Tony Guida's career began after the Great War but before Woodstock at WTAG in Worcester, Mass. Mr Guida prospered under the wise tutelage of Adolph J. "Dol" Brissette who whispered the secret to radio success: "always write down your ad-libs." It is advice that Mr Guida has tattooed to his left forearm.

Late last century, Mr Guida rode the Wall Street rocket at CNN Financial News. This included reporting for Moneyline and anchoring Entrepreneurs Only - a nightly half-hour covering the exploits of the gurus of the 90's. Nevermind that most are now in dry goods. He also anchored daily summaries of U-S business news for viewers of CNN International's Asia Business Morning. Mr Guida emphasizes this was reporting, not commentary; he did, he admits, buy Lucent at 68.

Before that Mr Guida's light shone for a quarter-century in the local news firmament, first at WNBCTV then at WCBSTV. Then again at WNBCTV. And again at WCBSTV (he couldn't keep a job). Career highlights of this period include anchoring just about every newscast either station offered, serving as Chief Political correspondent for Ch2 (Ed Koch was great copy), and reporting from Rome on the attempted assassination of the Pope, from Berlin on the fall of the Wall and from Belfast on the Troubles.

In 1979, Mr Guida anchored news segments on the Today Show. He does not fault recent histories of that program for ignoring him; his tenure was what baseball players call a cup of coffee.

For the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1983, Mr Guida co-produced, wrote and reported a half-hour program called The Great Bridge. Members of the television academy sniffed that he stole the title from David McCullough but awarded him an Emmy nonetheless.

Mr Guida was born in the Bronx. You got a problem with that?

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