Remembering Eleanor

PBRTV is hearing that local broadcast pioneer Eleanor Schano has died. It can be said that Schano was on every major network station in town throughout her career starting with WDTV (3) – the forerunner to KDKA-TV (2). Later she’d head over to WTAE (4) and WIIC (11 – now WPXI). All the while she was one of the few women in the early years of television paving the way for generations of women who became a part of an industry considered to be “a man’s world”. Ms. Schano did it all from modeling and commercial endorsements to weather and anchoring. And she raised a family while doing so.

In 1991, Eleanor hosted Agewise Weekly on WQEX (16) – a public affairs program which continued in some form or another and a move over to WQED (13) until its cancellation in 2007.

A few years ago, Rick Sebak voiced this video biography:

Ms. Schano’s book, Riding the (Air) Waves: The Life and Televised Times of Eleanor Schano is a must-read for anyone in (or not in) the business.

According to relatives, Schano died of COVID-19.