Judd Hambrick (born September 25, 1945, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

) is an American television newscaster and reporter. Hambrick grew up in

Mount Pleasant, Texas Mount Pleasant is the county seat of and largest city in Titus County, in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, Mount Pleasant's population was 16,047; it is situated in Northeast Texas. History Mount Pleasant was founded May 11, 184 ...

Biography

Career, accomplishments, and awards

Hambrick started his career in radio in 1961 while still a sophomore in high school. After graduation from

Mount Vernon High School Mount Vernon High School could refer to: *Mount Vernon High School (Arkansas) — Mount Vernon, Arkansas * Mount Vernon High School (Illinois) — Mount Vernon, Illinois *Mount Vernon High School (Fortville, Indiana) * Mount Vernon High Sch ...

Mount Vernon, Texas Mount Vernon is a town and the county seat of Franklin County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,491 at the 2020 United States census. History Mount Vernon started as a settlement near the Fanning Springs (on Holbrook Street south of th ...

in 1963, Hambrick attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he obtained his degree in journalism in 1967. He then got his start in television at

KTBC-TV KTBC (channel 7) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, and maintains studios on East 10th Street near the Te ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. Later on, by 1972 Hambrick had moved on to

WCAU-TV WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and served as co-anchor of their evening news programs with

John Facenda John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda ( ; August 8, 1913September 26, 1984) was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for N ...

, better known outside of Philadelphia as the "voice" of

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as ot ...

. Hambrick's stay at WCAU lasted only one year. He later moved onto stops at

KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNe ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains stud ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose� ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. In 1977, Hambrick arrived in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, where he became an anchor of the evening newscasts on WJKW-TV (now

WJW-TV WJW (channel 8) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WJW maintains studios on Dick Goddard Way (named for the station's late longtime weatherman—previously ...

). Hambrick won a local

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 1979, and helped the station's newscast become the top rated news program in Cleveland until his departure from WJKW-TV in 1981. The next year, he moved to rival

WKYC-TV WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the stati ...

, where he served in a similar capacity until 1985. Hambrick then spent next several years away from television news anchoring, though he worked on several business news ventures with NBC through his own production company.http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-IDX/86-OCR/BC-1986-11-24-OCR-Page-0074.pdf Hambrick ended his self-imposed hiatus in 1992 when he joined

KTUL-TV KTUL (channel 8) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located at Lookout Mountain (near South 29th West Avenue, west of Interstate 244) i ...

in Tulsa as an anchor. Not long after, Hambrick returned to Cleveland and to WKYC-TV, for one final anchoring stint from 1993 to 1999. During his career, he also worked in markets such as

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, and

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Word games

In addition to his television exploits, Hambrick has had a successful side career as a word game creator. Working with the creators of the crossword game

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

, Hambrick created a series of puzzles called ''Scrabblegrams'' (also called ''Scrabble Brand Grams'') and published several volumes of books containing the puzzles, which consist of five different sets of letters. For each set of letters the goal is to make the highest scoring word possible, and each rack may have some sort of score bonus attached. All Scrabble scoring rules apply, including the 50-point bonus for using all seven letters. ''Scrabblegrams'' has also been syndicated to newspapers as a feature by Tribune Media Company in the past, and is currently under the distribution of

Andrews McMeel Syndication Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Uclick) is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other c ...

for international markets only. In North America, Hambrick created a second word game for newspapers called ''Word Scrimmage''. The game is similar in nature to the ‘’Scrabblegrams'', but with a football motif and different bonuses attached such as 60 points for using all of the letters.

Personal life

Judd Hambrick is the brother of newscasters

John Hambrick John James Hambrick (June 21, 1940 – September 10, 2013) was an American broadcast journalist, reporter, actor, voice over announcer and TV documentary producer. Career Broadcast journalist Hambrick began his television career in 1963 at KR ...

(deceased) and Mike Hambrick. John co-anchored alongside Judd at KABC-TV during 1975–76, also worked in Cleveland (at

WEWS WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Sc ...

from 1967 to 1975), and had stints at stations in New York City and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. Younger sibling Mike worked in several markets such as

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

A nephew, Jack Hambrick (John's son), also went into the television business as a news reporter and now, along with his father, has become a documentary filmmaker. Hambrick, who is now semi-retired, lives with his wife in

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner. It is situated along the Tennessee River and is home to the University of North Alabama, the oldest college in the st ...

after pursuing some business ventures for a time in both the Belden and nearby

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

, Mississippi areas. Hambrick continues to work in mostly free-lance video news media production.

References

Broadcasters Hall of Fame: List of Inductees
Accessed 2007-09-26. *https://web.archive.org/web/20110708094812/http://www.broadcastershalloffame.com/biojh.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Hambrick, Judd 1945 births Living people Television anchors from Cleveland Television anchors from Philadelphia Moody College of Communication alumni People from Beaumont, Texas Television personalities from Tulsa, Oklahoma Television anchors from San Francisco Journalists from Texas