Former WNBC News anchor John Hambrick — whose 30-year career took him from Texas to Ohio to California to New York to Florida — has died of cancer. He was 73.
Hambrick's son Jack confirmed that he died Tuesday under hospice care at Scott and White Hospital in Bell County, Texas. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012, and it metastasized to his brain.
Hambrick's TV news career ran from the early 1960s to the 1990s. In addition to WNBC in New York, he anchored newscasts on KABC in Los Angeles, KRON in San Francisco, WTVJ and WCIX in Miami, KHOU in Houston, WEWS in Cleveland, WCPO in Cincinnati and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas.
Hambrick received many professional awards over the years, including an Emmy in 1984 for co-anchoring the best newscast in New York.
"He was a dedicated broadcast journalist, thorough in his research, relentless in his pursuit of a story and, above all, a master of his craft with an intense, high-energy delivery that commanded attention," said NBC 4 New York anchor Chuck Scarborough, who worked with Hambrick from 1980 to 1985. "John embraced his co-workers and his friends with the same Texas-sized enthusiasm that defined his broadcasting style. He is certainly missed by all of us lucky enough to have known him."
