GEORGE PUTNAM, 94

Broadcast pioneer

George Putnam, the flamboyant broadcasting pioneer whose bombastic style made him one of the nation's highest-paid TV news anchors and one of its most widely lampooned, died Friday of heart failure.

Putnam, one of the inspirations for The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Baxter character, died at a hospital near his ranch in Chino, Calif., said Chuck Wilder, longtime producer of his syndicated radio program, George Putnam's Talk Back.

Although he had been absent from television for decades, Putnam continued to do his radio show, a mix of opinion, interviews and phone calls, until just a few months ago when his health began to fail.

During the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Mr. Putnam was a top-rated news anchor for Los Angeles stations.

For years he would deliver the news in a wall-rattling baritone voice while seated in front of a large American flag.