VAN AMBURG HAS PASSED...Bay Area News Veteran...Giant among the Industry ...Led KGO -TV ...Anchored "NewsScene", one of the most successful newscasts in Bay Area and Country...A Bay Area TV News Legend has passed.
Van Amburg passed away June 22 at his El Cerrito home with his family nearby. The cause of death is not known. Amburg was 86.
Fred "Van" Amburg was one of the most popular, widely-identified Bay Area TV News personalities, anchoring the KGO-TV ...Channel 7 News for over three decades. Van was the lead anchor for almost all KGO newscasts including the infinitely successful "News Scene" --one of the most-watched Television newscasts in the country and Bay Area. "News Scene" was the birthplace of the industry terms, "Happy Talk" and "If It Bleeds, It Leads" and Amburg was its star presence.
He was also one of the Bay Area's most highest-paid TV News anchors earning over a million dollars up until the time he left KGO in the late 1980's. Amburg was also one of the most powerful TV people in SF and had earned considerable clout at both KGO and ABC.
We'll talk more in the coming days about this Bay Area TV News legend.
UPDATE: 4: 53 PM:
Here's KGO's story on Amburg
Like yesterday,we all laughed because "The news people are smiling and - he said something funny!" When Chet Huntley was doing his Houndog face and the rest of national and local news was like today's North Korea newsreaders.
ReplyDeleteTHEN,the news commercial of all time? The circle 7 good guys on horses?..Oh man,you KNEW they were the BEST.
That was some era while Vietnam war was still raging..a huge change in world media,started right here in the bay area.
RIP to all of them now gone,Van,Jerry,John.
We still have Pete!
Pete's in Reno with the vitamin D...
ReplyDeleteI just checked most of our TV and newspaper sites, and not a single mention on any of them. A SFGATE search reveals a link to a legacy.com site announcing his passing but the link itself doesn't work either...kind of a shame that Bay Area media is virtually ignoring the passing of one the greats...if not THE greatest news anchor of the past half-century...
OTOH, maybe he wanted it that way; he avoided contact like the plague after he left KGO in '86...
Actually I saw it as a FB posting on the Broadcast Legends page a couple hours ago. I'm not sure the local media is ignoring it, I think they might have just been informed. Based on Rich's past observations, Mr. Amburg was a private gentleman and this would fit the pattern. I'm sure stories are being written and will be released at other media outlets and observers in time.
DeleteWhat a presence Van was. Even though the happy talk moniker was part of the KGO news "scene" it was just the anchors sharing a word or two, maybe Van asking Pete Giddings a question, but very appropriate and classy. Not like today's junior high school foolishness among "anchors" barley out of junior high.
ReplyDeleteVan was the best.
Sorry -- meant Jerry JENSEN, not Jennings....
DeleteI think people are still working to confirm and may have been asked to wait to publish til tomorrow. Sad day for radio though with the death of M Dung and retirement of Steven Seaweed as well.
ReplyDeleteCircle 7 doesn't even have it on their website. Stay tuned at 4PM to see if they mention this 8-day old passing at all.
ReplyDeleteIn the first 3 years, 1969-71, there were numerous stories Van anchored, but I would love to see one of Rich's bloggers go deep into YouTube and find the day in 1972 when pre-FOX-schmuck Geraldo Rivera, who got his start in Phoenix, then WABC New York, stopped by KGO-TV to talk to Van about his report where he hung out with John & Yoko before they settled at NY's Dakota over SF as a permanent residence. Even the great John Lennon was once mesmerized by our beloved landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and the Cable Cars. But the Bay didn't have the busyness level that NYC had for John, not to mention the history the now late ex-Beatle appreciated.
When Geraldo shared his John & Yoko story, even Van & Jerry enjoyed it. Then it was back to normal, i.e. Pete's forecast.
Once again- KGO TV,despite being one of the very few stations to have the right to brag about pioneering broadcasts with the happy news era they created with Van Amburg and co.? NOT A SINGLE MENTION of ANY of it on their WIKI page.
DeleteLike a Babe Ruth bio and no mention he hit home runs.
lol- Van must have really hated KGO management. They in turn can never give him his due. Even 40 years later.
Yes. Van & Cap Cities were at loggerheads. So ABC forced KGO to fire him on that August week in 1986. That allowed Circle 7 to bring in Pete Wilson for the first of his two stints at 900 Front, bookending a stint at KRON 4, and ending with double duty as a KGO radio host. Wilson was great, although not at the Amburg level. In fact, I'm convinced the double duty fun Wilson had might have been too much for him physically, hence his subsequent heart attack. Now with Amburg's death, the only iconic Bay anchor of yesteryear left is KTVU Hall-of-Famer Dennis Richmond, regardless of behind-the-scenes grapevine.
DeleteSad to hear he passed. Condolences to his family. I used to watch him back in the 70s on the old News Scene.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear about Van Amburg's passing. I was one of his producers, and later News Director at KGO-TV with Van. He was one of the best writers, one of the most passionate journalists," and someone who truly cared about local TV news. Joe Barnes.
ReplyDeleteThe Mercury News has posted a story about Van Amburg's passing. Yet as of 445 pm, the Chronicle hasn't done squat. Audrey Cooper has her head in the sand, again.
ReplyDeleteVan was the man...Great news anchor with no "BS" like they have today.
ReplyDeleteRIP, Van. Grew up with you, my dad watching you every evening. Miss your quality.
ReplyDeleteWorth every penny of that substantial contract. He WAS that great!
ReplyDeleteI first remember Van Amburg -- faintly -- in black and white when he was at KPIX (when the sign out front on Van Ness Avenue read "KPIX - Westinghouse" ) He was as great as you all say here -- one of the best who ever did what he did. If you watch clips of his '70s and '80s KGO newscasts not only do you see how effective and efficient he was, but you also realize how his profession has changed. Van was all business. There was no nonsense. Those newscasts moved fast and with no time for fluff. His like will not be found again, I don't imagine.
ReplyDeleteI still like KGO except for Beil and Christian... RIP Van....
ReplyDeleteIt is night and day from top to bottom when comparing KGO-TV's newsroom today and yesteryear. Amburg anchored the station when the REAL Donny & Marie show aired on ABC. Now we have another Donny & Marie in the mornings, and except for Ashley & Daetz, nobody at Circle 7 now stands out. Some are okay and very credible, but of course, Lieberman's blasts at the morning show, ND, & GM speaks volumes of how times have changed.
ReplyDeleteHe was a fine man...and had many friends. He will be missed.
ReplyDeleteEasily the best news anchor in Bay Area history...
ReplyDeleteAlso was in "The Candidate." First anchor I remembered as a kid. You had the sense that if anything was going on, he knew about it. You just don't get that from most anchors these days who just read the words.
ReplyDeleteAmburg's admiration of Paul Newman ('Cool Hand Luke', the theme for News Scene) must have been mutual. Newman must have shared similar views with Sundance/Sting buddy Robert Redford, for the latter to add Van to the 'Candidate' cameos.
DeleteInteresting to note how few comments are here as of July 2nd in this post and the 4 or 5 newer posts regarding Van. It goes to show how much the population of the Bay Area has grown with most coming in from elsewhere especially the last 15-20 years who think of themselves as "natives". These interlopers are posuers who know nothing, or care about, what came before them and what made this place special, such as the likes of a Van Amburg.
ReplyDeleteI'm not an elitist but someone lucky enough to be born and raised here (and watch NewsScene) when the area was a somewhat provincial, less crowded, affordable, slower paced environment. You can go back as few years as 1990 to have had a glimpse of that.
It's sad the collective memory of this area is shared by so few, including it seems the majority of Rich's readers.
I have never forgiven KGO for the shabby treatment they showed Mr Van Amburg. Thirty-plus years later, I'm down to two shows and a special here and there for ABC/D. R.I.P. Van. You were the best.
ReplyDelete