Longtime Cleveland reporter/anchor, Del Donahoo, passes away

[Rusty Muck 4167]

One of the longest-tenured staffers in the history of WKYC-TV in Cleveland, Del Donahoo, passed away on February 4 at the age of 90.

 

He joined WKYC when it (along with then-WKYC/1100, now WTAM, and then-WKYC/105.7, now WMJI) was still under NBC ownership. He is best known for his "Del's Folks" feature reports that profiled 'ordinary people doing interesting things,' which had its' genesis from reports that he did for NBC Radio's long-form weekend program, "Monitor." He also co-hosted "Today in Cleveland," a half-hour breakfast television show at 6:30AM weekdays with longtime staff announcer Tom Haley. Originally the earliest morning newscast in the market that didn't consist of a booth announcer reading copy over a telop slide (note: WEWS' "Morning Exchange," which ABC used to create "Good Morning America," didn't start until 8:00AM), "Today in Cleveland" maintained a small-town folksiness and warmth even after WKYC sandwiched it in between their conventional morning newscast and NBC's "Today." The show only ended after Tom Haley retired in 1997.

 

It's important to note that, while NBC ran WKYC as a 'farm team' station while talent like Al Roker and Brian Ross would often be promoted to New York (mainly because NBC was forced back into the market by court order), Del never thought of leaving. Even as WKYC often trailed in the ratings to both WEWS and WJW, and was often regarded as the poorest-performing NBC affiliate in the country. He was one of a handful of people who stayed at the station, long after NBC sold off majority control of WKYC to Multimedia, and managed to see the station finally emerge as a respected news source under Gannett when he retired in 2007.

 

WKYC's 7pm newscast had a gracious tribute to Del, along with both an interview from a fellow WKYC stalwart, Joe Mosbrook (who joined Del at the same time, and stuck around until 2002) and an interesting story from Jim Donovan from when he joined the station 29 years ago. Some of his "Del's Folks" features have also been re-posted, and the 11pm news faded out to a live shot of the old "Today in Cleveland" wall clock.

 

I remember when my telecommunications class from Lorain County Community College visited the current WKYC studio complex back in 2003 (fun fact: one of my classmates would eventually get hired by WKYC as a floor director). Del was at his desk, which also had a typewriter... the last one in existence in the newsroom, and quite possibly the last typewriter in the entire building.

 

But what a wonderful man, and I know I'm not alone in saying that.