Van Amburg was one of the most popular TV news anchors in the Bay Area during the 70's and mid 80's. He was the lead anchor at KGO-TV and was instrumental in "NewsScene", (Channel 7's news name), as the dominant TV news ratings king at the time. No station came even close to that of Circle 7's numbers.
Amburg was also the highest-paid anchor in the Bay Area pulling in close to a million dollars annually and developed his own investigative team. Along with the money, he also had considerable clout not only editorially, but up to the executive chain as well. So much clout to the point when he abruptly left KGO in 1986, there was a multitude of rumors that he was forced out or simply fired. No one, at least publicly, knows the full story. There was plenty of speculation, lots of it ego, control, and coin too.
Amburg's legacy was huge. He was part of a news team that was the birthplace of the industry term, "Happy Talk", plus he anchored with several other local station celebs: the late Jerry Jensen, weatherman, Pete Giddings, and sports anchor, John O'Reilly.
KGO's newscasts drew record audiences. As popular as they were with viewers, local rivals and critics often ridiculed Channel 7's news shows as nothing more than visual carnival acts with lots of murder stories and crime and grime. Indeed the term, "If it bleeds, it leads", got its origin at KGO. Whatever the case, it worked.
I've been calling around to inquire of Amburg's fate. He's still alive at age 81 and enjoying retirement in El Cerrito.
*Follow me on Twitter
Van was the Man ! He'll always be my all-time favorite news anchor in the Bay Area. It's a shame he retired so young and has been out of the public eye for a quarter century now.
ReplyDeletePete Giddings, by all accounts, was a colossal d-bag. He is not missed.
Remember Lloyd Lindsey Young? He was shuch a breath of fresh air at the weather desk, til Pete Giddings sent him on his way, because we all like him more than Pete...LOL!
DeletePete Giddings was on WAY before Lloyd Lindsay Young -- try late 1960s.
DeleteThe sad part is I'd rather watch Van Amburg and the old NewsScene 7 crew than some of the losers on TV today. What does that tell someone about the state of television news? We won't even go into the radio aspects of the business.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I agree with you 100%.
DeleteVan Amburg was the very best. Wish we had more like him. He had class. I am happy that he is doing well.
DeleteI agree with you 100%.
DeleteI miss the NewsScene 7 crew as well. Their broadcasts always seemed very fluid to me and I recall enjoying the "happy talk," as compared to other news programs of that day.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear that Van Amburg is doing well in local retirement. I admire guys like him who are smart enough to know when they have gathered financial resources that are adequate for a lifetime and who are also smart enough to know that you only go around once. A million bucks back in the Seventies and Eighties was a hell of a lot more than it is today. Most of us are lucky to make a lifetime total of $1-2M, over several decades of employment.
Life is not a dress rehearsal. Early retirement beats the hell out of slogging through stressful work weeks in the name of ego reinforcement, or in the name of simply making ends meet.
You go Van!
Wasn't it something between him and GM Russ Couhglin..who was older then Van,and who seemed to my young self also liked the spotlight.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they fought like cats and dogs. Hated each other.
DeleteInteresting post regarding the fued between Couhglin and Van Amburg. I did not know about this.
DeleteVan was the first news anchor to convince management that a station's profits were directly related to an anchor's popularity. He demanded and received a salary commensurate with those profits. The huge escalation in the nation's top market TV news salaries beginning in the 1970's is traced directly to Van.
ReplyDeleteHis contract was not renewed after many years of his refusal to take management direction. The station simply got tired of fighting with him. He was strong-willed and had muscled his way into having the final say on any newsroom matter he chose. The station hesitated for years before deciding to drop him, terrified that his loss might sink the ratings. It didn't. Van went home to await the call to return. He is still waiting.
As for Giddings, he simply did not tolerate fools. He took his job seriously. He has mellowed considerably. While his appearance is nearly the same as when he was on 7, his personality is that of a different person. For several years, he has worked quietly at a Bay Area food bank that serves seniors and the poor.
Pete when he started was a thin guy. After a few years-pushing the 1990's?..He just blew up-fast- as he said he got into weightlifting. Around that time also..is when he sort of put out a jerk attitude. Steroids?....who knows?
DeleteAlso,I remember Pete after that sudden increase in muscle..did a remote weathercast from Petaluma,and took on one of the Arm wrestling champions..and beat him.
DeleteIf 'roids can do that for a weatherman,think of what it could for a Baseball or Football player!
Van Amburg was probably burned out by the time he left KGO in 1986. It didn't help that his Bay Media domination disappeared as Dennis Richmond's reign at KTVU started reaching its peak (and to a lesser degree, the [late] Dave McElhatton era at KPIX). Don't know what went on in the KGO newsroom during the Van years, but it wouldn't surprise me that beyond the 'Happy Talk', life wasn't so rosy behind the 'News Scene'.
ReplyDeleteI'm also convinced that the loss of Jerry Jensen to cancer in 1982 clearly devastated Van. Van Amburg wasn't the same the last 4 years. It is also true that Pete Giddings' ego was often out-of-control during his glory years at ABC7, even though he kept it in check very well during his 'Letter from Home' segments, treating school kids with respect, even to the point of sending Thank You letters directly to each student's home with the blessing of each respective second-grade teacher. (I had that experience at age 8 in the school year of 1975-76 in Fremont, the last time the Bay had valley-floor level snow, which was in February 1976.) And yes, after Giddings left KGO for work in Reno & Monterey among other places, he did seem to mellow some, especially in Monterey, when I last saw him on the air while attending the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in the 2000s.
As for O'Reilly, he was actually one of at least 5, perhaps more sportscasters that sat at Van's 3 seat desk (Weather Anchor Giddings always stood, never sat). Two men actually became their own KGO icons. Don Sanchez ended up reporting at every segment of the newsroom and just recently set up retirement plans. Martin Wyatt spent two stints at KGO, with the first one during the Van years, when Amburg - an ex-sportscaster at KPIX - felt most comfortable with his sports anchor. There were at least two other names I remember - Tom Janis, which didn't work out so well, and he ended up at KNTV; and Jim Celania, which also didn't work well, even though the KGO promo tease "I'll give him about six weeks" proved to last beyond six weeks and into about a year.
I have no idea how many other sports anchors tried to work with Van, nor how many other news anchors tried to fill in for Jensen or ended up sharing air time after Jensen passed. But I do remember that Van Amburg was the most successful anchor of the 1970s, and he clearly knew how to both report and grab attention. And I do know that Van Amburg's KGO successor was none other than the late two-term (sandwiched around his own KRON years) news anchor (not our still-living two-term governor, of course) Pete Wilson. Reporters from KGO's Van years still remaining include Cheryl Jennings, Carolyn Tyler, and David Louie.
Finally, just my crazed opinion, but this is how I think the decades were led, as far as Bay Area TV News, goes:
1950s, 1960s, 2010s - KPIX CBS5
1970s - KGO-TV ABC7
1980s, 1990s, 2000s - KTVU FOX2
KTVU may still have the most proficient ratings and newscasts, but KPIX continues to benefit from far better network lead-ins, not to mention that after CBS5's 11PM newscast comes Mr. Top Ten/Stupid Human Tricks David Letterman. So I have to give the edge to 5 over 2, never mind that Ken Bastida has always held his own, even winning on occasion over Frank Somerville. Oh, and only McElhatton and another late great John Weston has had a bigger impact at the KPIX News Anchor Chair than Bastida has, even as the latter is starting to return to his very strong field reporting roots through Mobile 5.
TV anchoring remains a very interesting subject in the Bay Area, at least seeming far more positive than the miseries at both the sports anchor chairs and terrestrial radio.
Pete Giddings always went the extra mile for kids. During the summer months, he took Wednesdays off from the broadcast to tend to his "Little Peoples' Fishing Program," which gave under privileged kids an opportunity to sail and fish on the Bay. He also reported on each trip, so the kids got to see their special day covered on TV ... even though all of the reports looked alike to the rest of us.
DeleteI don't think that any of his colleagues (in TV or Radio), was denied a request for Pete to visit his/her child's school to talk about weather.
Growing up having Van Amburg and Dave McElhatton on the television was something special. I was too young to know what was going on but would love to know what happened with Van and KGO. Just a sudden departure.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Internet Movie Database, Fred Van Amberg died in 1990. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0024282/
ReplyDeleteThis was already discussed a few months ago on this blog. By checking out the date of birth and what his age would have been when he was on the air in the 70's and 80's, it is a different Fred Van Amburg (and different spelling unless you typed it wrong).
DeleteAmburg, McElhatton, Richmond, and the late Pete Wilson are the exceptions to the general rule that male anchors are not really the stars in Bay Area anchoring--the females trump them in recognition and popularity. And usually longevity too. Belva Davis, Cheryl Jennings, Wendy Tokuda, Kate Kelly, Pam Moore, Anna Chavez, Carolyn Tyler, Barbara Rodgers. (Even a female anchor nobody liked, Terilyn Joe, got all the attention at KGO--who cared about Richard Brown?)
ReplyDeleteAnd this select group of four defied the typical local-anchor stereotype found elsewhere. They weren't high-profile, flashy leading men; they were plain (Van), frumpy (Dave), or grumpy (Dennis and Pete).
It rhymed, but on second thought Dennis would have to be called stolid...and Pete could be sardonic but saw the good side of things...with humor. Of course I don't know what kind of guy he was out of the studio.
DeleteGrowing up (in the 70's) it was "Van Amburg, Jerry Jensen, Pete Giddings with weather, and Tom Janis on sports. This is Channel 7 News Scene). While I wasn't a huge Pete Giddings fan, I enjoyed watching him write on and spin his weather wall.
ReplyDeleteI also very well remember "And now... Dave McElhatten, Wendy Tacuda, Wayne Walker on sports, and Joel Bartlett with the weather. This is Channel 5 Eyewitness News."
For the record, I almost never watched news on KRON. If I watched news from Sacramento, it was always Channel 3 Reports...
Then you missed "From the broadcast center for Northern California--this is News Center 4..." With the husband-and-wife duo of Fred La Cosse and Terry Lowry, Dick Albert, and John Brodie.
DeleteJohn O Riely who was KGO's first "modern" sports guy..long hair and all when others were still in crewcut or that plastered in grease look,was in that first Happy Talk gang..sort of fell off the Earth.Even on google..until now. I see he left KGO (or was let go) to go to NY as part of the brand new WFAN..the first all sports station. Huh. Then..later was in Houston doing sports,and last I could find was battling throat cancer in 2007.
ReplyDeleteIMB has to be wrong..they say born in 1910. He was not 60 in 1970.
ReplyDeleteBorn in 1930.
DeleteWhat I like about Van is that when his run was over, he went away and we never heard from him again. Not that I dislike him. I just think he decided to handle retirement like Johnny Carson did. You sign-off, you go away and you always leave the audience wanting more. It's hard to know when to get off the stage, but guys like Johnny and Van knew.
ReplyDeleteI always respected and like Van Amberg's approach on the KGO nightly news. He was truly the 'King' during his years of prominence in the 1970s and early 80s...but we've had some terrific anchor people as well, from Dennis Richmond, the late Pete Wilson, and I always like Bob Jimenez on KRON. Suzanne Saunders was my favorite woman anchor of those days; smart, beautiful, and poised without the glitzy, annoying qualities of later prominent female anchors such as Terylin Jo. Julie Haener of KTVU and Diane Dwyer of channel 11 are both solid and have had many productive years of working in the bay area.
ReplyDeleteVan Amberg, (or Fred Van Amberg, his real name) also worked with the late, great Bill King for a couple of years on the Oakland Raiders radio broadcasts (this was when Van was a 'Communicaster' that's what KNEW, Oakland used to call its talk show hosts!) back in the mid and late 1960s.
Van wasn't particularly astute at doing the color work next to King, but he did sound professional and didn't embarrass himself. His last game with the Raiders was a memorable one, the 1968 AFL Title game in NY's windy and cold Shea Stadium, a game won by the Jets 27-23, as Joe Namath and his Jets then went on to stun Baltimore in the Superbowl. Namath later called that win over the Raiders the toughest game of his career, as he had to have two shots in his shoulder in the locker room after big Ike Lassiter leveled him and then stood over the fallen Namath and screamed in triumph: "I got him...I got him...he's hurt!"
Longtime fans might also remember that the Raiders twice got down within the 'red zone' in the final quarter, but failed to score even a field goal. Once they went for it on fourth and goal and the Jets stopped them, then on the next possession, Daryle Lamonica threw a screen pass behind rookie running back Charlie Smith, he couldn't get to it and the Jets recovered the ball and pretty much ran out the clock. Van later mentioned that he felt lucky to have witnessed and helped to broadcast one of the great
AFL games of all time.
Interestingly enough, that loss to the Jets came just two months after the famous 'Heidi Game' in Oakland that the Raiders won in final minute of regulation on a TD catch and run by Charlie Smith, and a recovered fumble for a TD on the ensuring kickoff. Fans throughout the east coast missed the final minute of that game because it was running past 7pm east coast time, and so the NBC network folks switched over to the TV special movie: "Heidi' which infuriated thousands of
east coast football fans. I had no such problem, because I was lucky to be sitting in the end zone
with my dad and best friend and his dad. The coast of the tickets for that game? 3 Bucks. But that was back in 1968?
If IMDB is wrong about Vans age or his death, maybe Rich can contact KGO and ask about his status?? Im sure some of the long time employees at the station would know.
ReplyDeleteLarry Brownell and Karna Small were big names of the era. I think Larry is in a Dirty Harry movie. Van was too pompous. Pete was THE weather man with his double barrel lows. Pete was confident and professional but not pompous. He certainly made Leon Hunsaker at PIX look foolish.
ReplyDeleteAs far as riding off into the sunset with your head held high, you've got to hand it to Ray Taliafero for not trying to resuscitate his image as a second stringer on a 3rd rate station.
Karna was in Magnum Force. Close to the opening scene when they are leaving the court as part of the news crush. It even surprised me when her name left my lips as I had not thought of her in years.
DeleteRich settle this once and for all.
ReplyDeleteWhere is or was Van Amburg?
Is he still alive? or is he since deceased according to an internet posting?
Who the hell is telling the truth?
Van Amburg was the new guy that replaced my favorite Roger Grimsby. He abandoned ship and went off to the big apple. - Did I date myself?
ReplyDeleteRoger Grimsby also did fill-in anchor work for the ABC network news during the early 70s.
DeleteIf Van had disappeared from earth, the mainstream media would've covered it. Trust Rich about Van's El Cerrito residence.
ReplyDeleteFemale anchors that I remember:
KTVU - Brandwynne, Simpson (before she showed her zealoted conservatism), Corral, Griffith (the one Richmond had the most trouble with; but now she's a Chronicle blogger), Sidner, Haener
KPIX - Davis, Tokuda, Brandwynne, Kelly, King, Goodrich (for a brief time, the fellow Pleasantonian of Gonzales, did the early or late newscasts), Cook
KGO - Brandwynne, Chavez, Joe, Aguirre, Jennings, Johnson, Saunders-Shaw
KRON - Lowry, Saunders-Shaw (now one of the VPs at KNTV), Tokuda, Moore
KNTV - Scura, Aguirre
That's just weeknights; Weekends:
KTVU - Corral, Griffith, Dwyer, Holmes
KPIX - Rodgers, Notrangelo
KGO - Can't remember any (unless Johnson or Tyler used to do so)
KRON - Heenan
KNTV - Dwyer
Overall today, all the current ones seem quite efficient (I am aware that Rich hasn't always thought highly of Aguirre). Opinion-wise, I'm aware that King is rightfully among the most likable, and that Haener is a huge Dave Matthews fan.
KGO history-wise, Giddings has always been held in high regard by the viewers who were once kids watching his segment. In the winter of 1968-69, there was a big adieu about Jensen switching to KGO from KRON, where he had previously been for at least 8 years. Also, after many years at PIX, Bartlett spent his last weather anchoring years of his career at KGO, often sharing air time with Giddings before the latter left.
Who was the female anchor at KRON-TV4 in 1976-1979 whose husband was an army Lieutenant Colonel of Public Affairs who lived in Los Angeles. This LTC person was a military advisor to the Francis Ford Coppola movie "Apocalyse Now" and appeared at a Presidio of SF Public Affairs Conference which I attended each year in 1976-1979. I always wondered what kind of marriage could survive with the wife in SF and the husband in LA.
DeleteAt SF State we referred to them as the "Kickers, Guts and Orgasms" News show....
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone be retired in El Cerrito?
Just saying.:)
Hope you can settle this soon, Rich. I shared it as a link with various Facebook groups with Richmond/El Cerrito and East Bay roots, and all the IMDB stuff came up right away. Can you pursue your sources further and run this death story to ground?
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/01/19/legends-of-bay-area-tv-news-reader-picks/
DeleteIf you do a search for Van Amburg, lots of local type of sites come up. If you read down this blog, you'll see an update about Van Amburg.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.178564822172098.48908.114504321911482&type=1
Looks like his roots are in El Cerrito.
I was always fascinated by Marcia Brandwynne who later moved to LA and settled down there. She had this exotic look to her.
ReplyDeleteCaught her on LiveWell HD channel. Blew me away as I had not seen her is years.
Deletehttp://www.americanownews.com/story/15412080/marcia-brandwynne
Millionaires retire - in El Cerrito? It is older, with that riff raffy San Pablo Avenue.
ReplyDeleteThe new KFOG morning hosts are getting slammed on Facebook. Too much inane talk.
In the 60's and early 70's, KGO absolutely led the world in perhaps the most ignominious of benchmarks: The tease lines. My favorite of all time was Van popping in at a break in the 10PM hour with this: "They're going KILL CRAZY in Fun City! Film at 11." Why was there never a local Emmy award category for these moments of copywriting brilliance?
ReplyDeleteBoth Van and his wife are still doing well and live in El Cerrito, the family home. Their three sons all live in California as well. I wish he'd come out of retirement for a special or an interview. He's led a fascinating life.
ReplyDelete