Biography:Arch MacDonald
Arch MacDonald (July 18, 1911, Fort Lauderdale, Florida – June 3, 1985, Needham, Massachusetts)[1] was an American broadcast journalist and television pioneer in Boston.
MacDonald started in broadcasting at WPRO (AM) in Providence, Rhode Island.[1] He began working at WBZ (AM) radio in Boston in 1936. When WBZ-TV began television broadcasting in 1948 as an NBC affiliate, MacDonald was the station's first news anchorperson (not called that, as that term was not yet extant).[2] He hosted the station's first broadcast, shown at 6:15 PM on June 9, 1948.[3] Arch's signature sign off was "All of which brings us up to time".
In 1969, after two decades at WBZ-TV, MacDonald was recruited away by WKBG-TV (UHF channel 56) to host its new 10:00 PM newscast, Ten PM News, the first prime time newscast on a commercial television station in the Boston market. The program (which was the first on-air job for Natalie Jacobson) was not a financial success and WKBG-TV dissolved its news department at the end of 1970. MacDonald remained at the station for another year and hosted a weekday morning interview program.[citation needed]
MacDonald at one time or another worked for all three network-affiliated television stations in Boston, and several radio stations, in the course of his 54-year career.[2] He worked up into the year of his death at 73, his last job being editorial director of WRKO radio in Boston.[1]
MacDonald was elected to the Academy of New England Journalists in 1967,[3] received the Governor's Award for lifetime achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1983,[1] was honored at a 1984 ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, where a letter from Ronald Reagan describing MacDonald as "a Boston institution" was read,[1] and was elected to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2009.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 United Press International (June 2, 1985). "Arch Macdonald, Boston Broadcast Journalist". Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-06-02/news/8502050078_1_mr-macdonald-wrko-boston-institution. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Arch Macdonald Dead at 73; Was News Anchor in Boston". New York Times. June 3, 1985. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/03/arts/arch-macdonald-dead-at-73-was-news-anchor-in-boston.html. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Donna Halper (June 9, 1998). "WBZ Timeline". Boston Radio. https://bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg02543.html. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
- ↑ "Our 2009 Inductees". Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame. http://www.massbroadcastershof.org/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-2009/. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
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