Broadcast Pioneers

The Huntley-Brinkley Report was a trusted news source in the early television years. Having two anchors may have seemed a bad idea but the authoritative style of Chet Huntley, reporting from New York, and David Brinkley, from Washington, DC, proved to be a big success. The program ran fifteen minutes at its inception in 1956 but expanded to thirty minutes in 1963, following the lead of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The signature theme music used for the broadcast was by Ludwig van Beethoven with an ending theme being his Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, second movement, of the Ninth Symphony. It was broadcast from a 1952 studio recording conducted by Arturo Toscanini of the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

NBC executives were growing dissatisfied with John Cameron Swayze and the Camel News Caravan. It began falling behind CBS's Douglas Edwards with the News. As a result, Swayze was out and Huntley-Brinkley was in. Huntley handled the bulk of the news most nights, with Brinkley specializing in Washington politics. They possessed a strong chemistry with viewers liking that the anchors talked to each other. In reality, aside from their sign-off, Huntley and Brinkley's only communication came when one anchor finished a story and handed off to the other by saying the other's name, a signal to an AT&T technician to switch the long-distance transmission lines from New York to Washington or vice versa.

By 1965, the program brought in more advertising revenue than any other on television. Critics considered Huntley to possess one of the best broadcast voices ever, and Brinkley's dry, often witty, news writing presented viewers with a contrast to the often sober output from CBS News. NBC producer, Reuven Frank, wrote their closing lines which were for decades one of the most parodied catchphrases on television: "Good night, Chet. Good night, David...and good night, for NBC News." With Huntley's announced retirement, their last news broadcast together was during the summer of 1970.

Note: The 1980s television sketch comedy, SCTV, gave Rick Moranis an opportunity to parody Brinkley with extraordinary comedic accuracy, visually and vocally.

In the image above, the NBC news crew prepares for an oval office interview with President Kennedy (seated) in September 1963. Standing, facing, is Brinkley. To his left in Huntley.