Terry Drinkwater (May 9, 1936 – May 31, 1989) was an American
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
most widely known for his quarter-century career as a correspondent for
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
. Drinkwater was also an anchorman for the West Coast editions of the ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'', covering events that occurred after the East Coast version with
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
aired.
Education
A native of
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Drinkwater attended
Pomona College
Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...
, where he co-founded
KSPC
KSPC is a non-commercial college and community radio station based in Claremont, California, broadcasting at 88.7 MHz on the FM band and streaming online. It was founded in 1956 as a Pomona College student organization and later expanded ...
radio and earned a bachelor's degree
[ in 1958. The following year he received a ]Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
at the University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...
.[
]
Radio career
Drinkwater's first major break in broadcasting came when he was hired in 1959 as general manager of Pacifica Radio
Pacifica may refer to:
Art
* ''Pacifica'' (statue), a 1938 statue by Ralph Stackpole for the Golden Gate International Exposition
Places
* Pacifica, California, a city in the United States
** Pacifica Pier, a fishing pier
* Pacifica, a concei ...
KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...
-FM, a public station in 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 ...
. Under his leadership KPFK won a Peabody Institutional Award the following year, in recognition of the station's programming.
Television career
Drinkwater joined CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
in 1963, after working as a reporter at television station KTLA
KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the s ...
in 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 ...
.[ At CBS, his main assignment was as a regional correspondent,][ "roaming the West from the Rocky Mountains to Alaska."][ Drinkwater and fellow CBS News correspondent, ]Roger Mudd
Roger Harrison Mudd (February 9, 1928 – March 9, 2021) was an American broadcast journalist who was a correspondent and anchor for CBS News and NBC News. He also worked as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was weeke ...
, were on scene in the ''Embassy Ballroom'' of the Ambassador Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in the early morning hours of June 5, 1968 when United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot. Kennedy died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital. He covered such notable events as the 1974 kidnapping of Patricia "Patty" Hearst and the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Drinkwater received three 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 ...
s and an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award
The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in journalism. The awards were established in 1942 and administered ...
.[ He once received a 90-day suspension from CBS for representing a wine-company employee as a satisfied customer.]
Death
Drinkwater filed his last report for CBS News in August 1988. He died at his home in Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malib ...
at the age of 53 after a six-year battle with cancer. At the time of his death, he was senior correspondent in the Los Angeles Bureau of CBS News.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drinkwater, Terry
American television reporters and correspondents
1936 births
1989 deaths
Deaths from cancer in California
People from Denver
People from Los Angeles
Pomona College alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
American male journalists
Journalists from California
20th-century American journalists