- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Emmett Ryan III
- Bill Ryan was born on April 4, 1926 in New York City, New York, USA. He died on February 18, 1997 in Point Marion, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Bill Ryan was employed as a broadcast journalist with NBC News and affiliated station WNBC-TV in New York for 26 years.
- Bill Ryan was the first NBC reporter to report the story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy with a bulletin at 1:45PM Eastern Time on Friday, November 22, 1963 - and at 2:35 PM Eastern Time broke the news to the nation that the President was dead. Bill stayed on the air with colleague Frank McGee and Chet Huntley for the remainder of the afternoon and evening - like the other seasoned NBC newscasters with whom he shared the desk on that grim November day, Bill Ryan had a descriptive skill and vocabulary reminiscent of Edward R. Murrow that no viewer could fail to admire, and about which modern "broadcast journalists" could learn and certainly emulate. Bill Ryan and his colleagues seemed more knowledgeable - with a bigger bag of words than the hair-sprayed elite of today could hope to possess.
- Bill Ryan also broke the story of the fatal shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in a bulletin for NBC News in April 1968.
- Bill Ryan was co-anchor, with fellow veteran WNBC-TV newscaster Gabe Pressman, of 'The Pressman-Ryan Report', a popular local New York newscast which began in 1963. At this time Bill Ryan also was anchoring the national NBC Radio 'News of the World' broadcast, a post he held for several years.
- During a visit to Yankee Stadium of Pope Paul VI in the mid-1960s, Bill told puzzled WNBC radio listeners: "And the cardinals are leaving the dugout."
- This is a time of what would probably be best described as 'controlled panic'" - Bill Ryan, November 22, 1963, referring to technical problems in the NBC studio during his efforts to bring the news of President Kennedy's assassination
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