What ever happened to KGO-TV Van Amburg?!

What ever happened to KGO-TV Van Amburg?

And then, one night in December 1986, he suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, never to be seen again on television news in all these years since.

Not that it was poor Van's fault. There he was as always, knocking the crowd dead, as it were, when out from the wings came the hook, extended by Station Management. He was fired, summarily removed without warning from his anchor chair after seventeen years... it was simply time for Something New (it was really time for Someone Cheaper). Indeed, like most local stations in highly competitive markets, KGO has this habit of abruptly and brutally dropping the ax on their telegenic employees. Van wasn't the first to be told "we don't want you as a presence in the newsroom anymore", nor was it the last time KGO's motives would be suspect.
Also,
Wallace suggested the station's 11 p.m. news was like vaudeville. He questioned Van Amburg about a story he did one night a severed penis found on what is now the Caltrain tracks. Van Amburg said somebody was victim of that attack, and Channel 7 needed to report it.