Terry Anzur Coaching Services

05/17/2025

Important conversation with Count Nikolai Tolstoy about his research into the tragic events at the close of World War II for an international film production. Honored to meet him and play a small role in telling the story.

12/30/2024

A trip down memory lane to my first reporting job, when I met a future president of the United States.

A trip down memory lane with the 39th President of the United States

09/15/2024

Proud to be part of the all-star speakers lineup at Media Mastery Experts LIVE!

09/13/2024

Fight on!
Teaming up with Mark Albert for two days of Media Mastery Experts training in Washington DC. Seems like only yesterday he was a 🌟 student in my Advanced Broadcasting course at USC.

09/02/2024

RIP Linda Deutsch.
She was the reporter I wanted to be. A real-life Brenda Starr or Lois Lane, she could emerge like a super-hero from any courtroom, grab hold of a landline and dictate what her AP obituary called "glittering first drafts of history."
I know because I saw her do it multiple times a day during the Patty Hearst trial. I was the AP intern assigned to help Linda at the courthouse. I fetched transcripts or chased people for quotes. But mostly the job consisted of guarding one of the four pay phones outside the courtroom and chit-chatting with people in the San Francisco bureau, handing the receiver to Linda the moment she burst out of the courtroom. UPI's reporter would just have to wait his turn.
I can still hear her dictating something along the lines of: "Patty Hearst, comma, daughter and granddaughter of millionaires, comma, was convicted today of bank robbery. Period."
I once asked her, "How do you do it?"
She said she imagined the news ticker in Times Square as she dictated her copy, seeing the words and the punctuation scrolling past in her mind's eye. That Times Square ticker image stayed with me when I ended up having to do live shots on TV and it became my imaginary teleprompter.
Away from the courtroom, I felt lucky that the Patty Hearst trial reporters let me hang out with the cool kids, gathering in someone's apartment on Saturday nights to drink and laugh together at the original cast of SNL. Thanks to Linda, I met other incredible role models like Theo Wilson, who was covering the trial for the New York Daily News. They were superstars at a time when female journalists were still something of a novelty.
A few years ago, I saw Linda at a News Geezers lunch in Burbank. I'm not sure she remembered me as the eager intern who held the phone for her at the Patty Hearst trial. But I'll never forget her.

08/20/2024

RIP Phil Donahue. He defined the role of the daytime talkshow host, paving the way for Oprah and many others. Here are some excerpts from one of my appearances on the program.

Phil Donahue talk show episode excerpts, focusing on the shortage of Cabbage Patch dolls prior to Christmas 1983. WBBM-TV reporter Terry Anzur describes the ...

08/19/2024

Phil Donahue defined the daytime talk show, long before Oprah or Jerry Springer came along.
In the 80s, he taped his program at WBBM in Chicago, where I was working as a reporter. Phil really paid attention to the news and he asked me to be a guest on the show twice. Here are some frames from the show on Cabbage Patch dolls, where I had reported on fights breaking out in stores due to a shortage. Phil was a brilliant interviewer but also a magician who made the studio audience and viewers at home feel like they were part of the show.
I used to run into him in the hallway outside the makeup room and we'd chat. He once told me he went along with the lighter topics to reel in the audience for the serious issues that were important to him.
He also had a talent for surrounding himself with awesome producers who went on to create other long-running shows -- Gail Steinberg, Marlaine Selip and Albert Lewitinn and many more.
RIP Phil Donahue

05/11/2024

When my social media feed filled up with pictures of Sam Rubin I thought maybe he had retired. The news of his death is a shock.
He was an original cast member of the phenomenon that changed local TV morning shows, the KTLA Morning News. I had the bad luck to be doing the news as a solo anchor on KCBS, literally down the street. Of course, their engaging banter swamped everyone in the ratings and Sam was cheeky enough to report on the competing stations during his entertainment segment. They decided to feel sorry for me, all alone in a studio of robot cameras. One morning, Sam decided to pay me a visit LIVE on KTLA while I was on the air. Everyone but my boss thought it was hilarious.
It became a running joke. When Sam lost his voice one day, they sent me his script and patched in my audio. Sam mouthed the words that came out in my voice. Again, hilarious.
I got to know him better after I started anchoring on KTLA News at Ten. Since we were on completely different shifts it was rare for us to work together but we had some chemistry when we did. The picture is frame from a pilot we made for a possible "Regis and Kathie Lee" type show that never went anywhere. I wish it was a better pic of Sam, but it does show what made him great. He was what actors call "generous," caring just as much about the others on the set as he did about his own performance. Notice how he's giving me space to shine. Maybe that's why so many stars enjoyed talking with him. He also threw some great parties. I'll never forget the one where t Pat Benatar showed up and did an acoustic set.
RIP Sam and condolences to your family, and your KTLA family.

04/30/2024

The book giveaway is over, but you can still download Inventing TV News on all ebook platforms or order a paperback 📘 on Amazon.

Inventing TV News. Live and Local in Los Angeles.

04/13/2024

I was fortunate to have worked with Stan Chambers and so many others who made history by Inventing TV News 75 years ago. Thanks, KTLA, for including me in the coverage.
Get a free download of my book during TV News History month or order a paperback. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BH96K4Z5

It’s been 75 years since 3-year-old Kathy Fiscus fell into a well in San Marino and her attempted rescue transfixed the nation. On April 8, 1949, Kathy had been running around her family’s backyard…