Jim Hartz, the low-key, folksy newsman who hosted the Today show with Barbara Walters in the mid-1970s less than halfway through his three-decade television career, died on April 17 in Fairfax County, Va. He was 82. (NYT)
An old-school newscaster with a deep voice with hints of his native Oklahoma, Hartz became one of the country’s youngest local news anchors when he joined New York’s WNBC-TV in 1964, at 24. (WaPo)
After college, he was hired as a reporter for KOTV in Tulsa and hosted Sun Up, the channel’s morning show. He progressed there to news director, then was tapped by NBC in New York. He became anchor of the evening newscasts on WNBC, the network’s flagship local station. By 1974, Today came calling—and he took over the coveted slot next to Walters. (Deadline)