Harry Porterfield, believed to be the first Black weekday news anchor in Chicago, dies at 95
Porterfield was well-known for his regular news segment, "Someone You Should Know," in which he profiled unsung community members.
Harry Porterfield, the man believed to be the first Black weekday news anchor in Chicago television history, has died at 95.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Porterfield’s son, J.J., shared that his father died Monday of natural causes at the Hartsfield Village assisted living home in Munster, Indiana.
Porterfield, a native of Saginaw, Michigan, spent over 50 years in Chicago’s TV broadcast scene as a reporter and news anchor at WBBM-Channel 2 and WLS-Channel 7.
“Harry exuded trustworthiness when he was on the anchor desk,” said David Fell, Channel 7 media manager, who worked with Porterfield at both television stations. “Viewers felt they could rely on him.”
In the early 1960s, the Army veteran worked at Saginaw’s daytime-only radio station, WKNX, hosting a jazz show called “Sounds from the Lounge.”
Porterfield was on the verge of leaving television after growing tired of working long hours. However, while in Chicago visiting relatives in early 1963, he impulsively applied for a position at WBBM.
He didn’t hear from the station until January 1964, when he received two employment offers. Porterfield accepted a position as a news writer. One day, when there was no reporter available to cover a particular story, he told the Tribune, he “just walked out the door with the crew.”
Porterfield quickly rose to prominence on the Channel 2 reporting team. He earned his first job as a reporter in 1971 and began hosting the Saturday evening news the following year.
He reportedly became Chicago’s first Black weekday news anchor when he began co-anchoring the station’s 6 p.m. program with Bill Kurtis in 1978.
He wasn’t the station’s first Black on-air newscaster; that honor went to Ben Holman some years before. However, Porterfield did experience on-the-job racism early on, with several all-white camera teams refusing to work with him.
In 1982, he received a new co-anchor — Don Craig — when Kurtis went to head the CBS network’s morning show, pairing with Craig on the evening broadcast. Kurtis returned to Channel 2 in 1985, pushing Porterfield out of his anchor position.
Porterfield transitioned to Channel 7 in September 1985. His demotion and departure provoked extended picketing by Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH, which praised Channel 2 the following year for recruiting Lester Holt, a young Black newscaster from New York, to join the station’s anchor line-up.
Porterfield was well-known for his regular segment, “Someone You Should Know,” in which he profiled unsung community members. He began the feature on Channel 2 and carried it over to Channel 7.
David Finney, a former Channel 2 news writer, recalled working on Porterfield’s first two “Someone You Should Know” segments — the first about an antisocial man who lived in a cave fire pit and the second about a retired opera singer residing in a tiny home with colorful pieces of broken glass covering her walls. Finney said he felt like he’d won a Pulitzer Prize when Porterfield told him a script he’d written for the show feature was good.
“The man was grace personified,” he added.
Porterfield departed Channel 7 in 2009 to return to Channel 2, where he co-anchored the 11 a.m. program. In 2015, he left that station for good.
The television icon received several awards during his lengthy career, including when the Chicago Association of Black Journalists named him outstanding broadcast journalist in 1982.
Marianita, his wife of 55 years, survives Porterfield, as do his son, J.J.; daughter, Allison; stepson, Eric Shropshire; stepdaughter, Gina Shropshire, plus a granddaughter and one great-grandson.
“Harry could put any interview subject at ease, showing them respect and asking thoughtful and intelligent questions,” said Fell, the Tribune reported. “His (Someone You Should Know) segments introduced Chicago to some of its most interesting people. I particularly enjoyed the ones about dedicated hobbyists and the detail they’d put into their model railroads, dioramas, musicianship or a thousand other things.”
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