The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 192

V-v i to be an average-looking type of person, like me," he said. "Not extraordinarily good looking, like Hambrick (former WEWS anchorman John Hambrick). Men don't want to watch a pretty face. Women don't see me as good looking, and men don't see me as a threat. "You should not come off too smart or too dumb, or intellectual.

If I ever start thinking the viewers want to see ME, the show will deteriorate. They want someone to put it all together." DESPITE ANTHONY'S disdain for the type of cosmetic journalism now raging in Cleveland, he realizes that he is WAKR's showpiece, and that it is promoting him. So after taking care of the body, he looks after public relations. He might get in some golf at the Fairlawn Country Club, of which he is a member, or take part in some civic or promotional function, to which he is frequently invited. He speaks at banquets, acts as master of ceremonies at a meeting of the dental auxiliary, or makes a personal appearance at a store opening.

He is a celebrity. Eating lunqh, people have come up and pulled his hair to see if it would come off. It doesn't. The waitress at Niam's approaches. She says the guy at the counter overheard Fred talking, and wondered if he was the man on the news.

A minute later the guy at the counter himself comes over. "Hey, I watch you every night at 6 o'clock," he says. "Thanks, Tim," said Anthony, smoothly picking up his name from a badge conveniently pinned on his jacket. He likes the attention. Anthony admits that.

And the attention means that in Akron he is always "on," even when he doesnt feel like performing. "Some days you just don't feel right," he said. "Your underwear's too tight, or your hair's not straight. But you have to go on. "The public wants you to look right.

But sometimes I go home, and Carol (his wife) says she doesn't like the way I combed my hair, or my tie didn't go with my shirt. She's my best critic. She keeps me in touch with reality." Anthony's critics in the news business and there are seme are wary of what they perceive as his tendency to become too chummy with news sources, to blur the adversary relationship between news reporters and news makers. Even Berk seemed to imply this confusion in Anthony's executive-reporter roles when he said, "Fred is well-accepted. Government leaders tell me they like him.

He'll hold confidences." If that role confusion is a problem, Anthony suspects he will solve it soon by leaving the limelight for greater managerial duties. "I decided four years ago that I wasn't goint to be Walter Cronkite," he said. "I'm an average announcer. I have the ability to deliver the news, convey the story. But I do better from the standpoint of administration." BEFORE RETURNING to the station in the late afternoon to get ready for television, Anthony usually goes home for a shower, another shave and a change of clothes.

By 5 p.m. he and sportscaster Ron Allen are pounding out their lead stories, and weatherman Jack Ryan is scurrying about, ripping copy from the wire machines and preparing his displays on the weather boards. As deadline approaches there is an air of tension more palpable than that in the Beacon Journal newsroom, for example, for aft- Cont'mved on page 16 1 IM1 1- LAWAn XT' l- iV vhn you're rc- Imported by Marllel Importing Great Neck, NfK' BaoconJun 20, 1976 1 5.