Ted Koppel - The Passing of an Era

 Newswise — Ted Koppel is ready to pull the curtain on his 42 year career at ABC News next week. The last 25 of those years came as the anchor, principal reporter, interviewer and managing editor for Nightline.

"It's been said again and again that Brokaw-Jennings-Rather were the passing of an era. With Ted's departure it really is," says Professor Lee Thornton, who holds the Eaton Chair in Journalism at the University of Maryland. "Ted Koppel was, of course, the first broadcaster to use the advantage of what was then the new satellite technology. The country stayed with him those long months of the hostage crisis in Iran--and stayed on for the excellence. He will be greatly missed at the helm of Nightline."

Journalism Professor Douglas Gomery agrees, saying Koppel "made late night a site for serious examination of the news." Gomery is writing a book about broadcast history scheduled for publication next year. He is the Resident Scholar at the Library of American Broadcasting at Maryland.

Gomery says there were times during the hostage crisis that Koppel had higher ratings than Johnny Carson. And he adds the popularity of Nightline "signaled the equality of the three networks, because ABC was doing so well, that it could afford this public service. CBS and NBC tried variants, but like CBS's 60 Minutes, the original was Koppel."

"He became a symbol of all that was good about television," says Gomery. "But it seemed inevitable as the 24-hour networks arose and the 90% of the USA had cable or satellite that Nightline would exit. We shall see what a beleaguered Disney will do with this public interest marginal money maker -- just as we shall see what all three of the big networks do with their nightly news."

Nightline will continue with three new anchors - Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran - on Monday, November 28.

For more information about the Library of American Broadcasting see:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/index.html