Pittsburgh native, ‘Eyewitness News’ creator Al Primo dies

Many of the conventions of TV news today — on local newscasts or cable news or the “Today” show — originated in the mind of Pittsburgh native Al Primo, a University of Pittsburgh graduate who worked at Pittsburgh’s WDTV, which was re-christened KDKA-TV during his tenure as a news writer, reporter, anchor and eventually assistant news director at the station.

It was after Primo’s stint at KDKA that he created the “Eyewitness News” format at KYW-TV in Philadelphia.

Former WTAE-TV news director Joe Rovitto, Al Primo’s cousin, said Primo’s approach to TV news may seem patented today, but it was anything but the norm when the “Eyewitness News” format launched on KYW-TV in 1965.

“That format for its day was very forward-thinking,” Rovitto said.

Not only did Primo, who grew up in Perrysville, expand the news from a 15-minute report to 30 minutes, but he changed what it looked like.

“Before Al, it was a 15-minute newscast with a male, usually white, anchor narrating the news almost like a recitation of the day’s events,” said Brian Calfano, a journalism professor at the University of Cincinnati who had recently begun work on a documentary film about Primo. “Primo took that model and turned it on its head. He said we’re going to involve reporters and put them on the scene and be eyewitnesses to the stories our audience experiences on a daily basis.”

Primo, 87, died of cancer Thursday at his home in Old Greenwich, Conn., where services will be held at a date that’s yet to be determined.

The concept of a “news team” — what NBC’s “Today” would later christen “America’s First Family” — originated with Primo.

“Dad was extremely empathetic and sympathetic,” said Primo’s eldest daughter, Valeri Primo Lack. “He felt the joys and the sorrows of the people around him in his life. For him, the news was like a family for many people who lived alone or were having trouble in their lives or doing great in their lives. He wanted people to feel like they were sitting down at home, expanding their lives and families by relating to the people reading the news.”

In addition to adding the faces of reporters to TV newscasts, Primo also diversified the ranks of reporters on TV.

“He had a fervent belief that a news team should look like the community it covers,” Calfano said, noting Primo hired Geraldo Rivera after Primo moved from KYW to New York City’s WABC-TV in 1968, taking its newscast from worst to first in the ratings.

So saddened at the loss of this extraordinary pioneer, but resolved to make a fitting tribute to his brilliance. Rest In Peace, Al Primo #eyewitnessnewsman pic.twitter.com/LcM4rjZtwB

— Brian Calfano (@BCalfano) September 29, 2022

Al Primo, creator of Eyewitness News, has passed at age 87. One of the most important producers in broadcasting history, he was an elegant man, a loyal friend and an inspiration and guide to 1000’s.
Erica and I send our love and condolences to his daughter Juliet and family.

— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 29, 2022

“It was terribly important for him to hire minorities and women,” said Primo Lack.

Rivera said he was serving as an informal spokesperson for a group of Puerto Rican activists who took over a block of Spanish Harlem at the time Primo was looking to diversify his news ranks. Primo asked a reporter from a rival station if she knew any Puerto Rican men and the woman suggested Rivera, who had been interviewed on “Today.” “I’d never really seen a reporter consciously at work,” Rivera said. “I used to joke at the time that the only reporter I ever saw on the job before I took the job was Jimmy Olsen from the old ‘Superman.’”

Rivera said Primo sponsored him for a three-month journalism graduate program at Columbia and hired Rivera the day he graduated in 1970.

“He was instrumental in my life and career and a dear friend,” Rivera said. “Al Primo was the seminal figure in the modernization of television news. He was a pioneer in terms of integrating news teams. He really changed the face of television news in terms of diversity inclusion, broadening the scope of it and he made urban reporting much more vivid.”

The “Eyewitness News” format included banter between anchors and reporters on set and a theme song recycled from the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke,” the Lalo Schifrin-composed “Tar Sequence.”

After his stint at WABC, Primo went to ABC in 1972 to run news for ABC’s owned and operated stations and executive produced “The Reasoner Report,” featuring Harry Reasoner. The show was canceled in 1975 and Primo departed the network to work as a TV news consultant.

But Primo wasn’t done innovating. In 1999, he created foreigntv.com and hired Peter Arnett after he was dropped from CNN. It didn’t last, but it was an attempt at streaming news almost a decade before online video took off in earnest.

In 2002, Primo launched the syndicated program “Teen Kids News,” now in its 20th season.

“He wanted to do a program for kids and teenagers where they could understand and relate to the stories without being horrified,” Primo Lack said, noting the program will continue after her father’s death. “He helped so many kids in their lives, in their careers. He got so many letters from teachers saying they played [‘Teen Kids News’] in their classrooms in all sorts of rural places.”

Rivera said he remained close with the Primos over the past 50 years “to the extent that we sent our daughter, Sol, to be one of his kid reporters on ‘Teen Kids News.’”

Primo Lack said her father instilled in her and the children at “Teen Kids News” the importance and power of communication.

“Being able to get your message and your word out whilst at the same time actually listening and hearing other people and not waiting for your turn to talk — that was a big lesson he gave me,” she said. “Communication was always in his blood.”