Longtime New York City newsman Bob Teague dies
Mar 29, 2013, 5:44 PM
NEW YORK (AP) – Bob Teague, a former news anchor, reporter and producer and one of New York City’s first black television journalists, has died. He was 84.
WNBC says Teague died Thursday. His widow, Jan, told The New York Times that he suffered from T-cell lymphoma.
Teague was a veteran newspaper reporter when joined New York’s NBC affiliate in 1963. He previously worked at the Milwaukee Journal and The New York Times.
At WNBC, he became a correspondent for “Harlem: Test for the North,” an hour-long program started after riots broke out area. He also covered other minority communities during the tumultuous 1960s.
“They felt black reporters would be invulnerable in a riot,” Teague said in a 1981 interview.
Teague often subbed on NBC network news and sports programs, but he was critical of the industry that employed him.
“How can you make the decisions about your lives, your family, your business if what you are getting is information about what the beautiful people are doing?” Teague wrote in a 1982 book, “Live and Off-Color: News Biz.”
He retired from WNBC in 1991.
Teague also was the author of several other books including “Letters to a Black Boy,” addressed to his then-1-year-old son.
He wrote three works of children’s fiction with titles such as “Agent K-Thirteen the Super-Spy.”
WNBC anchor Chuck Scarborough said Teague was “driven to excel and tireless in his pursuit of the truth.”
“He was also a valuable mentor to those of us who followed in his footsteps,” Scarborough said. “Bob’s achievements and integrity stand as an example for us all.”
WNBC praised Teague in a statement as “a broadcast pioneer with a passion for news and for serving his New York viewers.”
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