Michele Marsh (reporter)

Michele Marsh (born March 9, 1954) is a former New York local television news anchorwoman.

The daughter of a man in the U.S. military, Marsh was born in a suburb of Detroit. One place that she grew up in was Philadelphia. She graduated from Northwestern University, where she majored in what has been described as radio and television production or theater.

By 1976, Marsh had started as a reporter/anchor at WABI-TV, Channel 5 in Bangor, Maine. She reported in the field and anchored the 11 p.m. Monday-Friday newscasts, and the 6 p.m. Saturday newscast. She did much of the news gathering herself and ran the teleprompter with her toe during broadcasts. Tall, with brown hair, Marsh was one of only three women appearing on-camera in television news in Maine. She then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she worked at KSAT-TV Channel 12 for no more than six months. In October 1978, she served as parade marshal for the Western Days Celebration in Yorktown, Texas.

From there, Marsh made the leap to New York City, where she began working at WCBS-TV in August 1979 as a reporter and then as co-anchor of the Saturday 11 p.m. edition of Channel 2 News. Within three months, Marsh was promoted to co-anchor of the 11 o'clock report alongside Rolland Smith in October 1979. Marsh was part of a wave of anchorwomen in New York local news, along with Sue Simmons, Rose Ann Scamardella, Judy Licht, and Pat Harper. Still only 25 years old, Marsh was the youngest of these, and was sometimes called "the baby of the newsroom" at her station. Newsday television critic Marvin Kitman later wrote that "Rarely had a women in broadcasting come so far, so fast, with so little."

In January 1981, Marsh was demoted from her anchor position to make way for the recently rehired Dave Marash, causing her to appear distressed on air. But after regaining this position in January 1982, Marsh stayed as co-anchor of the 11 p.m. newscast until 1993 and worked alongside Smith, Mike Schneider, and Ernie Anastos; she was also anchor of both of the station's early evening newscasts for several years with Jim Jensen, Anastos, and John Johnson. Marsh was known for a sultry, steamy voice that affected many male viewers and for a self-possessed manner. A colleague wrote that in reality, Marsh was "wholesome, small-townish, and preoccupied with her search for romance." No longer interested in actual reporting of news, Marsh was skilled at handling the vagaries of a live broadcast, and critic Kitman did allow that she was "a very good newsreader".

In June 1995, Marsh returned to anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast with Johnson, replacing Dana Tyler. Her salary by this time was close to $1 million per year.

Marsh was one of several personalities abruptly fired by WCBS in October 1996 due to low ratings. Along with John Johnson, she was quickly hired by WNBC-TV Channel 4 to anchor a new midday newscast for the station,. Upon joining WNBC also began co anchoring the 6p.m. newscast with Chuck Scarbrough. In August 2003, WNBC removed Marsh from her anchor chair, sparking a front-page story in the New York Daily News. The station discussed possible alternate positions, but came to no agreement with her. She left the station and has not appeared on television since.