Mort Crim (born July 31, 1935) is an author and former broadcast journalist. Crim joined Channel 4 (soon to be named

WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio faciliti ...

) in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

in 1978. Crim stayed with the station 19 years before retiring from anchoring TV newscasts in 1997. Previously, he served as an anchor at

WHAS-TV WHAS-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on West Chestnut Street in Downtown Louisville, and its transmitter is located in ru ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

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

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Crim was considered to be a top candidate by former

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

president

Roone Arledge Roone Pinckney Arledge Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting executive who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise t ...

to be a co-anchor for ABC's '' World News Tonight'' newscast in 1978. In 1984, he hosted a technology program on PBS, ''New Tech Times''. Crim is also a founder of a Detroit area integrated marketing agency, Mort Crim Communications, Inc. Crim served as a spokesman for

Majic Window Majic Window is a home improvement company based in Wixom, Michigan, United States, They claim to be the world's largest distributor of fiberglass windows. History Bart Rue and Rod Rue established a family owned corporation in Wixom, Michigan i ...

Company in

Wixom, Michigan Wixom is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 13,498 at the 2010 census. As a western suburb of Metro Detroit, Wixom is about northwest of the city of Detroit. The city was home to the now-demolished Wix ...

, and for several years was featured in television commercials for that company. Crim anchored the American Information Network (ABC) program ''News Around The World'' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as many other hourly newscasts. In addition to his anchoring duties, Mort Crim also has four syndicated editorial and news features for radio: ''One Moment Please'' (originally a television feature), ''News You'll Care About'' (a five-minute news summary), ''Second Thoughts'' and ''American Spirit''. He was also previously a substitute anchor for

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

's daily radio programs. Crim contributed an intro monologue to

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums with ...

' song "Little Acorns", from their 2003 album ''

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

''. Crim read the eulogy at news colleague

Jessica Savitch Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, 1947 – October 23, 1983) was an American television journalist, best known for being the weekend anchor of ''NBC Nightly News'' and daily newsreader for NBC News during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savi ...

's memorial service, following her 1983 death. Crim remains active as a keynote speaker, addressing conventions and conferences across the country. He is the author of seven books and has recently completed his eighth, a memoir. He also writes and produces television documentaries—his most recent, ''Flight Level Seven Four and Still Climbing'', an account of the solo cross-country flight he made in his light sport aircraft to celebrate his 74th birthday. In February 2007, Crim was diagnosed with

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

. According to his doctors at Mayo Clinic, the cancer was caught early and Crim has since made a full recovery. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Crim into their Hall of Fame in 2009. He also has been inducted into the Michigan and Illinois broadcast halls of fame and Northwestern University's Hall of Achievement. Crim earned his masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He is the recipient of five honorary doctorates. In a 2013 interview, actor/comedian

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 200 ...

revealed that Crim was the main inspiration for his popular TV news anchor character

Ron Burgundy The ''Anchorman'' series is a media franchise initially consisting of three American comedy films – '' Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy'', '' Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie'' (both 2004), and '' Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues'' (2 ...

. Between 2017 and 2018 Crim appeared as himself in 12 episodes of the

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

series '' Detroiters''.

References

External links

Mort Crim SpeaksMort Crim Communications93 KHJ (American Samoa): Bio of Mort CrimBroadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crim, Mort 1935 births Living people American male journalists American broadcast news analysts Television personalities from Philadelphia Television in Detroit Writers from Detroit