NYC news veteran Ernie Anastos debuts new ‘Positively Ernie’ radio segment
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Irrepressible broadcaster Ernie Anastos hit the airwaves once more Monday with a new segment called “Positively Ernie with Ernie Anastos.”
The 79-year-old NYC mainstay’s latest venture runs twice daily on 77 ABC Radio. It features Anastos’ two-minute look at “the positive outcome of the stories that shape our world,” according to a press release sent Monday.
“For years I went on at 11 p.m. and told people ‘good evening,’ then spent the next half hour telling them why it wasn’t,” Anastos told the Daily News on Monday. “People used to tell me if I have to hear bad news, I want to hear it from you.”
The long-time TV news veteran has anchored for ABC7, CBS2 and, most recently, Fox5. Anastos signed off from Fox 5 in June 2019 to study at Harvard Business School.
Anastos told the Daily News in June 2022 he appreciated returning to academia after 40 years of broadcasting, but he planned to return to television in September with a program called “Positively America With Ernie Anastos,” being distributed by Grey Television. It too was launched to take a glass-half-full approach to current events by interviewing people on the streets as well as noteworthy newsmakers like documentarian Ken Burns and sports broadcaster Bob Costas.
The Emmy-winning New Hampshire native holds three honorary doctorate degrees and was awarded the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Former mayor Bill de Blasio made March 21 Ernie Anastos Day for New Yorkers in 2017.
“It’s the right time,” Anastos said in a statement about his new radio show gig. “We always hear the bad and not often the good that comes out of the news. My passion has always been to inform, educate and inspire.”
According to Anastos, ABC radio is considering extending his “Positively Ernie” segment to an hour as the project develops. While working on his afternoon installment Monday, Anastos said he felt a “really good energy” working with ABC, which is the broadcasting company he credits for making him a popular media figure in New York.
