Eyewitness News, Action News
As a result, Bonds was tapped by ABC to become anchorman at KABC-TV in Los Angeles in 1968 to help launch its version of Eyewitness News. He returned to WXYZ-TV in 1971 just as the station was beginning a major upgrade of its news department under the Action News banner. Two years later, it became the highest-rated news broadcast in Detroit, a position it held up until 2011.
WXYZ-TV borrowed most of the basic elements of the Eyewitness News format from its fellow ABC owned and operated stations (WXYZ was an ABC O&O from sign-on in 1948 until ABC sold it in 1985 as part of its merger with Capital Cities Communications). However, it adopted a somewhat harder approach under Bonds' influence. Apart from his brief stint in Los Angeles, and to fill in for Bill Beutel at WABC-TV in New York from 1974 to 1976, Bonds was WXYZ's main 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. anchor until 1995. He also occasionally filled in as anchor of ABC's weekend newscasts.
Over that time, Bonds became something of an icon to the Detroit viewing public. His hard approach to news won him criticism from some quarters, especially because of occasional outbursts on the air, such as an incident during the filming of a news bumper.
However, many Detroit viewers saw him as an "average guy" who asked many of the same questions they would have asked. The book "The Newscasters" by Ron Power called Bonds one of the six most influential news anchors in the nation.
Read more about this topic: Bill Bonds
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