Ron Magers: the rebel

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On Wednesday, Ron Magers signs off from the anchor desk for the very last time, ending a legendary career in television news.

You may not know this, but Magers has been known to be a bit defiant at times.

Paul Meincke takes a look at 'Ron the Rebel.'

It took Ron Magers less than a year to lead his news team to number one when he anchored in Minneapolis-St. Paul in the late 1970's. He had such a fan following that when he left for Chicago, the PBS station in the Twin Cities did a story - complete with song - urging him to come back.

Wherever he's worked, Magers has struck a chord with viewers and co-workers. He's had magic with everyone he's worked with right?

No, not according to Carol Marin, his former co-anchor.

"Sometimes his honesty was direct enough that when he'd had it with someone, he'd tell them," said Marin.

He can be blunt and brutally honest and sometimes threw caution to the wind.

In 1979, ABC aired a primetime show called the 'Playboy's Roller Disco Pajama Party.'

Magers, the number one anchor in the Twin Cities, thought the network execs had stooped to a new low.

"I can just hear this stupid conversation some executive group had, and they put this show on the air and it's irritating me, so I get in the middle of this news brief. And I just say what I was thinking," said Magers about the incident.

Some viewers thought it was really cool, but the station boss sure didn't.

"I did get in a little trouble. The owner of the station wasn't really happy that I did that... He and I did have a conversation the next day and it was a bit heated, and, at the end of it, we both walked away from it and never mentioned it again," said Magers.