Savvy 7News guy to sign off
Longtime Boston TV political reporter Andy Hiller, who has been skewering local, state and national pols on Boston TV for nearly 40 years, is leaving Channel 7 after the presidential election.
Word from inside is that Hiller, host of the 7News segment “The Hiller Instinct,” will depart when his contract runs out around the end of the year — which is also right around the time that WHDH will lose its NBC network affiliation and go nearly all news.
Hiller, who has covered nearly every major political campaign in Massachusetts since 1977 — first for Channel 4 then for Channel 7 — declined to discuss his decision until after the election. But word is, he decided that the upheaval at Channel 7 — which will switch to news and syndicated programming as of Jan. 1 when it loses all NBC shows — was a good time to depart.
A source close to the newsman said Hiller is not retiring, which leaves open the possibility that he could resurface at another station — or even in another line of politically related work. (Hiller did do a short stint at a political consulting firm between his gig at Channel 4 and his current job.)
The longtime newsman began his career at the Davenport Democrat in Iowa in 1971, then moved to Atlanta’s WAGA-TV, where he covered then-Gov. and future President Jimmy Carter. Hiller came to Massachusetts in 1977, and was assigned to City Hall and Mayor Kevin White, whom he called “the most interesting politician I’ve ever met.”
Hiller’s sassy and savvy political reporting, and dogged pursuit of local and national political figures, earned him a rep as the most aggressive political reporter on TV.
Dubbed “Helmet Head,” because of his shiny lacquered coif, Hiller made national headlines back in 1999 when he gave thenpresidential candidate George W. Bush a pop quiz on foreign affairs that Bush failed miserably. Hiller asked the future prez to name the leaders of four world hot spots at the time: Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan. Bush was able to give a partial response to just one: Taiwan.
It wasn’t the first time Hiller caught a candidate off guard with what many termed his “gotcha” style of TV journalism. In 1984, while at Channel 4, he asked the seven Democrats seeking a Senate seat: “Who is Israel’s prime minister?” Then-congressman Ed Markey gave the wrong answer, and candidate David Bartley was forced to admit he didn’t know.
More recently, Hiller continued to cover the political maneuverings in City Hall and on Beacon Hill and, of course, the current presidential race. His “Hiller Instinct” blogs on WHDH’s website reflect his snarky TV style with headlines like “We win! All the presidential debates are over” and “Bill Clinton’s ... losing his inner Elvis.”
For years, when you rang up Hiller’s voicemail at Channel 7, the recording was from ex-Gov. Bill Weld. He took it off after a complaint from a John Kerry campaign staffer during the 1996 Weld-Kerry Senate race. Now his voicemail is a greeting from Gov. Charlie Baker, who informs callers, “I’ll be sure that he gets back to ya.”
File Under: Signing Off.