Gay television reporter has seen it all

[swimmernsecretsea]

by Matthew S. Bajko
[e-mail]

Tony Russomanno came of age in New York City during the Stonewall era of the 1970s, joining Gay Youth NY, the longest active organization in the city's LGBT community, at 18. Besides participating in progay street demonstrations, Russomanno also earned a bachelor's of fine arts degree in film production from New York University and parlayed his street smarts into a trailblazing journalism career.

His four decades working in the news media have included stints in both radio and television and such milestones as being the first journalist to broadcast a live underwater report while in scuba gear and the first reporter anywhere to file online news stories that combined text with still pictures captured from video.

His first job was at NBC News as a radio reporter in New York. Eventually, he made his way to California in the mid-1970s, and as luck would have it, Russomanno found himself an eyewitness to seminal events in the state's gay and political past. As a reporter at the news and talk radio station KSFO 560 AM, he reported on Harvey Milk's successful campaign to become the city's first openly gay supervisor in 1977; the antigay Briggs initiative that unsuccessfully tried to ban gays as school teachers; the Jonestown mass suicides; and the murders of Milk and Mayor George Moscone in their City Hall offices.

Full story here: http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=452

[Maat]

1. Wow. Good article on a great journalist. (n/t)