Bill Beutel | |
---|---|
Born |
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
December 12, 1930
Died | March 18, 2006 Pinehurst, North Carolina, U.S. |
(aged 75)
Alma mater | University of Michigan |
Occupation | American television reporter, correspondent and anchor |
William Charles Beutel (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring newscasts for WABC-TV in New York City.
Beutel graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire after a stint in the Army and studied law at the University of Michigan Law School, though he left Michigan without obtaining his law degree. While Beutel was in law school, he wrote Edward R. Murrow a letter saying, "I very much wanted to be a radio journalist." Beutel received a letter back advising him to go to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. His first radio job was in Cleveland before moving to CBS Radio in New York City in 1957.
Beutel moved to ABC on October 22, 1962 as a reporter with ABC News and as anchor at the network's New York flagship, WABC-TV. The station had just opened up its first newsroom and created a one-hour 6:00 p.m. newscast called The Big News. WABC-TV was considered late to the game behind WNBC-TV and WCBS-TV. Among the hundreds of famous personages who were interviewed by Beutel was the African American Muslim and black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Beutel left his WABC duties for two years in April 1968 to join ABC News full-time as their London bureau chief.