Legendary STV presenter dies aged 78 after long illness
A LEGENDARY STV presenter has died aged 78 following a long illness.
Bob Cuddihy was a reporter and broadcaster on the channel in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was born in New York in 1946 and arrived in the UK in 1962 following the tragic death of his parents.
His 17-year stint with the channel saw him interview a wide variety of figures in politics and business.
He was a regular on Scotland Today and the political programme Ways and Means (1973-86).
Described as “a force beyond nature”, many people were “seduced by his vivacious personality which was allied to a twin compulsion for mischief and over-indulgent fun”.
Bob left STV in 1989 to set up a public relations and media training company, Bowman Cuddihy & Sullivan.
He is survived by his wife Maggie, brothers Christopher and Sean, sisters Deedee and Mikey, and his children, Aimee, Kate, and Patrick.
He died after a long illness on October 23, 2024, aged 78.
An obituary in The Times reads: “In 1972, Cuddihy was recruited by Russell Galbraith as a reporter for STV, the interview board being impressed by his big personality and limitless stock of ideas.
“Cuddihy’s working life with Galbraith was the most significant of his career. Galbraith was a newspaper man when he joined STV in 1962, becoming a reporter, then director and for most of his tenure, a senior executive whose name would end the credits on programmes that represent a major television archive.
“Cuddihy was a regular on Scotland Today and the political programme Ways and Means (1973-86), presided over by the avuncular Colin MacKay. He was a versatile broadcaster.
“Interviews with senior politicians didn’t trouble him, nor his interview with the Nobel prizewinning author Saul Bellow. He could turn his hand to feature reporting and was not averse to dressing as a pantomime dame to do the “and finally” at Christmas.”