WASHINGTON -- Martin Agronsky's proudest accomplishment, says his son, was winning the 1952 Peabody Award for distinguished broadcast reporting for his work on the excesses by Sen. Joseph McCarthy as he tried to cleanse U.S. society of communists.
Agronsky, who died Sunday at age 84, lost at least half his sponsors nationwide for his commentary on ABC each morning from a studio above a downtown Washington drugstore, David Agronsky said.He received reams of hate mail, attacking his Jewish roots, "calling him a commie, a traitor," the son said. In the midst of the turmoil, his dad was summoned by ABC officials to New York. "He thought he was going to be canned," David Agronsky said. "Instead, they congratulated him and took him to lunch."
Agronsky was a voice from radio's golden age and a pioneer in television news-talk programming before retiring in 1988 from what was then the nation's most popular public affairs show, "Agronsky & Company."
David Agronsky said his father died at his Washington home of congestive heart failure.