Paul Moyer (born Paul Douglas Moir on June 13, 1941)[Nieto, Rebecca (2009-05-12 updated). Paul Moyer: A Broadcasting Icon Retires KNBC. Retrieved 2021-03-13.] Moyer has worked primarily in the two major television markets—New York and Los Angeles—in addition to briefly working on network newscasts. Moyer was Los Angeles' longest-running news anchor following the death of KTLA anchor Hal Fishman on August 7, 2007.
Early life and career
A native of Los Angeles, Moyer attended Torrance High School and the University of Arizona (class of 1964), and tried out for the Pittsburgh Pirates before beginning a broadcasting career. While attending the University of Arizona, he began his broadcasting career with positions at Tucson radio stations KOLD-AM (now KTZR) as an announcer and sports director, then with
KTKT as a disk jockey. After graduation, he also worked at KXOA (now
KIID) in Sacramento as reporter and news director.
Later, Moyer made the transition into television. He served positions at KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa; WMBD radio and WMBD-TV in Peoria, Illinois; KTVI in St. Louis; KDKA radio and KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh; and then WCBS-TV in New York City.
Career in Los Angeles
KNBC (1972–1979)
Moyer was hired by
NBC News in March 1972 and returned to Los Angeles, joining KNBC as reporter and weekend anchor. The
KNBC Newservice, as it was known then, featured
Jess Marlow,
Tom Snyder,
Bob Abernethy, and
Tom Brokaw as the main nightly anchors and was the first serious competition in the local news ratings against
KCBS-TV's
The Big News/Eleven O'Clock Report with
Jerry Dunphy. Moyer soon moved to weeknights, first taking over the 11:00 p.m. newscast in July 1973 after Brokaw became NBC News' chief
White House correspondent. More than a year, in November 1974 Moyer became sole anchor of KNBC's 6:00 p.m. program with Snyder's reassignment to New York;
John Schubeck would replace Moyer on the 11:00 p.m. newscast. Aside from anchoring and reporting, Moyer also co-hosted KNBC's weekend features program
Sunday, working alongside longtime KNBC personality
Kelly Lange, who was a weathercaster with the station before being elevated to co-anchor on evenings with Moyer in 1976, when KNBC reformatted its news programs under the
NewsCenter 4 banner. KNBC, however, relieved Moyer of his anchor duties in the Spring of 1979 and Moyer departed the station shortly thereafter.
KABC-TV (1979–1992)
In late 1979, Moyer moved over to rival
KABC-TV initially as a "senior correspondent" for
Eyewitness News. Soon, however, when the weekday operation expanded to three hours in the early evening in September 1980, Moyer was named co-anchor of the 5 p.m. hour with Ann Martin. He soon replaced Dunphy (who had moved to KABC in 1975) on the 11 p.m. news after the latter was shot during a robbery attempt near the studio in 1983; the appointment would become permanent a year later. Moyer also co-anchored
Eyewitness News with
Tawny Little and Terry Murphy. Moyer also had hosting stints on several of KABC-TV's local programs including
A.M. Los Angeles,
Eyewitness Los Angeles and
Eye on L.A. On April 30, 1992, he toured Los Angeles in a helicopter to observe damage from the Los Angeles riots.
Moyer was a visible face on the ABC network in the mid-1980s, appearing as a correspondent on Eye on Hollywood and substituting on World News This Morning and Good Morning America. He departed from KABC-TV in spring of 1992.
Return to KNBC
In July 1992, after a highly publicized bidding war, Moyer returned to KNBC (on what was then the
Channel 4 News) to co-anchor with longtime
San Francisco anchorwoman-journalist
Wendy Tokuda. However, when ratings failed to surpass KABC's, Moyer was once again paired with Lange on the 11:00 p.m. news from 1993 to 1997 and with
Colleen Williams on the 5:00 p.m. and, in 1997, the 11:00 p.m. news; both Moyer and Lange received seven-figure salaries.
[Benson, Jim (1992-11-30). Moyer-less KABC L.A. news king Variety.com. Retrieved 2021-03-13.][Benson, Jim (1993-02-22). KNBC anchor moves could be just starting Variety. Retrieved 2021-02-11] According to a June 2007 article in
Los Angeles Magazine, Moyer's salary was rumored to be closer to $8 million.
In May 2006, Moyer led an investigation on the rapidly increasing Chemtrail/Weather modification problem in Southern California. His four-minute report Toxic Sky, produced for KNBC in Los Angeles, went viral on the Internet almost as soon as it was posted to their official website NBC4.TV (now nbclosangeles.com).[ Toxic Sky Part 1][ Toxic Sky Part 2]
On April 1, 2009, KNBC's Colleen Williams announced, during the evening newscast, that Moyer had decided to retire after nearly 17 years at the station.[ KNBC-TV Channel 4 anchor Paul Moyer to retire] Moyer's salary was estimated at more than $3 million a year of his time of retirement.[ Moyer's salaries]
Other media work
Moyer appeared as himself on the TV show
The West Wing while doing an election-night stint for
MSNBC.
Personal life
Moyer is married and has four children, Elise, Paul, Dylan and Kyle. His nephew, Micah Ohlman, had anchored the weekend newscasts at rival KABC and is now anchoring at
KTLA. He was at one time designated the honorary mayor of West Los Angeles.
Moyer is known as an avid car collector, particularly interested in Ferrari cars, Ford GTs, and other sports cars. He won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in 1988.
In 2011 he sold the family home worth $9.5 million to buy a more modest retirement home in Los Angeles.[ Paul Moyer's retirement]
[ ]
In popular culture
The morning duo Kevin and Bean on
KROQ-FM made fun of Moyer on a regular basis for his presentation style and alleged behind-the-scenes temper. An audio tape from 1990
[ Catfight at Channel 7] featured Moyer verbally berating Ann Martin when they anchored together just seconds before the 11 p.m. newscast began over an argument of who was going to read the first segment. The audio tape references Moyer bad-mouthing rival anchor Harold Greene while accusing Martin of drinking before the newscast. Moyer suggests the two should take up their issues with Roger Bell, KABC-TV's News Director.
[ Tape of the exchange]
Filmography
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Heat (1995) – self
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Boomtown (2002) – self
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One Six Right (2005) – self
External links
