R.I.P.: Bob Wallace, Retired WBBM-TV News Anchor

Bob Wallace

WBBM-TV2 News Anchor and talk show host Bob Wallace died April 28 from complications of COVID-19

He was 80-years-of-age, reports The Chicago Tribune.

“Bob Wallace was simply one of those rare birds made for live TV. He was must-see TV because you never knew what you were going to see or what new thing you might learn,” said former Channel 2 news producer Roy Santoro. “Bob most of all was a great storyteller. He could do a live shot about a pencil and make it seem interesting.”

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, Wallace grew up in Somerville, a nearby blue-collar Boston suburb. He graduated from Boston University, and the school’s employment office found him a summer job as a $1.50-an-hour jack-of-all-trades, reading commercials and reporting from city hall at a 250-watt radio station in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Wallace decided to pursue a career in broadcasting, working in radio and TV in Providence, Rhode Island, before beating out Phil Donahue for an anchor spot at an Indianapolis TV station in 1966. He then anchored at a station in Philadelphia before being hired by Channel 2 as a reporter in May 1970.

By July 1970, Wallace had been promoted to be a weekend news anchor, replacing Bill Kurtis, who had left to become a West Coast correspondent for CBS.

“He was a combination of Walter Mitty and George Plimpton with the voice and gravitas of Charles Kuralt,” said WGN-AM morning host Bob Sirott, who worked with Wallace at Channel 2 in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “Some TV people are very good at anchoring, others have a talent for fun feature reporting and some are terrific at live shots. Bob did it all and excelled at everything.”

Wallace won eight Chicago Emmy awards while with Channel 2, and the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded him the Chicago TV industry’s highest honor, the Silver Circle Award, in 2019.