John Roland, the longtime WNYW/5 anchor whose tenure at the anchor desk was surpassed only by WNBC/4’s Chuck Scarborough in New York TV news, has died. Ch. 5 on Sunday reported that his death was caused by complications from a stroke. Roland was 81.
A giant of New York TV news back at a time when local anchors like Roger Grimsby, Scarborough, Sue Simmons and Jim Jensen actually were considered “giants,” Roland joined Ch. 5 in 1969 and — other than a brief run as a reporter — was at the anchor desk over the next 35 years, until he retired in 2004. Ch. 5’s “The 10 O’clock News,” was the top-rated newscast at that hour over most of that span.
With a calming on-screen presence, and brisk, straight-ahead style, Roland possibly only once belied that image, on the Jan. 19, 1988 edition, when got in a sharp exchange with Joyce Brown and her attorney.
Brown, who had been sent to Bellevue Hospital the year before as part of an expanded program by the Koch administration to force care on the homeless, told Roland her civil rights had been violated. But talking over her, he said he’d often witnessed her erratic behavior on the street outside the studio, while insisting the Koch program had saved her.
The testy exchange earned him a week suspension and Brown widespread support. She died in 2005.
Decade after decade, Roland was the face of Ch. 5, along with Bill McCreary, Cora-Ann Mihalik, and Rosanna Scotto, who anchored alongside him from 1994 until 2001.
Scotto, the veteran co-host of “Good Day New York” who joined the station in 1986, called Roland “a great mentor and always willing to teach. He was also a stickler about writing, and whenever we were sitting next to one another he’d say ‘you need to fix that script! You can’t go on the air with that!’”
“But we were also good friends and many times we’d go out to Elaine’s [the 2nd Ave. celebrity and media watering hole that closed in 2011] and dissect the show, then have a good time. He had a…
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