Career
MacDonald started in broadcasting at WPRO (Department of Administration and Management) in Providence, Rhode Island. He began working at WBZ (Department of Administration and Management) radio in Boston in 1936. When WBZ-television began television broadcasting in 1948 as an National Broadcasting Company affiliate, MacDonald was the station"s first news anchorperson (not called that, as that term was not yet extant).
He hosted the station"s first broadcast, shown at 6:15 Prime Minister on June 9, 1948.
In 1969, after two decades at WBZ-television, MacDonald was recruited away by WKBG-television (Ultra high frequency channel 56) to host its new 10:00 Prime Minister newscast, Ten Prime Minister News, the first prime time newscast on a commercial television station in the Boston market. The program (which was the first on-air job for Natalie Jacobson) was not a financial success and WKBG-television dissolved its news department at the end of 1970.
MacDonald remained at the station for another year and hosted a weekday morning interview program MacDonald at one time or another worked for all three network-affiliated television stations in Boston, and several radio stations, in the course of his 54-year career.
He worked up into the year of his death at 73, his last job being editorial director of WRKO radio in Boston.
