After 18 years Wendall and Anne stay anchored to Kansas City: Informal poll says their on-air partnership is longest in the country.

Viewers in Kansas City probably think they have been seeing
Wendall Anschutz and Anne Peterson on their TV sets approximately
forever.
In television years, at least, they're right.
In a recent informal poll conducted by Don Fitzpatrick
Associates, a San Francisco-based headhunting firm for TV news
talent, Anschutz and Peterson were found to be the most durable
co-anchor team currently on the air anywhere in the country.
The two began sharing time on the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts on July
16, 1979. Peterson was a 23-year-old who had been hired by the
station, then known as KCMO, just three months earlier. Anschutz had
a more challenging climb: He joined Channel 5 in 1966 as a reporter
and spent 11 years working his way into the lead anchor's chair.
With the exception of two maternity leaves by Peterson and a
medical leave by Anschutz following a stroke in 1989, they have been
partners on-air ever since.
For 15 of those 18 years, Peterson and Anschutz were Channel 5's
premier news team, and Kansas City's top-rated anchor duo. That run
ended in November 1994 when news director Don North moved Peterson to
the 5 p.m. newscast and replaced her at 6 and 10 with Tracy Townsend.
Anschutz is co-anchor for all three programs.
Since that changeover, Channel 5's newscast at 5 p.m. has been
running first or second during recent ratings sweeps periods.
There is another reason, besides sheer popularity, why the
Peterson-Anschutz team has endured: Both newscasters remain (pardon
the expression) anchored to Kansas City. Peterson has become a
community fixture, and Anschutz, the second most-famous native son of
Russell, Kan., long ago decided he wasn't going anywhere. "I don't
like to move," he told The Star in 1979.
And as Anschutz's colleagues disappear from other markets - most
notably his KU classmate, Bill Kurtis, who is doing a slow fade in
Chicago - the veteran newsman finds himself, well, peerless.
Other iron co-anchor teams include Christine Zak and Tom
MacIntyre in Peoria, Ill., (17 years) and Natalie Jacobson and Chet
Curtis in Boston, who have been co-anchors for 15 years while married
to each other. That's team coverage!
In local news
KSHB, Channel 41, said it will carry "Crook & Chase," a
one-hour talk show starring Wichita native Lorianne Crook and co-host
Charlie Chase, beginning at 9 a.m. March 3. The program is the duo's
latest effort following "Music City Tonight," formerly on cable's
TNN, and their weekly "Country Countdown," which can be heard
Sunday nights on WDAF-AM.
KCTV announced that it has signed Chiefs running back Marcus
Allen to another season of "The Marcus Allen Show" and that the
top-rated local Chiefs-related program is expanding to one hour in
the fall. KCTV said Allen's Sunday-morning show frequently drew more
viewers than either of the competing network NFL pregame shows. "The
Marcus Allen Show" also launched an Internet simulcast in January at
http://www.kansascity.com.
Talk back to your TV! Write me c/o The Kansas City Star, 1729
Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108 or send me e-mail at
barnhart@kcstar.com.