Dennis Richmond, longtime anchor for KTVU news, will be signing off for the last time tonight. Maybe it's silly to feel sentimental about your newsman, but this guy has been on the air for my entire life, 32 years as anchor. I enjoy watching the news every evening because Dennis has integrity. He doesn't try to be a personality the way so many reporters today try to be. He just delivers the news straight-up, in his baritone voice, with virtually no emphasis or subtle inflections in his words which could be interpreted as casting opinion on the story. He reminds me of newscasters from Germany, just facts - no opinions or banter between colleagues. I read somewhere that one of his role models growing up was Edward Murrow.
Apparently he can be pretty demanding too. The SJ Mercury says, "His style is devoutly old-school - the news delivered straight and clean, a no-nonsense nightly sacrament. The Bay Area's first black anchorman was regal, serious and often demanding of co-workers." Dennis himself says, "I demand a lot of other people. If I see mistakes that are clearly made because of carelessness, it really angers me. It damages the broadcast and damages me. If I have to edit someone on the air, I'm going to come looking for that person and try to convince them not to make that mistake anymore. And I might not be the nicest person in the world the way I do it."
Well, I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I just wanted to wish Mr. Richmond well. Hope he enjoys retirement, but I feel the news won't be the same without him.
1 comment:
I read this in the Examiner today. And yes, if I had to think of a nightly news anchor who didn't make me want to pour liquid nitrogen into his or her eye sockets, I think this would be the guy. As a kid I always thought he'd chosen an "anchor name" because I knew there was a Bay Area city named Richmond and I didn't think it could have been a coincidence that his last name was also Richmond. But I guess it was.
Post a Comment