RIP Gabe Pressman

Legendary career. Spent over 50 years at WNBC.

This might be my favorite part though, that Shell Oil was the presenting sponsor of the newscast.

Pressman then returned to New York, and in 1951 he began anchoring NBC’s Shell Oil News, New York’s first local television newscast—initial episodes were only five minutes long. By 1963, however, the show had expanded to 30 minutes.

 

Grew up watching Gabe, if he was on it, it was important.

 

Waaaaaaay back when, title sponsors for news shows were a thing. See also: Camel News Caravan.

 

Quite the memorial in the making on WNBC's home page. Was still pushing stories and subjects hard later in life.

 

On Channel 11 (WPIX) in New York, Con Edison, the power company, sponsored the local newscast. The podium that the newscaster stood behind had Con Edison's name and logo - pretty amazing considering that Con Ed was a major factor in local New York City news.

 

Dude was a fixture here my entire life.

 

I grew up watching him, and we had a bit of a personal connection: his father was my mother's family dentist when she was growing up in the Bronx.