Irv Weinstein
| Irv Weinstein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Irwin Weinstein April 29, 1930 Rochester, New York |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, television news anchor |
| Years active | 1945–1998 |
| Notable credit(s) | WKBW Eyewitness News |
| Spouse(s) | Elaine Weinstein |
| Children | Beth Krom, Marc Weinstein, Rachel |
Irwin "Irv" Weinstein (born April 29, 1930) is a retired local television news anchor. He hosted WKBW-TV's Eyewitness News in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an iconic broadcaster well known in both the Buffalo area and in Southern Ontario, which was within WKBW's broadcast area. Weinstein was known for his powerful delivery and sense of humor. Weinstein, weatherman Tom Jolls and sports anchor Rick Azar fronted the broadcast from 1965 until Azar's retirement in 1989. Weinstein was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998 and the N.Y. State Broadcasters Association in 2006.
Born in Rochester, New York, Weinstein began his broadcast career while he was in high school, working at WHAM Radio as an actor on several locally produced programs. After professional stops in Iowa and West Virginia, he was hired as a newscaster and news director at WKBW Radio in Buffalo in 1958. His fast-paced style featuring strong writing and alliteration ("pistol-packing punks" referring to petty criminals, or "Buffalo blaze busters" in place of firefighters) helped take the newscast ratings to #1 in the Western New York market.
In 1964, Weinstein was hired as news director and anchorman at sister station WKBW-TV, an ABC Network affiliate. At the time, the station's news programs were rated #3 in a three-station market. By 1974, WKBW-TV's Eyewitness News program had an audience larger than the combined audience of the two competing Buffalo stations. It remained the top-rated newscast until Weinstein's retirement in 1998 and beyond. Weinstein's innovations would later be adapted by Mel Kampmann for the national "Action News" franchise.
In 1968, Weinstein briefly returned to his broadcast beginnings as an actor in WKBW radio's Halloween adaptation of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. Weinstein also appeared in a 1971 remake, which was re-run in 1998. During his 40-year career in Buffalo, Weinstein appeared in numerous stage productions and, in the early 1980s, co-owned The Playhouse, a legit theater in downtown Buffalo.
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