Bill Burns

Inducted 1997

Deceased  

Bill Burns was a consummate newsman who built his reputation as a Pittsburgh institution on solid, knowledgeable news reporting for more than forty years.  He edited a newspaper for an electric company and sold typewriters before becoming an infantryman in Europe during World War II. 

A burst of shrapnel in the left leg left him paralyzed from the knee down. He was awarded the Purple Heart for his wounds suffered in the Normandy invasion.  Burns began his broadcasting career in 1946 as a newswriter and editor for Radio Station KQV in Pittsburgh. 

His on-air career began three days into his new job when he substituted for an ailing newscaster. He stayed on at KQV to become a newscaster, program director, and news editor.  He covered, wrote, edited, and broadcast the news, one of the new breed of broadcast reporters who went out on the street to cover fires, murders, strikes, political events, and sports meets rather than simply read the news dispatches.  

He joined WDTV-TV in 1953 as news director, reporter, and anchor.  When the station was purchased by Westinghouse in 1955 and the call letters changed to KDKA-TV, the switch occurred at noon on Burns' news program.  Burns anchored both the noon news and the 11:00 p.m. news for three decades, earning the highest ratings of local news broadcasts.  He continued on the noon news until his retirement in 1989. 

In 1976, Burns became part of the nation's only father-daughter television anchor team when he and daughter Patti broadcast KDKA's noon news, for a time the highest rated noon newscast in the country.   In 1983, the City of Pittsburgh proclaimed July 19 as Bill Burns Day in honor of Burns' 30th anniversary as a Pittsburgh TV newscaster with KDKA-TV and its predecessor WDTV. 

The proclamation expressed the gratitude of the community for the responsible and factual manner in which Burns presented the news events of the day and recognized publicly the time and talent he contributed to many civic and charitable causes, especially the annual Childrens Hospital campaigns.  

Burns signed off the air for the last time on January 3, 1989, with his tag line, "Good night, good luck, and good news tomorrow."