[msb-alumni] Re: Former Detroit TV Anchor Bill Bonds Dies at 83
- From: "Vickie" <happytraveler1972@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 18:13:03 -0700
BlankSteve, thanks for sending this article out. Thanks to Marcia for adding
her comments too. I’m glad channel 7 dedicated their whole newscast to him. I
certainly remember watching him on channel 7, and I watched religiously when I
lived in that area. The best, for sure. I also remember his news breaks on
WKNR. R.I.P. Bill bonds.
Vickie rolison
From: Marcia Moses
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2014 11:27 AM
To: msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [msb-alumni] Re: Former Detroit TV Anchor Bill Bonds Dies at 83
Steve, thank you for the Bill Bonds article.
We were among the 40% who tuned in to channel seven news every night to watch
Billy Bonds.
Channel Seven devoted all their newscasts last night to him.
Marcia
From: Steve
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2014 1:02 PM
To: msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [msb-alumni] Former Detroit TV Anchor Bill Bonds Dies at 83
Former Detroit television anchor Bill Bonds dies at age 83 Bill Bonds, the
legendary Detroit television reporter known for his on-air swagger as much as
his off-camera battles with alcohol that ultimately derailed his career, died
today, according to WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), the station where he became one of the
region's best-known news broadcasters. He was 83. The station reported that he
suffered a heart attack this afternoon. An editor at the station confirmed the
report and said a statement would be forthcoming. For years, Bonds, along with
co-anchor Diana Lewis, dominated the Detroit television market. Bonds' private
life was often as discussed as his colorful newscasts, as he battled
alcoholism, buried a daughter and went through a divorce. In 1989, he
challenged then-Mayor Coleman Young on air to a boxing match, after which he
made his first public admission of his battle with alcohol. Channel 7 fired
Bonds in 1995, months after a drunken driving arrest. After the arrest, Bonds
stayed several months in an Atlanta treatment facility. As an anchorman at
Channel 7 from the mid-1960s until the mid-1990s, Bonds introduced an element
of theater into the nightly newscast. Depending on the inflection of his voice
or the arch of his eyebrows, he could telegraph any combination of anger, rage
or humor to punctuate a story. "People automatically thought Bonds when they
thought news," said Amyre Makupson, the former Channel 50 anchorwoman. "Whether
you liked him or not, whether you liked his opinions or not, he made news not
boring. It seemed as if nobody was neutral when it came to opinions of Bonds.
But there was no arguing with his numbers: In February, 1977, for instance, the
Arbitron ratings service estimated that 1 of every 5 television households in
metro Detroit watched his newscasts. Arbitron further estimated that he drew
more than 40% of the television audience watching at that hour. Said former
Channel 7 general manager Jeanne Findlater: "He could read the telephone book
and make you pay attention. A native of Detroit's west side, Bonds attended
Catholic schools, including Visitation on Woodward Avenue. Even then, he was
known for arguing with authority figures. "I had a few things to say about the
way black kids were treated," Bonds recalled in an interview. After a tour of
duty in the Air Force and a stint as a student at the University of Detroit,
where he received a BA in political science, Bonds became a radio newsman in
the 1950s. Starting out at a radio station in Albion at a wage of $1.50 per
hour, he later worked at metro Detroit radio stations WPON-AM, WOMC-FM and
WKNR-AM. His work at WKNR-AM was particularly noteworthy. Although known mostly
as a teen rock station, WKNR-AM also had one of the best broadcast news
operations in Detroit, with two news broadcasts an hour, 24 hours a day. He
worked a brutal schedule: newscasts every fifteen minutes between 4:45 a.m. and
9 a.m., after which he would pack a tape recorder and spend the rest of the day
covering Detroit city government. The late Free Press publisher Neal Shine once
recalled Bonds as hardworking, aggressive and driven. "He ran scared. Terror is
a great prod," Shine once said. "Radio was such a lost cause for news, but
everybody knew how good he (Bonds) was, and how hard he worked. He never let
up. Bonds was convinced that he could make the leap from radio to the more
glamorous new medium of television. He auditioned at Channels 2 and 4, but was
rejected. He was also rejected at WJR-AM, the most prestigious news operation
in town. "I was told my voice wasn't big league-enough," he remembered.. It was
an act of God that finally got Bonds into the television business. A tornado
hit Anchor Bay during the spring of 1964, leaving about 600 residents homeless
and demolishing more than 50 homes. Bonds found that he could not send his
reports back to the WKNR-AM newsroom via regular telephone lines, which were
down. Instead, Bonds climbed to the top of a telephone pole and in search of
ways to transmit his stories. The reports were broadcast around the country,
and earned a call from then-Channel 7 general manager John Pival, who told
Bonds that the Anchor Bay reporting was some of the best he had heard in years
and he hired Bonds. After working as a street reporter, Bonds replaced longtime
newsman Leon McNew as the station's lead anchorman. Bonds earned a nationwide
reputation shortly thereafter for his coverage of the 1967 Detroit riot. Bonds'
performance earned him a job at KABC-TV, the ABC-owned television station in
Los Angeles, where he enjoyed only modest success. He returned to Detroit about
three years later, and established himself as Detroit's most talked-about
newsman�and stayed put, with the exception of a year in 1975-76 at New York's
WABC-TV. Colleagues attribute Bonds' success to his passion. Bonds, they say,
was the opposite of the "rip-and-read" newsman. He read voraciously, brooding
obsessively about current events. He read at least two newspapers
cover-to-cover by 10 a.m., and would watch and dissect the morning news shows.
And then, of course, there was the drinking, which fueled his argumentative
nature. His first drunken driving arrest occurred after a drunken, roadside
fistfight with a teenager after a near-traffic accident. As the drinking became
more obvious, some Detroiters watched his newscast only to judge Bonds' on-air
sobriety. Bonds never reclaimed his popularity after leaving Channel 7. He
hosted an 11 p.m. news interview show on Channel 2 (WJBK) in 1995, but the
program was canceled within a year because of poor ratings. He later hosted a
morning interview show on WXYT-AM, but that, too, did not last long. His
drinking again became a problem. After a series of no-shows, Bonds and the
station parted ways. He did have one more shot on the air: Channel 7 asked
Bonds to narrate a program celebrating the station's 50 th anniversary in 1998.
Bonds was hired after Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer asked Channel 7 general
manager Grace Gilchrist at the station's 50 th anniversary party to give Bonds
another shot. He was, indeed, hired shortly thereafter to comment on the day's
news. He left within a year to work as a spokesman for the Gardner-White
furniture company. Those who knew Bonds say he was capable of incredible
kindness and breathtaking boorishness. For instance, he once buttonholed then
Detroit Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh at a party that "I could beat your �ss if I
ran. (Cavanagh replied: "There's nothing stopping you.") On the other hand, he
paid to have former Detroit News columnist Shelby Strother's family flown to
Detroit after Shelby died in 1994. The bill ran into the thousands of dollars.
Bonds did it only after Strother's widow agreed not to tell anybody who was
paying the bill. Bonds last appeared publicly at the local Detroit Emmy awards
in June. He appeared thin and haggard. But still, to the very end -- even when
he had difficulty getting around -- he wanted back in the business. "God, I
miss it," he said, in an interview for a Detroit Public Television documentary
about local television. Former Channel 7 general manager Jeanne Findlater said
managing Bonds was a "nonstop job�It was as frustrating an experience as I ever
had. It was, in equal measure, a rewarding experience. In the end, all of the
factors � the dramatic flair, the passion, the unpredictability -- drew an
audience. "You have to give people a reason to watch, and he did that," said
Makupson. "He made news exciting.
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