Paul Linnman (born January 25, 1947) is an American former television news reporter and anchor in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and radio personality in the same city. He is perhaps best known for his 1970

KATU KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed independent station KUNP, channel 16 (which KATU simulcasts on its sec ...

report on the attempt by the Oregon Highway Division to dispose of a dead, beached

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

by exploding it (beaches open to motor vehicles are considered state highways in Oregon). He worked for more than 30 years as a television news reporter,

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

and anchor, from 1967–1972 and 1978–2004. He had a

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

show on KEX 1190 AM from 2003 to 2014, and subsequently has worked as a

media consultant A media consultant is a marketing agent or public relations executive that is hired by businesses or political candidates to obtain positive press coverage. Media consultants usually draft press releases to highlight positive achievements of a ...

Education

Born in 1947, Linnman grew up in Portland and attended Wilson High School. He graduated from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

, studying journalism.

Career

He began his broadcast career in 1967, when he was hired by Portland's

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

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. His initial stint working at KATU lasted through 1972 and included various jobs, among them news assignment editor, sports director and investigative reporter. He left the station in January 1973, to join the staff of then-new City Commissioner

Mildred Schwab Mildred A. Schwab (January 9, 1917 – was an attorney and politician from Portland, Oregon, in the United States. She served as a City Commissioner from 1973 to 1986; she was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Neil Goldschmidt was elec ...

, as an executive assistant. At the time, he had not intended to return to broadcast journalism, he told ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'' in a 1978 interview. In January 1978, he was hired by

KGW KGW (channel 8) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Jefferson Street in southwestern Portland, and its transmitter is located in the city's ...

, Portland's

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 station, to replace departing co-host Dick Klinger on KGW's local magazine program ''Evening'', which had been broadcast every weeknight since 1975. The ''Evening'' program was replaced in September 1979 by ''

PM Magazine ''PM/Evening Magazine'' is a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States. In most areas, ''Evening/PM Magazine'' was broadcast from the late 1970s into the late 1980s. Orig ...

'', a nationally syndicated program with a similar format and local

s with each affiliate station; Linnman also served as one of its regular co-hosts while at KGW. Linnman left KGW in late 1983 to return to KATU, as host of a new daily one-hour afternoon local news and features program, ''Two at Four'', scheduled to debut in January 1984. He remained with KATU for the next 20 years. In September 1987, Linnman returned to news broadcasting, when KATU made him the anchor of its 6:30 p.m. weekday newscast. In 2003, Linnman began hosting a morning

talk show A talk show is a television programming, radio programming or podcast genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show', pp.3-4Erler, Robert (201 ...

on Portland radio station KEX. In August 2004, he left KATU in order to focus exclusively on his KEX radio show, which continued until 2014. Since 2014, he has worked as a

Published works

*''Oregon Golf: The Oregon Coast, Southern Oregon, Portland & Environs, Central Oregon''. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, 1999. *'' The Exploding Whale: And Other Remarkable Stories from the Evening News'' (with Doug Brazil). Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, 2003.

References

External links

* from an ODOT-maintained beach in the above-mentioned

exploding whale There have been several cases of exploding whale Carrion, carcasses due to a buildup of gas in the decomposition process. This can occur when a whale Cetacean stranding, strands itself ashore. Actual explosives have also been used to assist in d ...

incident. * 4K transfer of the original footage, from the

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the State of Oregon, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, pres ...

's archive, reedited by

KATU (TV) KATU (channel 2) is a television station in Portland, Oregon, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside La Grande–licensed independent station KUNP, channel 16 (which KATU simulcasts on its seco ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Linnman, Paul Radio personalities from Portland, Oregon Television anchors from Portland, Oregon Portland State University alumni Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School alumni 1947 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people)