from the 11:00 report to an earlier program further alienated the audience.
In June 1979, Hunter was at the center of a pair of on-air conflicts which damaged his relationships in the newsroom, as well as his credibility with viewers. The first occurred on June 13, when Hunter appeared angry at an off-color joke made by sports anchor Bill Currie following the latter's segment. Currie then laced Hunter with a finger-pointing, obscenity-filled tirade which was seen, but not heard, by viewers as the credits rolled at the end of the newscast.[8] The second came two weeks later on June 28, after Hunter made an impromptu editorial following a story on Vietnamese boat people. Hunter's comments appeared to criticize the influx of the refugees into the United States, with the support of the Carter Administration, and the potential impact on American citizens.[9] Following these incidents Hunter was demoted to the Noon newscast,[10] a program which was later swallowed into the station's local interview show AM/PM (hosted by Maury Povich) at the beginning of 1980. Later that same year Hunter was moved one final time, to the weekend anchor desk. During his time in Philadelphia, he also hosted a weekly magazine show for KYW-TV, Good Television. Hunter parted ways with KYW-TV in January 1982.[11]
Hunter subsequently returned to New Orleans as lead anchor at then-ABC affiliate WVUE,[12] at an annual salary of around $85,000. After a slight uptick in ratings, WVUE named Hunter its news director. But the success was short-lived: WVUE's news viewership plummeted, and the station found itself in fourth place in the New Orleans market behind Hunter's former employer WWL-TV, NBC affiliate WDSU-TV and then-independent station WGNO. After WVUE removed Hunter as news director in 1985, he sued the station for breach of contract; the suit was later settled. WVUE would be Hunter's final job in television news.
Over the subsequent years, Hunter was resigned to a succession of low-paying positions at various radio stations in and around New Orleans, including at WSMB, where he doubled as program director and afternoon talk show host beginning in 1988. He also created, self-produced, and hosted a short-lived crimestoppers program for WNOL-TV, New Orleans Most Wanted.[13]
Personal life
[edit]Ron Hunter was married twice. His first marriage was to his high school sweetheart, Linda Tannehill, in 1966; the union produced a son, William Moss Siegelin II (1970–2007). The marriage ended in divorce around 1974.
While working in Chicago, Hunter met the former Marilou "Bunny" Spinka, who was 20 years his junior. She accompanied him to Philadelphia, and they were married on December 24, 1980, in Millville, New Jersey. The couple had two children, Allison (born c. 1982) and Jonathon, aka "Colt" (born c. 1987).
Death of Bunny Hunter
[edit]On June 20, 1990, Hunter was conducting an in-studio interview with relationship therapist and author Judith Kuriansky on his WSMB radio program when he received a listener call from a woman named "Ariel", seeking advice from Kuriansky on her marital issues. Near the end of the call "Ariel" would indirectly reveal herself to be Hunter's wife Bunny, leaving Ron Hunter nearly speechless. Ron later stated that Bunny had called into his program and identified herself on previous occasions but, despite recognizing her voice, he chose to not cut her call off this time because he did not believe she would embarrass him on the air.
Later that evening, Bunny Hunter was found dead in the family's New Orleans apartment, with a bullet in her chest as she laid next to her husband in bed; her death was later determined to be a suicide. Ron Hunter was fired from WSMB shortly afterward, with station management citing working difficulties and the events surrounding Bunny's death as their reasons. Hunter explained his side of the story during an interview on A Current Affair, which was conducted by his former WMAQ-TV and KYW-TV colleague Maury Povich. [14]
Later life and death
[edit]In the years following his wife's suicide Ron Hunter raised the couple's two children alone, with the help of neighbors and family. His professional career never recovered; he supported himself through monthly Social Security and disability stipends. On December 28, 1995, while living in the New Orleans suburb of Mandeville, Louisiana, Hunter was arrested and charged with breaking into a neighbor's home and stealing just over $3.00 worth of groceries.[15][16][17] Hunter was acquitted of the charge in January 1996.[18]
Hunter left Louisiana around 1998 and relocated to the Las Vegas, Nevada area. He was residing in Henderson, Nevada when he was found dead in his apartment on June 25, 2008, by his son Colt, twenty days after his seventieth birthday. Hunter was interred at Ponemah Cemetery in Bogalusa, under his birth name in the Siegelin family plot.
Playing around
[edit]| Master Control Master | |
|---|---|
| Second baseman / Designated hitter | |
| Born: February 10, 1976 Bronx, New York | |
Batted: Switch Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 15, 1997, for the Baltimore Orioles | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 1, 2016, for the Cleveland Indians | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .327 |
| Hits | 3,334 |
| Runs batted in | 2,041 |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 2022 |
| Vote | 100.0% (first ballot) |
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- ^ [1]
- ^ https://www.bogalusa.org/government/chronological_order_of_mayors.php
- ^ Cichon, Steve (May 13, 2020). "The tragic life of Channel 2 anchorman Ron Hunter". The Buffalo News. Buffalo, NY. Retrieved January 16, 2023.(subscription required)
- ^ Woods, Sherry (April 10, 1976). "Ron Hunter to leave Ch. 10". Miami News. Miami, FL. Retrieved July 7, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Woods, Sherry (April 12, 1976). "Hunter's TV departure rallies fans". Miami News. Miami, FL. Retrieved July 7, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Deeb, Gary (June 2, 1976). "Ch. 5 goes with a winner in the news ratings derby". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL. Retrieved May 19, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Deeb, Gary (February 14, 1977). "Channel 5 news is closing ratings gap". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL. Retrieved May 28, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ DeLeon, Clark (June 16, 1979). "Television: Nerves are showing at KYW". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved July 9, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ DeLeon, Clark (June 16, 1979). "Television: Let them eat cake". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved July 9, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Harris, Harry (July 3, 1979). "KYW shifts Hunter and Jones". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved July 9, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Harris, Harry (December 9, 1981). "Ron Hunter is leaving Ch. 3 to be near family". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved May 19, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ Harris, Harry (December 10, 1981). "WHT subscribers being assured that service will continue". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved May 19, 2019.(subscription required)
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ "Former anchorman arrested". The Daily Advertiser. Lafayette, LA. May 12, 1996. Retrieved December 12, 2021.(subscription required)
- ^ Constantinou, Maryann (March 8, 1996). "A TV anchor hits bottom". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
- ^ Kogan, Rich (December 10, 1981). "Hunter's old colleagues remember him, uh, well". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
- ^ "Ex-TV anchor acquitted". The Town Talk. Alexandria, LA. May 12, 1996. Retrieved December 12, 2021.(subscription required)