Maine broadcaster, humorist Bruce McGorrill dies at 74

PORTLAND – Bruce McGorrill, who climbed the ladder from announcer at WCSH-TV to chief executive of Maine Broadcasting Systems, died Tuesday night at Maine Medical Center. He was 74.

McGorrill was known for his commitment to journalism and public service. After his retirement in 1996, he traveled on behalf of the State Department to the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe as a broadcast consultant.

Susan Kimball, a WCSH reporter, said McGorrill was deeply involved in the station’s news operation.

“He would come in every day to see what we were doing and what we were working on. He had tremendous interest in news and public service. He knew every day what we were doing,” Kimball said.

While working as station manager, McGorrill kept close tabs on the broadcast schedule and in 1978 refused to air an episode of a controversial TV show that included an incident with a teenager and a prostitute.

That decision stirred debate, prompting McGorrill to explain his rationale in a column that appeared in the Portland Press Herald.

“Television is an invited guest in the home, and most people expect us to present material that is generally acceptable to a broad segment of the public,” he wrote.

“We cannot put ‘everything’ on the air because some material is very offensive to large numbers of viewers. These viewers do not want to turn off their sets. … They want to use them and they don’t expect to be offended.”

The Bowdoin College graduate moonlighted as a public speaker and Down East humorist, who was best-known for his record, “Saturday Night in Dover-Foxcroft.”

McGorrill is survived by his wife, Donna, and four children.