Religion Presbyterian TV shows Close-Up Spouse Joyce Dillavou | Role News anchor Name Steve Bell | |
Born December 9, 1935 (age 88) ( 1935-12-09 ) Oskaloosa, Iowa Occupation television reporter, anchorman Partner(s) Allison Kay, Hilary Ann Parent(s) Howard Arthur and Florance (Scott) B. Awards Emmy nominations, 1965, 73
Overseas Press Club award, 1969
Headliner award, 1975 Education Northwestern University, Central College Employer Ball State University, KYW-TV, WGN-TV, KBOE-FM | ||
Steve Bell (born December 9, 1935) is the former news anchor of the ABC News programs, Good Morning America and World News This Morning. Bell is a professor emeritus of telecommunications at Ball State University.
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Early life
A native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, Bell studied as an undergraduate at Iowa's Central College and went on to earn a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
Career
Bell worked for ABC News from 1967 to 1986. His experiences in Southeast Asia covering the Vietnam War included two hours in detention in Cambodia while investigating a story about an alleged massacre of Vietnamese residents. He first met Ted Koppel during his years in Southeast Asia, and they became good friends. After his return to America, he began working on Good Morning America, where he would stay for 11 years, eventually rising to the position of news anchor. He left the position in 1986 and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to co-anchor evening newscasts for KYW-TV. While there, he also anchored short-form news updates for the USA Network, alongside his colleagues at KYW, titled USA Updates.
Bell left KYW in 1992 amidst drastic changes to the station's newscasts. He became a telecommunications professor at Ball State University in August 1992. He was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 2004. Interviewed in 2005, Bell indicated that he did not miss his work as a newscaster and reporter. He retired from his position at Ball State in 2007, taking on the title of emeritus.
Bell appeared on Nightline in 2005 to present a report on how China has changed since Mao's rule; he and Koppel had earlier filmed a documentary there during the Mao Zedong era. The Steve Bell News Packaging Scholarship is given each semester at Ball State University to students for excellence in television news story packaging.