The Ultimate Jessica Savitch Compilation | Part One: On The Air

Compilation footage of Jessica Savitch, one of the first women to anchor on US national news. Savitch died in 1983 at the age of 36 due to accidental drowning. She was a trailblazer for women in broadcasting and was the first female news anchor in the American south.

This is the first part of the compilation. It includes footage from the end of Savitch's stint at KYW-TV in Philadelphia and then her subsequent work at NBC. It also includes intros and outros from Frontline, a 1983 PBS documentary series which Savitch hosted toward the very end of her career.

This collection is by no means exhaustive; thousands video clips of Savitch are available from the Vanderbilt archives for a fee. However, the clips in this compilation have come from many sources here on youtube and archive.org, and I apologize that I don't have a list of those sources. I simply found as many as I could and put them into one video. Also, this video is naturally in standard definition, as all footage from that time period would have been taped in 480p. I’ve done my best to correct any aspect ratio and volume issues. Some footage of guests or other anchors have been left in for context when necessary.