Occupation News anchor Name John Schubeck | Role Reporter Spouse Meghan Schubeck | |
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Born March 18, 1936 Michigan Children Tina, Gretchen, ElliottJonathon, Avery Education | ||
May 7 1979 nbc news digest with john schubeck
John Schubeck (March 18, 1936 in Michigan – September 26, 1997 in Los Angeles, California) was an American television reporter and anchor, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network owned-and-operated stations in one major market.
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A graduate of the University of Michigan and Loyola Law School, Schubeck began his broadcasting career at Detroit radio station WJR, working with station legend J.P. McCarthy. He then worked as a reporter at then-NBC-owned WRCV radio and television in Philadelphia, and then at WGN-TV in Chicago before joining ABC News as early evening anchor at WABC-TV in New York City in 1967. Schubeck also did newscasts for the American Contemporary Radio Network. His run as anchor ended in 1969, and for the remainder of his stay with ABC in New York, he was WABC-TV's theatre critic.
In 1971, ABC moved Schubeck to KABC-TV in Los Angeles as a co-anchor for that station's Eyewitness News broadcasts. In 1974 Schubeck joined rival Los Angeles station KNBC as an anchor, replacing Tom Snyder on KNBC News Service (reformatted the following year as NewsCenter 4). At KNBC he was part of a news team which also included co-anchors Jess Marlow, Paul Moyer, Tritia Toyota and Kelly Lange; sportscasters Stu Nahan (both worked together at KABC-TV), Bryant Gumbel and Ross Porter; and weatherman (and future Wheel of Fortune host) Pat Sajak. Schubeck was known for acknowledging whichever of NBC's Los Angeles-based staff announcers was on duty when he was anchoring–during his run as anchor at the station, this group included Donald Rickles (not to be confused with the insult comic of the same name) Peggy Taylor, Don Stanley and Victor Bozeman. Along with his local duties, Schubeck also anchored NBC News updates during primetime in the Pacific Time Zone.
After leaving KNBC in 1983, Schubeck joined KNXT (now KCBS-TV) where he remained until 1988. Among several of his last broadcast jobs included hosting a radio show on KIEV (870 AM) in 1993 and a brief anchoring stint at KMIR-TV in Palm Springs in 1995.
During his college years in Ann Arbor, he was heard on WUOM and as a half-time voice of the Wolverine football games. As an Evans Scholar, he became the top ranked amateur golfer in the country, eventually participating in many pro am and celebrity golf tournaments.
As would later be related by Peter Bart, towards the end of one of the 11 p.m. newscasts Schubeck anchored one night, a story he had read only ten minutes earlier was displayed again on the teleprompter. Faced with either repeating the story or doing an ad lib, Schubeck instead just sat motionless and silent, waiting for the correct story to come up, and remained that way until the newscast ended.
Schubeck was featured in an episode of the short-lived 1973 TV series version of Adam's Rib, and appeared as a newscaster in the 1981 movie Buddy Buddy.
Schubeck was one of the earliest millionaire local television news anchors. He generated around $1 million a year during his stints. However, through his life he had battled alcoholism. Schubeck lost his life to kidney and liver failure, when aged 61. Friends say that the stress of covering news events, often involving calamity, contributed to his alcoholism, his career setbacks, and untimely death. He died in relative obscurity although an obituary appeared in The New York Times. In a tribute to a fellow journalism colleague, close friend and co-anchor Tritia Toyota reportedly paid for his memorial services.