Koppel Leaves Nightline: Another Era Ends

This was the year the big names in network news faded away: Jennings, Brokaw and Rather. And now, as of Tuesday night's last Nightline helmed by Ted Koppel, another big name leaves the anchor desk.

Koppel has something else in mind, something I'm sure we'll hear about soon enough. Early in the morning on Tuesday, he did a phoner into the Sean Hannity Radio Show. Hannity started blathering on with Koppel about "the end of his career" and Koppel had to correct him -- he's leaving Nightline but he's not leaving journalism. Later that evening, this is how Koppel said goodbye on his own show:

There's this quiz I give to some of our young interns when they first arrive at Nightline. I didn't do it with this last batch. It's a little too close to home. "How many of you," I'll ask, "Can tell me anything about Eric Severeid?" Blank stares. "How about Howard K. Smith or Frank Reynolds?" Not a twitch of recognition. Chet Huntley, Jack Chancellor? Still nothing. David Brinkley sometimes causes a hand or two to be raised; and Walter Cronkite may be glad to learn that a lot of young people still have a vague recollection that he once worked in television news.

What none of these young men and women in their late teens and early twenties appreciates, until I point it out to them, is that they have just heard the names of seven anchormen or commentators who were once so famous that everybody in the country knew their names. Everybody. Trust me.

The transition from one anchor to another is not that big a deal. Cronkite begat Rather, Chancellor begat Brokaw, Reynolds begat Jennings; and each of them did a pretty fair job in his own right. You've always been very nice to me. Give this new Nightline anchor team a fair break. If you don't, I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you'll be sorry. That's our report for tonight. I'm Ted Koppel in Washington. For all of us here at ABC News, good night.

I remember watching Nightline before it was Nightline, in those early days when it was America Held Hostage. Powerful stuff. It was also the nation's first real face-to-face with the rage of Islamic terrorism. I had just moved to Tucson, Arizona as the local NBC weekend anchorman, and I remember watching Koppel every single night, thinking he was the best interviewer I'd ever seen or heard.

I still think that. 'Bye Ted. Call us when you get settled in the new place.