Bill Jorgensen, a news anchor in Cleveland and New York, died March 13. He was 96. In New York, he anchored WNEW’s influential The 10 O’Clock News.
Jorgensen was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1927. He served in the army, and was a news announcer for Armed Forces Radio Network in Guam.
He then worked at radio station WIBC Indianapolis, then moved to another radio outlet, WTVN in Columbus, where he also started working for the sister TV station.
Jorgensen moved to Cleveland in 1961, first working for KYW and then WEWS. In 1965, he and a cameraman flew to England, reported the NY Times, to interview Robert Manry, a staffer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who was sailing from Falmouth, Massachusetts to Falmouth, England. The newspaper was awaiting Manry’s arrival in England, and WEWS got the scoop.
Jorgensen left for New York in 1967.
Metromedia owned WNEW, now WNYW, which launched the primetime newscast after Jorgensen arrived. The 10 p.m. newscast was hard hitting, with lots of crime stories. WNYW still airs a nightly 10 p.m. newscast, which still has the “It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?” tagline.
Jorgensen spent 12 years at WNEW, also known as Channel 5, then joined WPIX New York in 1979. In 1980, he began anchoring the station’s syndicated show Independent Network News.
Jorgensen left both positions in 1983 and retired a short while later.
