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Kurtis, Jacobson To Teach At Columbia College

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Nov 21, 2007 10:16 am US/Central

Kurtis, Jacobson To Teach At Columbia College

Former CBS 2 Anchors Will Be Teaching Immersion Broadcast Journalism Course

CHICAGO (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 2: Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson doing CBS 2's 10 p.m. news in 1986.
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Click to enlarge 2 of 2: Kurtis and Jacobson earlier this year
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Legendary former CBS 2 news anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson are reuniting to teach a broadcast journalism class at Columbia College.

The former anchors of CBS 2's 10 p.m. newscast during the 1970s and '80s will be teaching the undergraduate class during the school's January session in 2008, a period between semesters in which students may take intensive classes in a given subject, Columbia journalism professor Rose Economou said.

The class will deal with issues of Chicago broadcast journalism. Kurtis and Jacobson will coach and critique, and also "talke about their experience and what makes Chicago such a great news market," Economou said. The two-week class will meet for a full day Monday through Thursday from Jan. 7 to Jan. 17, and will involve both lectures and field work, she said.

They will focus on both the changes in local broadcast news over the years, and the "very high standards Chicago TV journalists have" that have influenced the industry as a whole, Economou said.

"Most of us in journalism education do a pretty decent job of teaching the basic bread and butter skills," Economou said. But she said with Kurtis and Jacobson, Columbia now has "the opportunity of having two people who excelled in what they do and try to raise the standards and raise the expectations of what Chicago journalism is."

Kurtis and Jacobson were paired as CBS 2's 10 p.m. anchors in 1973, with Jacobson doubling as commentator on a state-of-the art set that doubled as a working newsroom.

Their run continued until 1989, except for three years when Kurtis worked as a network anchor in New York.

"The students didn't grow up with Bill and Walter like I did, and some other people in Chicago did, and so for them it's just introducing another generation to this very talented team, and it was a brilliant move," Economou said. "It was a brilliant teaming."

Economou was also a producer at CBS 2, from 1976 until 1981.

"I'll never forget what it was like. It could have been absolute chaos, but it takes leadership, and they had the leadership," Economou said.

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