Bill Kuster

Broadcast Pioneers member Rex Polier (who was the Evening Bulletin's TV Critic & also our newsletter's editor at one time) reported this on August 25, 1965:

Dick Goddard, who was brought to Philadelphia from Cleveland as KYW-TV's weatherman when Westinghouse assumed control of Channel 3 here in June, has resigned to return to Cleveland.

Goddard, it was learned today , was to have stayed at his job here until September 10th. However, he decided to leave before that, so last night on the 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts, Bill Kuster, a veteran Channel 3 staffer, took over duties as Channel 3's new, full-time weatherman.

The youngful looking Goddard was said to be anxious to return to Cleveland, where he had been the city's most popular weatherman on the NBC station there when it was owned by Westinghouse.

He will not be returning to his former position in the Ohio city, however. Goddard's place there was taken by Wally Kinnan, who was with Channel 3 here when NBC owned the station. Goddard is understood to operate a weather forecasting service in Cleveland and will devote his full time to that.

Goddard was considered one of Westinghouse's fair-haired boy when they brought him here amid considerable fanfare. The station is understood to have sought to persuade him to remain, but Goddard was firm.

For Kuster, who is also youthful-looking, the appointment to full-time weatherman is a big break. He has been doing the Saturday and Sunday weather reports both for Goddard and Kinnan before him. After looking over Kuster's performance, KYW-TV decided it had a made-to-order weatherman with a Philadelphia background.

Kuster's takeover of his job came rather suddenly last night. He appeared on the screen without any on-air announcement of his appointment or of Goddard's leaving.

Kuster has been with Channel 3 since May, 1963, when he came here after a period of seven years at WGAL-TV, Lancaster, when he was an announcer and assistant news editor. He also was with WNEP-TV, Scranton. Kuster is a native of Bloomsburg,a Navy veteran, and a graduate of Penn State.

Unlike Channel 6's weatherman, Francis Davis, Kinnan and Goddard, Kuster is not a meteorologist. He attempts to put a light touch to his reporting.

Kuster's object seems to be to make weather as easy and pleasant to follow as possible. Considering how gravely and with what depth TV has been treating the subject in recent years, the tendency is a welcome one.

From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Photo originally donated by CBS 3, KYW-TV
Article originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Rex Polier
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