Bill Kurtis

Bill Kurtis born William Horton Kuretich September 21 1940 is an American television journalist television producer narrator and news anchor He has been noted for his sonorous voice throughout his career He is most known for narrating AEs true crime series Cold Case Files as well as American Justice Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s when he was asked to fill in on a temporary news assignment at a television station in Topeka Kansas His reporting on a devastating tornado outbreak led to an on air news reporter and later a very successful news anchor position in Chicago In 1982 Kurtis joined Diane Sawyer on The CBS Morning News the network broadcast from New York City The two were also on the CBS Early Morning News which aired an hour earlier on most CBS stations He also anchored three CBS Reports The Plane That Fell from the Sky The Golden Leaf and The Gift of Life He became especially interested in investigative indepth reports and documentaries When he returned to Chicago and for a time resumed his anchor duties he also founded a production company Kurtis Productions Kurtis hosted or produced a number of crime and news documentary shows including Investigative Reports American Justice and Cold Case Files Kurtis is the scorekeeperannouncer for National Public Radio NPRs news comedyquiz show Wait Wait Dont Tell Me and served as the host of Through the Decades a documentarystyle news magazine seen on Decades Kurtis narrated nearly 1000 documentaries and Kurtis Productions produced nearly 500 documentaries for series like The New Explorers on PBS Investigative Reports and Cold Case Files for the AE and Investigating History for the History Channel He also hosted American Justice produced by Towers Productions For CNBC the company has produced nearly 100 episodes of American Greed Kurtis has received two Peabody Awards numerous Emmy Awards awards from the Overseas Press Club a DuPont Award and has been inducted into the Illinois and Kansas Halls of Fame In 1998 he was awarded the University of Kansas William Allen White citation Kurtis has also authored three books On Assignment 1984 Death Penalty on Trial 2004 and Prairie Table Cookbook 2008 In the animated series South Park Eric Cartman owns a board game called Investigative Reports with Bill Kurtis featuring a talking Bill Kurtis bust The boys can be seen playing the game in South Parks season four episode Cartman Joins NAMBLA 2000 and season eight episode Up the Down Steroid 2004 The game can also be seen on the shelf of a hobby store in the episode Cock Magic 2014 A 1972 report by Bill Kurtis while a correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles was used as the introduction to Dr Dres album Compton Kurtis also contributed a spokenword introduction to The Dandy Warhols 2005 album Odditorium or Warlords of Mars