20 years with ABC and Disney

October 19, 2012

And here I am, 20 years later.

There's an old saw about how the days drag on, but the years fly by. The years part is true, but the days dragging part isn't. At least not from my perch. It all flies by. At least it has for me.

I interviewed at ABC in the spring of 1992, for a spot at 20/20, the correspondent's job once held by Stone Phillips. Catherine Crier got the job, and I remember feeling that I had lost my chance to work at ABC.

Then, out of nowhere, I got a call from Phil Beuth, then the executive in charge of Good Morning America. He said they were starting a Sunday edition of GMA, and he wanted me to be the host. Me? The host?

20 years ago this week, I was here in New York, looking for an apartment to live in. Interestingly, I had been working right before that for a couple of months for a TV station in Los Angeles that was owned by Disney. They allowed me to leave to join ABC. Ironic, that a couple years later, Disney bought ABC. So my actual time with the combined ABC/Disney actually dates back to July, 1992.

Tonight, along with many other Disney employees, I'll be part of the company's service recognition ceremony, for those who've been here 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and even 50 years! I'm in the rookie crop of tonight's honorees.

My only question, how fast will the next 20 go?

So that will be my personal prelude to our newscast tonight at 11. We'll have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's weekend AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11, after 20/20.

And two items of interest for this Sunday, the Breast Cancer awareness rallies throughout the Tri-State, and the Memory Walk to end Alzheimer's, at Riverside Park at 103rd Street, at 10 a.m. This will be my 15th annual participation in hosting this walk, and I do it to honor my dad, who died of a type of Alzheimer's back in 1998.

BILL RITTER

Subscribe to my page on Facebook at facebook.com/billritter.wabc.

Follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/billritter7.

Click here to send a comment.

Copyright © 2024 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.