Joe Brush
From our archives, we have a WCAU Radio evening newscast. It dates from Monday, September 15, 1958. The newscaster was Joe Brush. However, it does contain three taped interviews, two with reporter Barry Nemcoff and one with reporter Bob Williams.
Joe Brush was at WIP Radio before coming to WCAU Radio in November of 1951. He was a co-worker of Broadcast Pioneers member John Facenda at both WIP and WCAU Radio.
Brush received two Freedoms Foundation awards while he was at WCAU. Joe left the station in September of 1962, and moved to Buffalo, NY. He started working for WRG Radio in November of 1962, made the transition to TV in April of '64 as a reporter. He returned to radio in July of 1964 due to family concerns. He eventually returned to TV in the late 60's and was co-anchor of the 11 o'clock news. The staff at WGR walked out in a dispute with management on Thanksgiving day in 1970, and Joe wouldn's cross the picket lines. When the matter was settled 7 months later, the offer made to Joe wasn't something he felt comfortable with, so he resigned.
Joe spent two years as news director at WWVA in Wheeling West Virginia, and then three years as public affairs officer and part-time instructor at Virgina Tech. Joe died shortly after Thanksgiving in 1984 from a heart attack, secondary to lung cancer.
Charlie Higgins, long time tech at WCAU Radio writes...
...The newscast in which there are inserts of Barry Nemcoff and Bob Williams. ...The announcer is Joe Brush. Joe died at a young age after having left WCAU.
As for Barry Nemcoff, he was a very good reporter and later became News Director after Charles Shaw departed. Not certain when or for how long. He worked for The Franklin Mint at one time and later surfaced as the "Executive Producer" of PBS's Nightly Business Report from Miami.
As for Bob Williams,...I do remember the name.
By the way, Barry was Executive Producer of the Nightly Business Report for ten years. Previous to that, he was their Managing Editor. He is now retired and living in Miami (where Nightly Business Reports originates from). He was News Director at WCAU-TV, Channel 10 in Philadelphia from 1967 until 1972.
From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Audio clip originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Michael Muderick
The Joe Brush Bio and photo originally donated by Jonathan Brush, Joe's son
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