Maury Povich and Gore Vidal on the set of

"People Are Talking"

KYW-TV

circa 1982

Maury Povich worked in Philadelphia for a few years, from 1980 to 1983. He worked at KYW-TV, Channel 3 and hosted a talk show called, "People Are Talking." Group W (owner of KYW-TV) had a similar program on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, co-hosted by Oprah Winfrey and it was wildly popular. They wanted to do the show here and picked Povich as local host. Westinghouse (Group W) had a reputation for doing these shows. Tom Snyder did "Contact" on Channel 3 when he was a local Philadelphia newscaster in the late sixties. In fact, the format of both shows was very much alike. More to the point, both programs aired in the same time period, 9 am to 10 o'clock, daily.



Maury was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in television journalism in 1962. He began his career in broadcasting four years later at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C. In the nation's capital, he was a reporter and a sportscaster. In 1967, he became the first host of the station's "Panorama," a daily mid-day television program. From there, he did several similar programs in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 1980, he came to Philly and hosted a morning live talk show entitled, "People Are Talking." He was also a news anchor on Channel 3. We have video of him in our digital archival project and his co-anchor, Broadcast Pioneers member Dick Sheeran. In one piece of video, it was one week before the 1980 presidential election. On the early evening newscast, Maury and Dick prep the audience on the presidential debate later that evening. Then they ran a clip of Maury interviewing President Carter's wife, Rosalynn.

Maury Povich in TV Monitor

KYW-TV

circa 1982

In 1983, he returned to D.C. and resumed hosting "Panorama" along with other news duties which included anchoring the station's 10 o'clock News. From 1986 to 1991, Povich hosted "A Current Affair," a syndicated daily magazine program.



In 1991, his "Maury Povich Show" (still airing as of 2005) started as a daily stripped Monday thru Friday hour long TV program.



Maury came from a family of journalists. His sister, Lynn Povich was a senior editor for Newsweek magazine and later Eqst Coast Managing Editor for MSNBC. Maury is married to anchor Connie Chung (they were wed in 1984.) Maury Povich's father was Shirley Povich, a sports columnist for the Washington Post for 75 years. Richard Nixon once told the Post that Povich was the only reason why he read that newspaper.

(Left to right) Steve Baskerville, unidentified male and Maury Povich

"People Are Talking"

KYW-TV

circa 1982

Steve Baskerville was the weather guy that replaced Bill Kuster. He was here in Philadelphia from 1978 to 1983. He left Philly to become the weather anchor for "CBS This Morning." In 1987, he went to WBBM-TV, Channel 2 in Chicago we he has been for the last two decades as their main weather anchor.

Jay Phelan, a visitor to our website e-mailed:

A tidbit missing from Maury's biography: he was a member of WXPN at Penn, and I recall him announcing Penn's basketball games from The Palestra. The more senior guys at the station told me that Maury almost never came by the studio. He didn't have to....all he had to do was show up at the mike for the broadcast. They were right. I heard him many times, but I never saw him!



From what I recall, he was a natural, so I wasn't surprised when years later he popped up with his own TV show.



By the way, we had another announcer who went on to have a career in broadcasting. In the early '60s Barry Kaufman did WXPN's Friday evening remote broadcast from Pagano's Pizzeria. It was an all rock show, and he was excellent. He did commercials, interviewed customers, played the right music, and generally kept Pagano's filled. After graduation I believe he went on to Penn's dental school. One day in 1976 or '77 I was living north of Chicago and was surprised to see him on WMAQ as their health reporter. I contacted him and he invited me down to the studios to see him and watch a broadcast. In the early 1990s he went to WBBM radio, and I believe he is still doing their health-related

stories.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

Top & Bottom photo originally donated by KYW-TV, which came from their files

Middle photo originally by Broadcast Pioneers member Jerry Klein

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