Topic: OBITUARIES
Tom Snyder, a former late-night staple and veteran newsman, died Sunday at his home in San Francisco from complications of leukemia. He was 71. Snyder got his start as a radio reporter in Milwaukee in the 1960s and jumped to television news in the '70s. The Milwaukee-born Mr. Snyder’s career started on radio. His work then took him from the middle of the TV day–he co-anchored the first noon newscast in the country in 1965 at KYW-TV3 in Philadelphia–to the middle of the night when he debuted on “The Tomorrow Show” after “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” on NBC. At that time he could and did smoke on the air.
Color TV was still a bit of novelty then, as was Mr. Snyder’s show-opening suggestion to viewers that they should "Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air.In 1972, he was hired as host of NBC's Tomorrow Show, which aired after the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Between 1973 and 1982, Snyder conducted a raft of memorable interviews with Tomorrow guests including Charles Manson, Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and KISS. ...MORE NYTimes
Updated: Monday, 30 July 2007 3:34 PM EDT