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Robert John Jamieson is an American former television news correspondent forABC News until January 2008. After getting his start in local news inSt. Louis andChicago, he joinedNBC's national news bureau in 1971. There he reported on a variety of national and international news, including several conflicts in theMiddle East. Jamieson was a frequent substitute news anchor onToday throughout the 1980s, filled in as anchor onNBC Nightly News, and served as the anchor ofNBC News at Sunrise from 1986 to January 1987. From March 1987 to September 1988, he hostedBefore Hours, a 15-minute early morning business news program that was a joint production of NBC News andThe Wall Street Journal. He joinedABC in 1990.
He is a son ofRobert Arthur Jamieson, a Scottish immigrant who was a prominent citizen ofPeoria, Illinois.[1] His elder brother wasDick Jamieson, a professional football coach.
Bob Jamieson studied atKnox College but completed his bachelor's degree atBradley University. In 1996 Knox awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.
Jamieson was the lead weekday anchorman atWBBM-TV, the CBS owned-and-operated station in Chicago, during most of 1971. In January 1971, he was named replacement for anchorman Wayne Fariss, who had moved to a Miami television station. Jamieson was WBBM-TV's lead anchorman until October 22, 1971, when Bob McBride ofWJBK-TV in Detroit replaced him.
In early 1971, Jamieson was anchor of "The Big News," WBBM-TV's 5 p.m. local news hour and its 10 p.m. half-hour newscast. In fall 1971, WBBM-TV moved the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" from 6 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Jamieson anchored half-hour local newscasts at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. until he left the station on October 22, 1971.
At WBBM-TV in March 1971, Jamieson reported a five-part series on "The Sexualization of America." A newspaper ad promoting the series queried, "Have our sexual outlooks changed? Are we less uptight about our libidos? Is there really a "Sexual Revolution" going on?"[2]
AChicago Tribune columnist wrote of Jamieson's anchorship at WBBM-TV in 1971 that he had "one of the fastest deliveries in television." The columnist added, "Jamieson has an uncanny facility with words, aided in part by his own editing of the copy before he reads it on the air. The pace adds excitement to the show, but the content is concise, factual and not sensationalized." The columnist also observed that Jamieson looked "like David Brinkley's younger brother and sounds like Harry Reasoner."[3]
Jamieson moved toWMAQ-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Chicago, in late 1971. He was a reporter at WMAQ-TV, but sometimes was a weekend newscast anchor. He also contributed stories to NBC News from Chicago. Hisfirst report forNBC Nightly News aired on November 5, 1971. It concerned unemployment of blacks in the Chicago area. Hissecond "Nightly News" report, which aired on December 30, 1971, examined how changes in the military draft law affected his hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
He eventually became a full-time general assignment reporter for NBC News, based in Chicago. Jamieson contributed sixteen stories toNBC Nightly News in 1972 and thirty-eight stories in 1973. Topics included Midwestern floods, grain and meat prices, the aviation industry and a feature aboutsinging telegrams. On the April 19, 1977 edition of NBC News "Today," Jamieson returned to his hometown of Peoria, Illinois to note changes since he left.[4]