TOM SNYDER

Tom Snyder
I was sorry to see the passing of Tom Snyder. I worked with him briefly in 1980-81, at WABC-TV. I was the “humorist” at the station and Tom was an anchorman for the news. He had finished a run as host of “Tomorrow” and he was very well liked. I was just starting out in the business.
He was a nice guy, not a big ego, he would talk to everybody.
I was an experiment at the station. Ending the 5pm newscast with a “funny” bit about living in New York. Only if the bit did not ring their chimes one particular day, I would get the cold shoulder.
Of course Tom had a big front office, suitable for a big name celebrity. But he used to wander out into the newsroom just to shoot the breeze with the regular workers. Like me. I can remember him coming up to my desk some days and hitting me with that smile and ask, “Okay, Houlihan. Who you gonna pick on today?”
One of the interns at the station told me an anecdote about Tom. A woman came in off the street and told the receptionist that she was a friend of Tom’s but did not want to give her name. So the receptionist phones Tom and tells him that a friend of his is here to see him, in the lobby. He comes down in the elevator. The intern said that, looking at Tom’s face, you could tell he didn’t know the woman.
“Have we met?”
“Well I watch you so much that I feel like I’ve known you all my life.”
Tom did not blow her off. He was gracious and made small talk about what shows she had seen him on, where she was from, and said that it was nice meeting her. Then he got back on the elevator.
I’m going to miss him.