Floyd Kalber (December 23, 1924 – May 13, 2004) was an American television

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

anchorman A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

, nicknamed "The Big Tuna."

Life and career

Born in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, he spent two years in the army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and began his television career as

KMTV KMTV-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station has studios on Mockingbird Drive in southwest Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "tower ...

-Omaha's first newscaster. It was at KMTV that he mentored his most famous protégé,

Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of Today (American TV program), ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anch ...

. Having attracted national attention for his coverage of the manhunt for mass-murderers Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, in 1962 he became a popular anchorman for WNBQ-TV (later known as WMAQ),

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 ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The 10 p.m. broadcast on weeknights, named ''NBC News Night Report'', quickly became Chicago's top-rated news program and at one point, the most-watched television program in the city. It continued its ratings lead until WLS' introduction of the so-called "happy talk" news format in 1968. In the late 1960s, Kalber also began doing five-minute news digests in early and late afternoon timeslots on NBC from the WMAQ studios, during which a national audience became familiar with his work. For a time in the early 1970s, he anchored Sunday broadcasts of ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...

.'' In 1975 WMAQ paired Kalber with the then-unknown

Jane Pauley Margaret Jane Pauley (born October 31, 1950) is an American television host and author, active in news reporting since 1972. She first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show ''Today'', beginning at the age of ...

, who was recruited from

WISH A wish is a hope or desire for something. In fiction, wishes can be used as plot devices. In folklore, opportunities for "making a wish" or for wishes to "come true" or "be granted" are themes that are sometimes used. Sociology Several cu ...

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

; this arrangement did not succeed. Pauley left a year later to become the new co-anchor for NBC's ''

Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'') is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television ...

''. Moving to national broadcasting for the NBC television network and departing WMAQ, Kalber was one of the most visible broadcasters in the country from 1976 to 1981 while anchoring the news on ''Today,'' working with hosts Brokaw and Pauley. Kalber was unhappy doing the ''Today'' show, and he left the program in late 1979. He remained with NBC News as a correspondent, after which he retired from the network in 1981. Kalber was coaxed back into broadcasting in 1984 by Chicago station WLS, where he anchored the 6 p.m. evening newscast until his final retirement in 1998. He died at his suburban Chicago home on May 13, 2004, after a long battle with emphysema. He was 79.

External links

Floyd Kalber biographyOfficial site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalber, Floyd American television journalists Television anchors from Chicago NBC News people Mass media people from Omaha, Nebraska 1924 births 2004 deaths People from Hinsdale, Illinois American male journalists United States Army personnel of World War II