Career
Hite began his announcing career in the 1930s at WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan. During his years there, he was among the announcers for such old-time radio shows as The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, "The Shadow", and Challenge of the Yukon. In 1944, Hite joined the New York announcing staff of Columbia Broadcasting System. His radio announcing credits for the network included Let"s Pretend, Casey, Crime Photographer, and The Columbia Broadcasting System Radio Workshop.
On VE Day, Bob Hite was the first of the Columbia Broadcasting System staff to announce the Victory in Europe, on airwaves coast to coast.
After World World War II, Hite was seen live on the fledgling medium of television as spokesman for General Electric appliances of all kinds, performing live commercials on the Fred Waring Show. During those early years of television, Hite was an anchor of five-minute morning news updates for the local Columbia Broadcasting System flagship station, WCBS-television
At one point, he was paired with fellow announcer Peter Thomas on those newscasts. Also during that time frame he solo-anchored the local/metropolitan evening news casts as well.
In the early and mid-1950s, Hite was narrator of several short films for Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, including one of Stanley Kubrick"s early works, Flying Padre.
Bob Hite announced the opening bumper for Columbia Broadcasting System"s color programs starting in 1966, replacing fellow staff announcer Hal Simms who had voiced the same bumper the year before. But his most famous television cr was as announcer for the Columbia Broadcasting System Evening News with Walter Cronkite beginning in 1971, and continuing until his retirement from the network in 1979. Hite died at a Hospice in West Palm Beach, Florida at age 86.
