| |
Broadcast
Pioneers (continued)
Mario
Machado
Reporter-Anchor, KHJ-TV (Los Angeles), 1967
Mario Machado became the first Chinese American on-air television
news reporter and Anchor in Los Angeles and perhaps the nation when
he signed on with KHJ-TV in 1967. His father's Portuguese name and
his Chinese mother's heritage steeled him for the travails of the
mass media system that often prejudged him as a Mexican and ignored
him as a Chinese American. His undeniable talent for communications
made him one of the first and few ethnic minority national network
sports analysts when he joined CBS Sports in 1968 as a color
commentator. In 1969 he became the first consumer affairs reporter
in the nation at KNXT Los Angeles, where he broke the story of cyclamates,
a food additive and sugar substitute that was found to be carcinogenic.
By 1970 he had become the weekend news anchor for KNXT, the first
Asian male news anchor in the nation's #2 media market. He is the
winner and nominee of ten Emmy awards for reporting and producing,
including hosting the award-winning medical series, MEDIX.
His other credits include hosting daily talk shows on several Los
Angeles radio stations, doing the play-by-play announcing for the
World Cup and Olympic soccer finals as well as appearing in numerous
motion pictures.
Linda
Shen
Reporter, WNET-TV (New York), 1972
Linda Shen became the first Asian American TV news reporter in New
York City when she joined WNET-TV's The 51st State
in 1972. The Radcliffe College graduate started at WNEW's Black
News where she was accused of "inciting a race riot"
in Connecticut because of producing a story about police brutality
and the Black Panthers. When she was on the air at WNBC-TV many Chinese
American, including the eight-year-old daughter of the Chinese grocer
in her hometown of Hamden, Connecticut, watched for her faithfully.
That young girl, whenever she saw Shen on the TV would yell, "You
tell'em, Linda!"
Linda was recruited by KPIX-TV in San Francisco to replace
Chris Chow in 1973. She went on to become the in-studio consumer
affairs reporter and the first Asian American reporter to win an
Emmy for reporting on the Japanese American community's pilgrimage
to the Tule Lake concentration camp (1974-75). Outraged by the station's
descent into cheap, sensationalistic broadcasting, Linda quit in
the middle of her contract. After returning to the East Coast (WETA,
Washington, D.C.) for a stint, she established a successful food
business in San Francisco and retired after sixteen years. She now
cares for her family and never watches television at home.
Victor
Wong
Photojournalist, KQET-TV (San Francisco), 1968
Update
by AC Team:
Victor passed away on September 12, 2001.
He will be sorely missed.
Victor Wong was a native San Franciscan who created the photojournalistic
essay genre now popular on public television in 1968 when he went
to work for the seminal news and analysis program, Newsroom,
on KQET-TV, Channel 9. The creator of that show, Mel Wax, uses the
word "superb" when talking about Victor Wong: "Victor
is a superb photographer who married picture and music with his
own on-air narration to create a special form of story that has
inspired imitations and variations to this day on public television."
His brother Zeppelin gave him his first camera and encouraged him
to go into that line of work. Victor's name is also on the plaque
marking the founding of the famous Second City comedy club in Chicago,
Illinois. Following his photojournalistic career, he became a motion
picture character actor in such films as The Last Emperor,
Golden Child, Dim Sum, Joy Luck Club, and Big
Trouble In Little China.
Victor was not only one of our pioneers in broadcast
television, he was in his later years a celebrated and beloved character
actor in independent and major Hollywood movies. Victor made his
screen debut in 1984 at the age of 57 in "Dim Sum: A Little Bit
of Heart." He appeared in 28 movies including "The Last Emperor,"
"The Joy Luck Club," "Big Trouble in Little China," "Seven Years
in Tibet" and "The Golden Child."
Sacramento Bee Newspaper Staff Writer, Dixie Bee
writes, "He spent his last day watching television coverage of the
terrorist bombings in New York City and at the Pentagon with his
wife, Dawn Rose. "He was very disturbed by what was happening,"
she said. "I hugged him goodnight, in one of those long, consoling
hugs. One of the last things he said to me was, 'The world will
never be the same.' "
Page
3 of 6
Page 5 of 6
|
