Tag Archives: Rudy Ruderman

Writing Debut

In May 1964, after my final spring-semester exams at Columbia, the Writers Guild agreed to allow me to work for a week as a writer for WNEW Radio News. I don’t know if, at the age of 20, I was the youngest writer WNEW ever employed, but it was a thrill, and I got to work with some of the greatest people the business was ever privileged to employ.

Here is the schedule for that unforgettable week.

Others on the schedule are:

Jack Pluntze, later to become assistant news director, then news director;

John (Jack) Laurence, later a correspondent for CBS News in Vietnam, creator of the award-winning “World of Charlie Company;”

Mike Stein, later assistant news director and news director;

Ike Pappas, later CBS News correspondent;

Rudy Ruderman, later assistant news director and news director;

Al Wasser, later senior producer at ABC News and CBS News;

Christopher Glenn, later producer and host of CBS’ “In the News;”

Ed Scott, who had been one of Murrow’s writers at CBS; and,

Loren (Larry) Craft, transfer from the Daily News.

Contributed by Andy Fisher

Postedit: Thank you, Marianne, for formatting and posting the story of my wonderful week as a rookie writer at WNEW. The following week I turned back into a pumpkin and resumed the copy boy duties I had been doing since 1962.
Among the credits for that astounding staff of colleagues, I should have mentioned that Mike Stein went on to be Peter Jennings’ writer at ABC’s “World News Tonight.”