Arch MacDonald (July 18, 1911, in

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...

– June 3, 1985, in

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. It is the home of Olin College. History ...

) was an American broadcast journalist and television pioneer in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. MacDonald started in broadcasting at

WPRO (AM) WPRO (630 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Providence, Rhode Island. It is owned by Cumulus Media, broadcasting a news/talk radio format, which is simulcast in the Newport area on co-owned 99.7 WEAN-FM. The studios for WPRO and other Cu ...

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. He began working at

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radio in Boston in 1936. When

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent WSBK-TV (channel 38). Bo ...

began television broadcasting in 1948 as an

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate, MacDonald was the station's first news anchorperson (not called that, as that term was not yet extant). He hosted the station's first broadcast, shown at 6:15 PM on June 9, 1948. Arch's signature sign off was "All of which brings us up to time". In 1969, after two decades at WBZ-TV, MacDonald was recruited away by WKBG-TV (

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channel 56) to host its new 10:00 PM newscast, ''Ten PM News'', the first

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

newscast on a commercial television station in the Boston market. The program (which was the first on-air job for Natalie Jacobson) was not a financial success and WKBG-TV dissolved its news department at the end of 1970. MacDonald remained at the station for another year and hosted a weekday morning interview program. MacDonald at one time or another worked for all three network-affiliated television stations in Boston, and several radio stations, in the course of his 54-year career. He worked up into the year of his death at 73, his last job being editorial director of

WRKO WRKO (680 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by iHeartMedia, WRKO is a Class B AM station that provides secondary coverage to portio ...

radio in Boston. MacDonald was elected to the Academy of New England Journalists in 1967, received the Governor's Award for lifetime achievement from the

National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

in 1983, was honored at a 1984 ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, where a letter from

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

describing MacDonald as "a Boston institution" was read, and was elected to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, Arch 1911 births 1985 deaths Television pioneers Television anchors from Boston Radio personalities from Boston People from Needham, Massachusetts