Superstation Tush Push

“Samuel L. Jackson, Dennis Hopper, even David Letterman watched those Atlanta newscasts. It will be on my tombstone, 'He anchored the news with a dog.'”

Bill Tush is 76 years old now, a Mount Rushmore figure of the beloved WTBS Superstation. The deadpan, 1970s anti-anchorman anchorman.

“We had the unknown newsman with a paper bag, a mannequin with weather and of course, in one episode, Rex, the Wonder Dog (German Shepherd).”

This week while hosting a Sandy Springs event at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) inside a large suburban theatre, I spied the legendary Mr. Tush across the lobby, and immediately recalled my college days, sitting up at 3 a.m. with friends, laughing, watching the Superstation Tush cable newscast.

“Oh yeah, it began in 1974; for the next five years, we were on very early around the country,” laughed the Pennsylvania native. “The show developed a huge cult following.”

Almost 50 years ago, as television news came of age during Watergate, the pomposity of network and local news had evolved into a compass point of American culture. The self-importance of anchors and reporters was an easy target for parody.

Enter Bill Tush.

“I was an afternoon disc jockey at WGST AM, and decided while hanging out at my girlfriend’s apartment, to take a reel to reel tape over to RT Williams at Channel 17 on West Peachtree for an announcer job," Tush said. "It worked; they hired me. $50 for one hour a day.”

The boss of the station was a mostly unknown Ted Turner, who needed someone to fulfill an FCC requirement by reading the news.

Mr. Tush volunteered.

“I would read the audio news and they would put up a slide at 3 a.m., then the decision was made, someone needed to appear on camera. Hey, I can do that, I’m that someone.”

Tush, wearing 1970s casual shirts, glasses, a mustache — he was the anti-Tom Brokaw, Chuck Scarborough, Dan Rather.

“We started doing unexpected things, fun interactions with floor crew guys — not your typical newscast of the day.”

The little 3 a.m. news reading segment with the thin, sardonic guy was catching attention.

“Ted (Turner) sees me, walks over and starts laughing, saying, 'I like what you are doing, keep it going.'”

The comedy grew in its skewering of broadcast news, and more viewers take notice as WTBS was gaining momentum with worldwide cable. 

Tush and his team invented stories, false, fake news, reporting that made up holiday parades and phony rocket launches 🚀. 

“We did a parody on one of the Atlanta television stations at the time: They were calling themselves Pro News, we called ours Dull News. We used the same music — it was a cut off the Clockwork Orange album.”

Tush began receiving copious amounts of viewer mail, now connecting with people in a way most television performers only dream about.

“The City of Valdez, Alaska, invited me to be grand marshall of their parade, flying me first class to Anchorage then on to Valdez.”

Along with the Atlanta Braves, the dog, the mannequin, the unknown reporter, the on-air hi jinx helped define the Superstation and its cable ascent.

The Tush newscast ushered in other parodies of electronic journalism, SNL, SCTV, Friday’s, Letterman and The Daily Show.

With the Turner broadcast empire growing, the decision was eventually made to end the little low-budget news show.

“Reese Schoenfeld (CNN boss) decided to pull me off the newscast instead, using me on the new news channel.”

There were other projects for Bill: In 1980, the former Atlanta AM jock had his own Sunday prime time show, 22 episodes of The Tush Show.

“It was a crazy time, I had become the face of WTBS. TV Guide does a feature on the Superstation but it was mostly on me. There were so many opportunities coming my way.”

Bill Tush spent 30 years working for Ted Turner, the majority at CNN anchoring and reporting entertainment news.

Bill will always be remembered for the landmark WTBS 3 a.m. newscast (1974-1979). The one that kept me awake two time zones away.

He moved back to Atlanta a decade ago after helping with a TV station in Nigeria. Today he works at a Sandy Springs theater because he likes to watch movies in retirement and has also rekindled a friendship with his ex-wife.

With a laugh, Tush told me, “My life resembles the famous Bob Uecker quote: To last as long as I did with the skills I had was a triumph of the human spirit.”