Gerald Wayne "Gerry" Schetzle, best known by the broadcast pseudonym Wayne Shannon, (1948-2011) was an American television news reporter,

political pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

, and

humorist A humorist (American) or humourist (British spelling) is an intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not an artist who seeks only to elicit laughs. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business e ...

who worked 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 ...

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

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

during the late 1970s and 1980s. Shannon became popular with

viewers from 1982 through 1988 for his nightly "Just 4 You" segments on

KRON-TV KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...

, where his name received billing in newscast introductions along with the anchors and

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...

and sports presenters. Many of his commentaries, which dealt with local and global matters alike, were published in the 1986

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

collection ''Shannon: What's It All Mean?'' — a book which drew its title from the

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

Shannon used to end many of his segments. From 1989 until 1991 Shannon was a prominent on-air personality as a video essayist on national cable channel

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

Biography

Early years

Gerald Wayne Schetzle, known to his friends as "Gerry," was born January 16, 1948, in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

, Washington, but moved soon after to

, where he remained until age 12. Shannon attended junior high and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in the small community of

Moses Lake Moses Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of Crab Creek, in Washington state, USA. Moses Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as Crab Creek is a tributary of the Columbia River. Although originally a shallow natural lake, Moses L ...

, where he first performed as an amateur/professional

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

. Following high school, he went to the

American Academy of Dramatic Art The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, appeared

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

as an actor and directed children's theater

off-off Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the prof ...

. Schetzle returned to Washington and attended

Highline Community College Highline College is a public community college in Des Moines, Washington. Highline was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County, Washington. The main campus covers . , there were approximately 17,000 students and 350,000 alu ...

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, near

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, before enrolling in the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, from which he would graduate.

Career

Schetzle was a veteran of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

as a member of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and was in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

for one year from December 1969. It was there that he began his life under the stage name "Wayne Shannon," as part of the Army'
Command Military Touring Shows
in a 10-person touring company performing the musical comedy ''

The Fantasticks ''The Fantasticks'' is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and book and lyrics by Tom Jones. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the 1894 play ''The Romancers'' (''Les Romanesques'') by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neigh ...

'' for American troops stationed in the field. Upon his return to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, Shannon worked as a typist for

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

. This proved temporary and during the middle 1970s Shannon was able to fulfill his aspiration of a career in show business when he landed his first

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 advertisin ...

job as a

movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

host. Shannon later moved to

WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter faciliti ...

, where he reported on

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...

issues. After his time in Detroit, Shannon took a position with

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 ...

where he worked as a feature reporter and essayist from 1980 to 1982. Shannon premiered as a commentator at

on July 5, 1982. "Even without opening his mouth, he projects an iconoclastic aura: There are pinchable cherubic cheeks and a rotund body of 240 pounds … that reminds one of Oliver Hardy. In his eyes there is the glint of Dennis the Menace, the twinkle of Thalia the Muse. His delivery has the same cute mannerisms of Hardy: He cocks his head in funny ways, arches his eyebrows on a slant to match his arch humor, and dares to indulge in a wordplay for which there is not fit punishment," a journalist wrote about Shannon's style. After Shannon's

contract was not renewed in the spring of 1988, he migrated to national cable television channel

where he worked as one of the

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

's originating commentators, delivering humorous and topical pieces in rotation throughout the broadcast day. Shannon prepared as many as three short essays a day for CNBC and was a prominent figure on the air for the network until it shifted its orientation to business coverage in the early 1990s. Following his departure from CNBC in 1991, Shannon returned once more to the Pacific Northwest, working as a television reporter for several stations in the

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

, media market. He later worked from his home as a humorous internet weather forecaster for

Yahoo.com Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

under the moniker "The Weather Guru." In his last years Shannon made his home in the town of

Lewiston, Idaho Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the second-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Coeur d'Alene, and ninth-largest in the state. Lewiston is ...

.Ron Russell
"Ex-KRON Newsman Wayne Shannon Coveted His Privacy,"
''Bay Area Observer,'' May 4, 2012.

Death and legacy

Wayne Shannon was reported missing by his family in September 2011.Scott Cohn
"Former CNBC Commentator Wayne Shannon Dies,"
CNBC, May 4, 2012. On April 28, 2012, Shannon's remains were found in the woods near Skookumchuck in

Idaho County, Idaho Idaho County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho, and the largest by area in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,541. The county seat is Grangeville. Previous county seats of the area were Florence (1864–68), Washingto ...

, by a pair of hunters. An

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

was completed on May 1, which found no signs of trauma and led investigators to conclude that Shannon took his own life. Shannon was 64 years old at the time of his death. Shannon was the recipient of six

Emmy Awards 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 ...

and four

CableACE The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Amer ...

nominations for his reporting. He was eulogized by his friend the popular culture commentator Edward Champion as a "broadcasting innovator" as well as a topical satirist who was a "precursor to

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted ''The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts ''Th ...

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

, and

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

."Edward Champion
"Wayne Shannon: A Video Tribute,"
Reluctant Habits, May 4, 2012. Joe Eskenazi of ''SF Weekly'' remembered Shannon as "a rotund, walrus-like man" who "sported a salt-and-pepper helmet-like hairstyle and a mustache that, to put it gently, went out of style after 1945."Joe Eskenazi
"Wayne Shannon is Dead — What's It All Mean?"
''SF Weekly,'' May 7, 2012. Shannon had, Eskenazi recalled, "a comedian's timing, a journalist's drive, and a satirist's bile" and whose delivery "felt like a guy in a bar telling you what's what."

Footnotes

Works

* ''Shannon: What's It All Mean?'' Ross, CA: May-Murdock Publications, 1986.

External links

* Edward Champion
"Wayne Shannon: A Case Study for the Internet's Failings?"
Reluctant Habits, September 26, 2006. www.edrants.com/ * Edward Champion
"Remembering Wayne Shannon (1948-2012),"
Reluctant Habits, May 1, 2012. www.edrants.com/ * Edward Champion
"Wayne Shannon: A Video Tribute,"
Reluctant Habits, May 4, 2012. www.edrants.com/ * Sarah Medina

Huffington Post San Francisco, May 7, 2012. www.huffingtonpost.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Wayne 1948 births 2011 deaths University of Washington alumni American television personalities People from Spokane, Washington Video essayists