WTVJ-TV Miami 1984

WPLG-TV Miami 1979

Here's the scoop on Ann Bishop...a legend in Miami television news.

Ann Bishop was a broadcast journalist in South Florida. She became well respected through a twenty-five year career exemplified by professionalism, expertise and knowledge of local, national and international news.

Ann Bishop began her career writing for the CBS affiliate in upstate New York. She went on to work as a reporter for stations in Rochester and Baltimore. She came to WPLG Channel 10 in 1970. It was during her years at WPLG that the station became well known. She was the first female broadcaster in a major market (Miami) to co-anchor the early and late evening news.

From 1976 until 1982, Bishop anchored the news alongside Glenn Rinker, Chuck Dowdle, and Walter Cronise. In 1982, Glenn Rinker left WPLG, and was replaced by Mike Schneider. Schneider and Bishop anchored the news together, until 1986. In 1985, WPLG-TV beat the long-running ratings winner WTVJ-TV and held on to the lead for ten years. Ms. Bishop continued to anchor the news alongside Dwight Lauderdale until 1995. Following her retirement, she continued to work as a consultant for the Post-Newsweek television stations, including WPLG, until her battle with colon cancer ended November 14, 1997.

During her career, she covered three national Democratic conventions, Pope Paul’s visit to Nassau, the Eastern Airlines strike, the forty-year anniversary of D-Day and the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. She also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. Additionally, she received several honors, including the David Brinkley Award for Excellence, in 1990, awarded by Barry University.

Here's a promo for WPLG's news and then a fell-good commercial for channel 10.

ITV (ITN) London 1999/2000

Here's the background of this news service.

Jessic Savitch - NBC News

On October 3, 1983 Jessica Savitch anchored a mid-evening news update called NBC News Digest, during which she was possibly under the influence of drugs. She slurred some words and skipped others entirely. Savitch had been suspected of abusing drugs in the past, and this 43-second performance, broadcast live and seen by millions of viewers across the United States, seemed to confirm those suspicions.

On Sunday, October 23, 1983, Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice-president of the New York Post, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After the meal at Odette's Restaurant, they began to drive home about 7:15 PM, with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Canal (Delaware Division) on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the canal. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud which sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein's body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. After the subsequent autopsies, the Bucks County coroner ruled that both had died from asphyxiation (by drowning). He noted that Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.

WTVH-TV Syracuse 1986

I left Oswego in 1979. This is the closest clip I could find. Bob Kirk was anchoring at the time I was there.

WCIX-TV Miami 1994

WTVJ-TV Miami 1983

BBC News London 2000

WPLG-TV Miami 1986