Broadcasting and Journalism Career
Clooney had a five-year stint in the 1960s a news anchor at WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky, then went to Ohio to host his own TV show, the "Nick Clooney Show", first in Columbus, Ohio, for WLWC television in 1968, then for Cincinnati's WCPO-TV in 1969, and finally with its greatest degree of success for crosstown rival WKRC-TV through the early 1970s. The "Nick Clooney Show" was a local morning show, with a variety and talk-show format. In December 1974, he gained his first national fame by hosting the short-lived ABC daytime game show The Money Maze. "The Money Maze" and the "Nick Clooney Show" aired back-to-back on WKRC-TV (at the time an ABC affiliate), at 10:30 and 11 a.m., respectively.
After ABC canceled The Money Maze in June 1975, Clooney returned to WKRC-TV and became the station's news director and lead anchor. As a journalist, he is probably best remembered for his hard-hitting coverage of the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire and its aftermath, which spanned several years. Many people in the region first heard about the fire from Clooney when WKRC interrupted its Saturday night prime-time schedule to broadcast news of the fire. Clooney pursued a hard news focus that was quite different from the sensationalism often seen on local television. Under his leadership, WKRC-TV became a solid #1 in the local news ratings, dethroning CBS affiliate WCPO-TV, which had controlled ratings for more than two decades under Al Schottelkotte's leadership.
After leaving WKRC in 1984, Clooney worked in Los Angeles, California, as the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. co-anchor at KNBC, and later moved on to Salt Lake City, Utah for several years to host the evening news on the newly-created Fox affiliate KSTU. He returned again to WKRC-TV in the late 1980s, but by that time, NBC affiliate WLWT was number one in the late newscast with former Cincinnati mayor Jerry Springer as its main anchor; Clooney was not able to lead WKRC back to ratings leadership it enjoyed in the past.
Clooney entered print media in 1989 with a column in The Cincinnati Post, then in 1994, after a short stint as a news anchor for NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York, resurfaced nationally in television as a host and researcher for the cable channel American Movie Classics, where he introduced and presented backgrounds of classic movies, along with Bob Dorian. In 1999, he returned to his former radio home WSAI in Cincinnati, starting as afternoon host September 13, then moving to mornings in November to replace Bob Braun, who had health problems.
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