After more than ten years as Channel 32’s alpha male news anchor, Walter Jacobson handed over his chair to Mark Suppelsa on September 7. It was the second time that Jacobson had relinquished the top anchor spot at a major Chicago station. He isn’t leaving us just yet–he’s a new Sunday morning host and still a full-time commentator–but this is as good a time as any to glance back at his unusual career.
1971: Forced out as political editor at Channel Two, he jumps to Channel Five, WMAQ, as the 5 PM commentator for $30,000 a year.
February 1977: He fails to make a 10 PM newscast because he’s being booked at a police station, charged with making an illegal left turn and driving on a suspended license. A few weeks later he’s pulled over and cited for driving at night with defective headlights. Later the same month he tells the Tribune, “I’ve lost 20 pounds in the last year. I’m a nervous wreck. I have an absolute death fear. Heart attack. I feel I’m not gonna live to be 50 years old because I don’t think the body can take the punishment mine does, meeting these deadlines. I think a lot about changing my life completely. Getting out. I wouldn’t miss all this. I mean, I was on a sensational ego trip for about six or eight months, and then the returns began to diminish to the point where my marriage of 17 years now has broken up.” Walter muses that he’s always had the fantasy of “getting in a big fight with the company and ending it by standing up, on the air, dropping my drawers, and saying, ‘_____ everybody.’”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
July 1984: “Do I drink?” he asks rhetorically, in a Chicago Tribune Magazine profile. “Every chance I get. And I smoke pot, and I’ve done coke–twice. It didn’t do anything for me.” Jacobson also admits his joy at being one of the highest-paid journalists in Chicago. “I don’t feel guilty about the money,” he says. “I’m really very into money. I wanna make money. I LOVE making money. And I like to spend the money I make.”
February 1988: A shouting match with an assignment desk editor in the middle of the newsroom makes the Tribune’s “Inc.” column.
September 1991: Jacobson’s stripped of his early-evening anchor duties at Channel Two.
