Evening star., 1954-11-02
On the Air
On tne AIT
ICochron Follows Others
+, From Here to New York
By Harry Macarthur

!. BY Harry
If your heart is set on a
career as a network newscaster,
you could find a lot of worse
places than Washington to get
your start. The news rooms Of
:our towns TV and radio sta
tions are among the networks
favorite raiding grounds. All you
have to do, it seems, is keep
your head here and before long
lit will dawn on some network
executive that you can keep it
anywhere.
( The latest face familiar on
local TV screens to be sum-
imoned to New York is the one
belonging to Ron Cochran. For
well over a year now MIR. Coch-
ran has been holding down the
IL pm. news spot on WTOP-TV
and. it might as well be added,
doing a fine job Of it. His ap-
proach is sane and not solemn.
His nightly news reports have
been well-rounded and lucid.
AS of last Friday night, how
ever, Mr.. Cochran ended his
tenure of Office on Channel 9.
AS of right now he is in the
employ of CBS-TV in New York.
The change in his life, inciden-
tally, will be more Of locale than
anything else. His new assign
ment for CHS television will be
the nightly II o'clock newscast.
Mr.. Cochran will be following
I'M a number of footsteps on his
personal hegira from Washing
ton to New York. AS a demon-
stration, you have only to follow.
the vote-counting tonight via
television. Key men in the elec-
tion coverage provided by the
three major networks will be
graduates of the Washington
news rooms.
At ABC the head man will be
John DAILY, the television net
works vice president in charge
of news. On occasion even at
this late date you hear re-
fninder of Mr.. Daly's Washing
ton past when you hear him
referred to as John Charles
DAILY.
! That's a transitional name he
brought into use when he was
becoming well-known as net
work personality. For a consid-
cradle pre-war period he was
the man who said. Ladies and
gentlemen, the President of the
United States" as Charles DAILY,
CHS White House correspond
ent.
The neck on which the praise
or blame will fall for the NBC
election coverage will be that
of William McAndrew, news di-
rector for the network. Mr..
McAndrew was a reporter here
for the old Herald and then
the United Press before he signed
on to write for Radio Commen-
tator Earl Goodwin. Eventually
! he became general manager of
WRC and WNBW for NBC be-
! fore being graduated to head
1 quarters.
The anchor man pulling
things together and generally
running the CBS-Tv election
telecaSt will be Walter Cron-
kite. Mr.. Cronkite, as you hardly
need to be told. did his news
reporting over WTOP-TV un-
til he caught the networks eye
as the man who kept things
running as smoothly as posi-
BILE during the 1852 political con-
Vention. Not long after that he
was summoned to New York
and Mr.. Cochran moved into
his chair here.
II you're checking up via TV
tomorrow morning you also
should be hearing from some
\ newscasters with washington
backgrounds. The regular man
on Dave Garroway's To-day" is
Frank Blair. who was happy at
the local NBC radio and Tv
stations until somebody de-
cided he was ripe for his own
Manhattan project.
For CBS-TV. the news man
j on 'The Morning Show" is
Charles Collingwood. He just
barely gets into this group of
graduated Washingtonians, be-
cause he was already known
20 network audiences when he
came here. He did serve term.
however, as CBS' White House
correspondent.
NM
IN REVIEW - NBC rvs
March Of Medicine got slipped
1to a Sunday afternoon spot this
7eek, but the latest In the ir-
regular series was one Of the
most dramatic. With hen Grauer
% the principal commentator,
The cameras sent along Q we'll
made and Informative docurnen-
tary on mental disease as studied
End treated in Q modern New
york State institution. The pro-
ram packed an especial wallop