Larry Mendte

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Larry Mendte : biography

1957-1-19 –

Career

From 1984 to 1988 he was a weekend anchor on WABC, as well as fill-in sports anchor. He anchored the news and was an investigative reporter at WBBM in Chicago from 1991 to 1995. While at WBBM, Mendte’s series of reports on school bus safety resulted in a new state law. Mendte won a record 27 Emmy Awards in Chicago and was twice named Best reporter by the Illinois Associated Press. He anchored the news at WCMH in Columbus, Ohio, WLYH in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (where he also did the sportscast), WTAJ in Altoona and KIEM in Eureka, California.

Mendte was a weather personality at San Diego’s KFMB and also performed stand-up comedy in Southern California comedy clubs. Mendte wrote and produced a humor commentary feature called "How Come?" for the Paramount Studios syndicated program Hard Copy. Mendte was the first male host of Access Hollywood when the show debuted in 1996. He co-hosted Monday through Friday with Giselle Fernández and also co-hosted the weekend edition with future weekday host Nancy O’Dell. Mendte debuted "Access Hollywood" on September 9, 1996 with the words "Hello everyone, I’m Larry Mendte and this is Access Hollywood."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z6wdERseSg

Returning home

Mendte left Access Hollywood in 1997 to return to Philadelphia and become the main anchor of WCAU (Channel 10)’s newscasts, including the 4 pm, 6pm and 11 pm programs, with the 4 pm show being the first on at that time in the market. He also created and hosted the Sunday morning news talk program Live at Issue. During his time at WCAU the 11 pm newscast outrated market leader WPVI (Channel 6) for the first time since the 1970s.

Anchoring at KYW

Mendte joined KYW in 2003 after being wooed from WCAU. KYW launched a massive "Make the Switch" promotional campaign when Mendte arrived. The idea for the campaign was Mendte’s. He also helped reformat the newscast and introduced the "walking anchor" to KYW that he was famous for at WCAU. KYW’s ratings immediately jumped with Mendte in the main seat with Alycia Lane co-anchoring, and within a year the station would overtake WCAU at 11 pm and 6 pm for second place. Lane was later fired in December 2007 after being charged with a felony for assaulting a female police officer in New York. Mendte then anchored solo for a short time before being teamed with Susan Barnett, but Mendte was fired in June 2008 after an investigation revealed he had accessed Lane’s email accounts.

Commentary for Tribune

In February 2010 Mendte returned to television with a nightly commentary on current events, originating from Tribune Broadcasting’s WPIX in New York. This segment is also seen on WPHL-TV’s 10 pm newscast (which is formerly produced by NBC’s WCAU, a former employer of Mendte), WGN-TV in Chicago and several other Tribune and Local TV-owned stations across the country.

In June 2010, Mendte aired the first of several commentaries urging Congress to pass the 9/11 First Responders Health and Compensation Bill. Six months later when the bill was passed, Mendte was given several award from 9/11 First Responders organizations, including 2011 Humanitarian Award from the New York Fire Department’s Colmbia Association.

In 2011, 2012 and 2013, all three years he was eligible, Mendte won the New York regional Emmy award for Outstanding Commentary/Editorialist.

Trip to Libya

In April 2011 Mendte was the only journalist to travel with former Congressman Curt Weldon on a peace mission to end the conflict in Libya. It was promoted that Weldon would meet with Muammar Gaddafi and that Mendte may get an interview. But Gaddafi reportedly cancelled a face to face meeting after Weldon’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times ran on the same day as the scheduled meeting. But Weldon did return with direct communication between the Iraqi Prime Minister to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the promise that four detained journalists would be freed.