Martin Agronsky - Agronsky & Company, Martin Agronsky's Evening Edition, Agronsky at Large

Agronsky & Company, Martin Agronsky's Evening Edition, Agronsky At Large

Agronsky became a news anchor for WTOP-TV in Washington, D.C., in 1969, but in the same year became host of the political discussion television program Agronsky & Company, produced by the Washington, D.C local CBS affiliate WTOP where agronsky anchored the one hour " Big News " Agronsky introduced a short segment on the news with Political Reporters . Shortly afterwards, Agronsky left the evening local news and, Agronsky & Company became a stand-alone weekly show produced and syndicated by Post-Newsweek Stations (owner of WTOP-TV). The show was syndicated nationally by Post-Newsweek to local and national stations, including those of the PBS nationally, including WETA in Washington. He hosted the show until he retired in January 1988, and it proved to be one of the biggest successes of his career.. In 1971, in addition to doing Agronsky & Company once a week, Agronsky started doing a five-night-a-week half-hour interview show entitled Martin Agronsky's Evening Edition, which became the show to watch during the Watergate scandal and was broadcast out of WETA's studio in Shirlington, Virginia. Evening Edition had the good fortune of airing nightly before, during and after the Watergate break-in hearings broadcast on PBS that led, ultimately, to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon on August 9, 1974. Evening Edition went off the air in late 1975. Agronsky then did a one-hour interview show weekly on PBS during 1976 titled Agronsky At Large, where he interviewed various Americans in government and the private sector, such as Alfred Hitchcock and various European leaders in addition to Anwar Sadat of Egypt shortly before his assassination. The show generally is credited as having invented the now-common roundtable discussion format for public affairs and political television shows which feature prominent journalists discussing current events and offering their opinions about them, although Agronsky & Company always maintained a low-key demeanor and never involved the loud arguments and shouting that came to characterize many of its imitators. Its regular panelists included Hugh Sidey of Time magazine, Peter Lisagor of the Chicago Daily News, and columnists Carl Rowan, James J. Kilpatrick, Elizabeth Drew, and George Will. Although some of the liberal-vs.-conservative argumentation now common on American public affairs shows began with pointed arguments between Agronsky & Company panelists, Agronsky himself always exerted a calming influence. The show was held in generally high regard; Senator Edward Kennedy once said, "Everybody who is in public life watches Agronsky.". the program as . After Agronsky's retirement, journalist Gordon Peterson took over the show and, renamed Inside Washington, it continues to air today with the same low-key format.