Benjamin AYCRIGG
Obituary

Orlando TV legend Ben Aycrigg dead at 88

November 5, 2014
The dean of Orlando television anchors has died.

Ben Aycrigg, who became a local TV legend for the 35 years he logged at Channel 6, died of renal failure Tuesday night at his Maitland home, WKMG-Channel 6 announced Wednesday on its website. He was 88.

Aycrigg retired in 1996 from WCPX, as the station was then known. During his long run there, he worked as reporter, news director and anchor.

"Ben Aycrigg was THE news anchor in Central Florida for many years," WKMG General Manager Skip Valet said. "He's often been called the 'Walter Cronkite of Orlando television,' and with good reason. Ben shared the day's news, good and bad, with a clear, authoritative voice that told Channel 6 viewers, no matter how dire the news, in the end we were all going to be all right."

Aycrigg was celebrated for an anchoring style that had no flash or nonsense and for a personal style that was nice and friendly.

Annetta Wilson, who was Aycrigg's co-anchor twice for a total of 10 years, described him as a very quiet, gentle person.


"I never, ever in all the time I worked with him saw him lose his temper," she said. "He was a very devout person, and his family always came first. He was always solid, and everyone respected him."

Wilson recalled that she was terrified to be the first African-American — at age 22 in 1980 — to anchor an evening newscast in the Orlando market. But she said Aycrigg was a calming force.

"He made me feel safe, and he taught me a lot by the way he handled things," Wilson said. "He was a model for me in how to comport yourself as an anchor."

Aycrigg was happy to bow out in 1996. ''I'll be glad to get through it and get it over with,'' he told the Orlando Sentinel before his last broadcast. ''It's not an easy thing to end a phase of your life — and, of course, it forces you to face your own mortality, as they say.''

Older viewers will remember Aycrigg as a respected newsman. His longevity helped bolster the station in much the same way Bob Opsahl has helped WFTV-Channel 9.

Opsahl said Aycrigg's "professionalism was a model for many of us who watched him and admired him."

But the WFTV anchor recalled his surprise at seeing Aycrigg host a fundraiser. He was "so personable, warm and funny," Opsahl said. "On TV, he was all business. But in person, he was clever, caring and easy-going."

Chris Schmidt, a former news director at WFTV, said Aycrigg hired him at Channel 6 when he was a senior at what is now the University of Central Florida in 1971.

"He was the ultimate professional, hard-working, dedicated," Schmidt said. "He was a fine man, not just a fine newsman. He was just very honorable. He was a giant in this community."

Aycrigg was born in Pittsfield, Mass., and moved at age 15 with his family to Winter Park.

He graduated from Winter Park High School in 1944 and started as an announcer at radio station WDBO-AM while at Rollins College. He graduated from Rollins in 1949, with a bachelor's degree in English and a theater arts minor.

He worked in radio until 1959, then started as a TV reporter at WLOF-TV, which later became WFTV. Two years later, he became a reporter at CBS affiliate WDBO-TV (later WCPX and now WKMG). He was promoted to news director, a job he held from 1968 to 1976.

Aycrigg told the Sentinel he viewed public attention with mixed emotions.

''Somehow that doesn't set well with my old-fashioned upbringing as a serious journalist,'' he said in 1996. ''Somehow, we shouldn't be the focus of attention. But it's necessary for the stations to compete these days. It's the faces on the billboards that define a station. It's theatrical.''

At his retirement, he bemoaned industry trends toward shorter reports, sound-bite interviews and consultant-driven decisions. He fondly remembered the days when stations offered more stories on economic growth, Florida government and the environment.

''I think today maybe they [newscasts] are becoming more fixated on sensationalism," he said. "It's easy to get when you have to satisfy so many newscasts. Sometimes, these other stories take more time to develop.''

Aycrigg is survived by his wife, three children, a sister and a brother, WKMG said.

Orlando Sentinel
Orlando, Florida



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