Bill Ritter

Ritter, who is Jewish, does not mind logging some holiday hours to help his fellow man (and woman) celebrate the birth of Jesus.

“We now have two Jewish anchors, but before Phil [Lipof] got hired I was the only male Jewish anchor,” Ritter tells FishbowlNY. “You work Christmas Day.  It’s the right thing to do.”

Ritter would typically anchor December 25^th newscasts in every daypart. However, this year’s schedule is slightly altered. Since it’s a Sunday, there is no noon newscast. And with the NBA kicking off the season on ABC that afternoon, the 6 p.m. broadcast is preempted. 

But this is more than about Ritter’s Christmas work ethic. A more impressive WABC holiday tradition is the reading of viewer emails during the morning newscasts from 6 to 10 a.m. (with a break for Good Morning America). It’s a heavy dose of communal experience for Ritter, this year’s co-anchor Jen Maxfield, and meteorologist Lee Goldberg. 

“After 9/11, we thought we want to be able to have people express themselves in a way that would be interactive, that they’d have an access to a television station, and it was before the Web took off,” Ritter says.

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So it’s little surprise that the Clear Channel owned Adult Contemporary would have such a vested interest in Christmas.

The station is teaming up with H&R Block, JetBlue Getaways, Clean Air NY, and Big Apple Circus to provide free skating next weekend at Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park.

Complimentary admission and skating rentals will be handed out to the first 1,000 guests on Saturday, December 10, and again on Sunday, December 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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