Icon of Detroit TV, WXYZ’s Doris Biscoe dies at 77

Grace. Trustworthiness. Journalism excellence. An icon of the airwaves. For more than a quarter-century, WXYZ-TV’s Doris Biscoe was a favorite reporter and news anchor in the Detroit television market.

Biscoe died Friday at 77, according to the station, which cited her career as “one of the most visible Black broadcast journalists in Detroit, and throughout America.”

Born in Washington, D.C., Biscoe overcame early shyness to become one of the pioneering Black women journalists in Detroit television, which, like local TV news in general, was then staffed predominantly by white men.

In a 1998 Free Press profile, former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, a classmate of hers at Spingarn High School in Washington. D.C., said, “No one would believe Doris was a quiet, shy, unassuming person back then. Now she really enjoys life.”

Biscoe had stints in radio in Maryland and led a public affairs show in D.C. before relocating to the Motor City. She began her career at 7 Action News in 1973 as a night reporter, eventually moving from reporting to anchoring the evening news at 6 p.m. with Rich Fisher. In 1995, she switched to anchoring the morning news with Erik Smith, where the duo became a popular fixture of the early shift.

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She told the Free Press three years later, that “there’s not a shift that I’ve not worked at this station.” And in the hyper-competitive arena of TV news, she was comfortable with getting older. “If somebody tells me, ‘No, you can’t do it,’ then I’m going to make sure I damn well do it,” she said in the profile that celebrated her time at WXYZ.

Besides her work in journalism, Biscoe hosted “Learn to Read,” a weekly literacy program at the station that was aimed at children. She had a brush with movies when she played a newscaster in 1987’s “The Rosary Murders” starring Donald Sutherland, which was filmed in the Motor City.

In 1993, the Detroit City Council adopted a resolution of Biscoe’s outstanding work as she marked 20 years with WXYZ, according to Michigan Advance writer and Detroit history chronicler Ken Coleman. She also was a recipient of the National Association of Television Arts & Sciences Silver Circle award, which recognized distinguished service in the industry for 25 years or more.

After departing from WXYZ, Biscoe headed her own media training company, Doris Biscoe Communications. She also appeared in ads as a spokesperson for HAP Medicare.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.