Whirlwind

My Life Reporting the News

De: Bill Kurtis

Narrado por: Bill Kurtis

Starting with his coverage of the largest tornado in Kansas history, legendary correspondent, anchorman, and producer Bill Kurtis details his whirlwind career reporting American history as it unfolded, from the Chicago Seven to Charles Manson to Agent Orange. A fast-paced, entertaining, and inspiring story about the potent combination of talent and luck in the network era of television.

From his beginnings as a kid from Kansas working at local radio and television stations to pay for college and law school, Bill Kurtis had a hunger for telling stories and finding the truth. With passion, skill, and just the right amount of luck, Kurtis’s reporting of the infamous Topeka Tornado of 1966 launched him into a whirlwind career in broadcast journalism. Only four years later, after passing the Kansas bar exam, Kurtis had already reported four of the largest trials of the twentieth century: Richard Speck, the Chicago Seven, Charles Manson, and Angela Davis.

During his career as a West Coast correspondent for Cronkite’s CBS Evening News, anchorman and foreign correspondent at the revolutionary local newsroom at WBBM-TV Chicago, co-anchor with Dianne Sawyer at CBS Morning News, and beyond, Kurtis brought history to the American people in real time.

Recounting moments in his remarkable career as a television journalist, Kurtis brings us into some of the most iconic moments of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. He was in the streets during the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago; he uncovered the truth about the deadly effects of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War; he was the first US television journalist to return to Chernobyl after the infamous nuclear disaster; and much more. Kurtis also offers an insider look at how television evolved from an emerging news source to the dominating force in American media.

A natural storyteller, Kurtis remembers his career with honesty and insight and gives a rare picture of American history and broadcast journalism.

©2025 Bill Kurtis (P)2025 Plainspoken Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Whirlwind is Bill Kurtis’s story of his journey from the stormy skies of Kansas to the bright lights of Chicago and New York, from local reporter to big-time television news. Bill has a good story to tell and he tells it well.”—Dan Rather, journalist

“Whirlwind is the work of a master storyteller: fast-paced, enthralling, insightful, and full of the inside scoop on the big news of the last fifty years. Bill Kurtis, one of our premier broadcast journalists for decades, has had experiences almost daily that would be the highlight of a lifetime to anybody else—national news anchor, the voice of a box office smash movie, and these days the announcer on the highest-rated show on NPR, to name only a few examples. Anyone who gets out of bed in the morning will be fascinated by this book.”—Scott Turow, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Presumed Innocent

“Whirlwind offers a unique view of television journalism, told through the six-decade career of Bill Kurtis—anchorman, CBS News correspondent, master storyteller, and both the iconic voice and guiding force behind the Golden Age of cable documentaries, not to mention his unmistakable narration in the movie Anchorman. Bill brings us the story behind the stories, a vivid reminder that before they were history, they were news.”—Joe Garner, author of We Interrupt This Broadcast: The Events That Stopped Our Lives . . . from the Hindenburg Explosion to the Death of John F. Kennedy Jr.

Learned so much!

I lived in the Chicagoland viewing area for most of my young to middle adult life and remember the iconic Bill Kurtis during Vietnam, the Chicago Democrat Convention, race relations/turmoil, et al. Listening to him narrate his story was enlightening, to say the least.
Then, in the early 2000’s, it was my great honor and privilege to work for Bill on a curriculum project to wrap experiential science around the New Explorer video series.
Bill is just as he presents in his personal story. He is the epitome of integrity as well as grace and charm. A true gentleman, I hold him in the highest esteem decades later.