Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley (December 10, 1911 - March 20, 1974) was an American television newscaster.
Huntley was born in Cardwell, Montana. He graduated from Whitehall High School in Whitehall and attended Montana State College in Bozeman and Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle before graduating from the University of Washington in 1934.
He began his radio newscast career at Seattle's KIRO AM, later working on radio stations in Spokane, Washington and Portland, Oregon. He went to work for CBS Radio from 1939 to 1951, at which point he moved to ABC Radio. In 1955, he joined the NBC Radio network, viewed by network executives as "another Ed Murrow."
In 1956, coverage of the national political conventions was a major point of pride for the fledgling broadcast news organizations. NBC news executives were seeking to counter the growing popularity of CBS' Walter Cronkite, who had been a ratings success at the 1952 conventions. They decided to replace their current news anchor, John Cameron Swayze, but there was a disagreement on who the new anchorman should be. The two leading contenders were Huntley and David Brinkley. The eventual decision was to have both men share the assignment. Their on-air chemistry was apparent from the start, with Huntley's straightforward presentation countered by Brinkley's acerbic wit.
This success soon led to the team replacing Swayze on the network's nightly news program. It was decided to have the two men co-anchor the show; Huntley from New York, Brinkley from Washington. The Huntley-Brinkley Report began in October 1956 and was soon a ratings success. Huntley and Brinkley's catchphrase closing of "Good night, Chet" - "Good night, David... And good night for NBC News" was developed by the show's producer, Reuven Frank. The sign-off became famous (although both men disliked it).
He published a memoir of his boyhood, The Generous Years, in 1968. He also became involved in a New York advertising agency, Levine, Huntley, Schmidt, Plapler & Beaver, gaining a 10 percent share in the agency in exchange for having his name on the letterhead and attending some agency meetings.
Huntley retired in 1970 and returned to Montana, where he conceived and built the Big Sky Resort, a skiing venue south of Bozeman, which opened in December 1973.
Huntley died of lung cancer in March 1974 at his home in Big Sky. In 1976, Boyne USA Resorts purchased the resort and has owned and managed it since then.
In 2003, a biography titled Good Night Chet, by Lyle Johnston, was published by McFarland Publishers. Only days before his retirement, Huntley gave an interview with Dick Cavett, available on the DVD The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons, Disc 2.
Chet Huntley, a native of Bozeman, Montana, worked for Movietone News and then CBS radio in Los Angeles, as well as NBC TV in Los Angeles. His big break came when he moderated NBC coverage of the 1956 political conventions, when he was paired with former UPI reporter David Brinkley. This partnership led to the Huntley-Brinkley report, the NBC nightly newscast which ran weeknights on NBC until 1970. Chet also participated in historical events, such as November 22, 1963, when, along with stunned colleagues Bill Ryan and Frank McGee, he brought to NBC viewers live coverage and instant analysis of the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Chet later, after Huntley-Brinkley went off the air, became a spokesman for American Airlines and started his own Montana resort. He passed away in 1974, not long after his colleague Frank McGee.
