John Beard (news anchor)

John Beard (born 1948) is an American news anchor and actor based in Buffalo, New York.

John Beard
Born1948 (age 71–72)
St. Pauls, North Carolina
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.A. East Carolina University
OccupationNews anchor

Early life and career

Beard was born in St. Pauls, North Carolina. He served as a Navy Corpsman with the Marines and graduated from East Carolina University. After school, he worked at WIVB-TV in Buffalo, and at WITN-TV and WXII-TV in his home state of North Carolina.

KNBC-TV (1981–1993)

From 1981 to 1993, Beard was anchor at KNBC-TV.

Held at gunpoint

On August 20, 1987, Gary Stollman—the son of former KNBC pharmacy specialist Max Stollman—went onto the news set and demanded consumer advocate David Horowitz read a manifesto at gunpoint.[1] Horowitz obliged and read various statements, including that Stollman's father was "a double created by the Central Intelligence Agency and alien forces", along with numerous other conspiratorial allegations against the U.S. government. Once Horowitz finished reading, Stollman identified the weapon as an unloaded BB gun and set it down on the desk; Beard reached over and grabbed the weapon as police entered the scene and arrested Stollman.[2] Stollman pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of false imprisonment, with a felony charge dismissed.[1]

KTTV (1993–2007)

From December 1993 until September 2007, he anchored, with Christine Devine, the 10 PM newscast at KTTV in Los Angeles.

Departure

Beard left KTTV in December 2007. According to his personal website, he was fired despite the highest ratings in the station's history following years of increasing editorial disagreements with station management, whose audience market research was steering it toward ever more unsubstantial journalism and celebrity fluff.[3] Beard had joined KTTV after earlier leaving KNBC for similar reasons, refusing to read misleading news teases and celebrity stories (particularly regarding pop singer Michael Jackson). KNBC management at the time let him out of his contract to go to a "lesser" station, but would not release him to go to channel 2 (KCBS) or channel 7 (KABC), the other two network owned and operated stations in Los Angeles with 11 PM newscasts. The Fox owned and operated was acceptable because its 10 PM newscast would not compete against KNBC and Beard was considered a great reader by news directors and station general management.

WGRZ (2009–2018)

In 2009, Beard returned to Buffalo and began anchoring for Channel 2 News Daybreak and Midday on WGRZ. While anchor, WGRZ's morning newscast, Daybreak vaulted into first place in Buffalo's Nielsen ratings.[4] On November 1, 2016 it was announced that John Beard would be leaving WGRZ at the end of the year.[5] Beard ultimately stayed over a year longer, with his final newscast airing January 18, 2018.[6]

Acting work

He has appeared as himself and newscaster roles in television series including the 1994 animated series Spider-Man, 24, and most notably Arrested Development (on which he made twenty-four appearances as himself, including the fourth and fifth seasons, which were filmed after he relocated to Buffalo).[7]

gollark: It's not weird.
gollark: x = 6, the first whole number outside of what you specified, produces 10.
gollark: * at x = 1
gollark: The first term is 1.
gollark: You calculate it.

References
  1. "Man Who Held Newsman Hostage With Toy Gun Given Probation". Associated Press. June 9, 1988. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
  2. Rohrlich, Ted; Thackrey Jr., Ted. "Intruder With Toy Gun Puts KNBC off Air".
  3. "Personal web site of John Beard: farewell to KTTV viewers". Internet Archive WaybackMachine. Dec 31, 2007. Archived from the original on January 18, 2008. Retrieved Jul 6, 2017.
  4. "Warm and Fuzzy Beard, Hurricane Hysteria and Overpriced Pretzels". Internet Archive WaybackMachine. Aug 29, 2011. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved Nov 10, 2013.
  5. "John Beard to Leave WGRZ". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  6. http://buffalonews.com/2018/01/18/beards-daybreak-goodbye-has-some-light-and-poignant-moments/
  7. TV Guide: "Meet Arrested Development's Unlikely Star: Newscaster John Beard" by Michael Schneider June 5, 2013
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