He helped build a ratings juggernaut at WLS-TV, part of a ‘happy talk’ revolution in TV news that initially saw him paired on air with Fahey Flynn, John Coleman and Bill Frink.
By Maureen O'Donnell Updated Oct 22, 2020, 12:56pm CDT
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Joel Daly at WLS-TV’s studio in the Loop in 2005, the year he retired after 40 years at the Chicago ABC station. John J. Kim / Sun-Times file
Joel Daly, a trusted Chicago news anchor for nearly 40 years and one of the pillars of a WLS-Channel 7 news dynasty, has died.
Mr. Daly, 86, died around 5:30 a.m. Thursday at his LaGrange home, according to his daughter Kelly, who said that he’d been watching the news on his former station.
“He watched the news, and he was petting the dog, and that was it,” she said.
He had been diagnosed last year with vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that led to mini-strokes, she said.
Mr. Daly’s authority with viewers was evident after he graduated in 1988 from Chicago-Kent College of Law and was defending a client in court. A prospective juror was dismissed because he said he didn’t think he could be unbiased, telling the judge: “I believe everything Mr. Daly says.”
Starting in 1968, Mr. Daly helped build a ratings juggernaut at the Chicago ABC station. His “Eyewitness News” pairing with another legendary Chicago news anchor, Fahey Flynn, and weatherman John Coleman and sportscaster Bill Frink was based on a folksy approach dubbed, somewhat derisively, by others as “happy talk,” mixing in plenty of chatter amid the day’s news.
The label didn’t bother him. As Mr. Daly put it in his 2011 autobiography “The Daly News,”“Everyone was ‘happily talking’ about us.”:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21976410/03665_29.2748.jpg)
On Feb. 12, 1968, the “Eyewitness News” team concept was born when longtime Chicago news anchor Fahey Flynn (left) joined Joel Daly at WLS-TV, ushering in a new brand of television journalism derided by some as “happy talk.”Provided
His later co-anchors included a Chicago newcomer named Oprah Winfrey.
Toward the end of his career, Mr. Daly’s former ABC7 co-anchor Linda Yu paid tribute to his remarkable longevity, noting that he’d lasted through “eight general managers, 11 news directors and over 10,000 news broadcasts.”
The Montana native was a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University with an on-air persona that was polished but warm, erudite yet down-home. Radiating intelligence and always appearing at ease, he won five Chicago TV Emmys for his reporting and writing.
He also was a talented yodeler who charmed audiences with his side gig as a singer with the Sundowners country band.
Winfrey would praise him as a generous and supportive colleague and once called Mr. Daly the “best yodeler I ever heard.”:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21977384/img0358A.3518.jpg)
Joel Daly had a longtime side gig singing with the Sundowners country band. Sun-Times file
“Anyone who was paired with him, he connected with as his co-anchor,” said retired ABC7 reporter Paul Meincke. “He was an everyman. He listened to people. He was enormously proud of his ability to write and be understood and deliver a message.”
“We’re just communicating,” Mr. Daly once said in a Chicago-Kent alumni interview, “whether I’m singing a song or in a courtroom trying a case or on television doing the news.”
In the Army, Mr. Daly was sent to broadcast school at Fort Slocum in New York and then, while stationed in Panama in the late 1950s, did radio in the morning and TV by night, entreating listeners to “Live Gaily with Daly.”
“He was somewhat like the ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ guy in Panama,” his daughter said.
After his discharge, he landed jobs in Cleveland at WEWS-TV and WJW-TV. Mr. Daly covered the Beatles’ electrifying 1964 tour of the United States. He interviewed Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his book, he recalled King telling him, “We will either live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
He also covered the high-profile trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was convicted in 1954 of murdering his wife but later exonerated — a case that inspired the TV series and movie “The Fugitive.”
In 1967, he was hired by what was then WBKB-TV, WLS-TV’s prior call letters, and he and his wife Suzon “Sue” Daly moved to a home in LaGrange designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whom he’d interviewed while in college.
When he started his new job, “I was driving a little MGB sports car,” he wrote in his book, “and was terrified by all the trucks pushing me off the expressway on the way to work.”
Meeting Mayor Richard J. Daley, he told him he was spelling his last name the wrong way.
Joel Daly, a trusted Chicago news anchor for nearly 40 years and one of the pillars of a WLS-Channel 7 news dynasty, has died.
Mr. Daly, 86, died around 5:30 a.m. Thursday at his LaGrange home, according to his daughter Kelly, who said that he’d been watching the news on his former station.
“He watched the news, and he was petting the dog, and that was it,” she said.
He had been diagnosed last year with vascular Parkinsonism, a condition that led to mini-strokes, she said.
Mr. Daly’s authority with viewers was evident after he graduated in 1988 from Chicago-Kent College of Law and was defending a client in court. A prospective juror was dismissed because he said he didn’t think he could be unbiased, telling the judge: “I believe everything Mr. Daly says.”
Starting in 1968, Mr. Daly helped build a ratings juggernaut at the Chicago ABC station. His “Eyewitness News” pairing with another legendary Chicago news anchor, Fahey Flynn, and weatherman John Coleman and sportscaster Bill Frink was based on a folksy approach dubbed, somewhat derisively, by others as “happy talk,” mixing in plenty of chatter amid the day’s news.
The label didn’t bother him. As Mr. Daly put it in his 2011 autobiography “The Daly News,”“Everyone was ‘happily talking’ about us.”
On Feb. 12, 1968, the “Eyewitness News” team concept was born when longtime Chicago news anchor Fahey Flynn (left) joined Joel Daly at WLS-TV, ushering in a new brand of television journalism derided by some as “happy talk.”ProvidedHis later co-anchors included a Chicago newcomer named Oprah Winfrey.
Toward the end of his career, Mr. Daly’s former ABC7 co-anchor Linda Yu paid tribute to his remarkable longevity, noting that he’d lasted through “eight general managers, 11 news directors and over 10,000 news broadcasts.”
The Montana native was a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University with an on-air persona that was polished but warm, erudite yet down-home. Radiating intelligence and always appearing at ease, he won five Chicago TV Emmys for his reporting and writing.
He also was a talented yodeler who charmed audiences with his side gig as a singer with the Sundowners country band.
Winfrey would praise him as a generous and supportive colleague and once called Mr. Daly the “best yodeler I ever heard.”
Joel Daly had a longtime side gig singing with the Sundowners country band. Sun-Times file“Anyone who was paired with him, he connected with as his co-anchor,” said retired ABC7 reporter Paul Meincke. “He was an everyman. He listened to people. He was enormously proud of his ability to write and be understood and deliver a message.”
“We’re just communicating,” Mr. Daly once said in a Chicago-Kent alumni interview, “whether I’m singing a song or in a courtroom trying a case or on television doing the news.”
In the Army, Mr. Daly was sent to broadcast school at Fort Slocum in New York and then, while stationed in Panama in the late 1950s, did radio in the morning and TV by night, entreating listeners to “Live Gaily with Daly.”
“He was somewhat like the ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ guy in Panama,” his daughter said.
After his discharge, he landed jobs in Cleveland at WEWS-TV and WJW-TV. Mr. Daly covered the Beatles’ electrifying 1964 tour of the United States. He interviewed Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
In his book, he recalled King telling him, “We will either live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
He also covered the high-profile trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard, who was convicted in 1954 of murdering his wife but later exonerated — a case that inspired the TV series and movie “The Fugitive.”
In 1967, he was hired by what was then WBKB-TV, WLS-TV’s prior call letters, and he and his wife Suzon “Sue” Daly moved to a home in LaGrange designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whom he’d interviewed while in college.
When he started his new job, “I was driving a little MGB sports car,” he wrote in his book, “and was terrified by all the trucks pushing me off the expressway on the way to work.”
Meeting Mayor Richard J. Daley, he told him he was spelling his last name the wrong way.
Takes you back to when there was actually a unbiased news media.
ReplyDeleteA great anchor. RIP
ReplyDeleteGenuinely nice man to meet, not arrogant like most of the media D-bags.
ReplyDeleteAn honest reporter, we could really use journalists like him now, but I am afraid they are gone forever. RIP Joel Daley
ReplyDelete