Posted by chicagomedia.org on August 03, 2009 at 10:20:23:
Harry Porterfield Returns To CBS 2 Chicago
Legendary Broadcaster Will Anchor 11AM Newscast; Re-Launch 'Someone You Should Know' Segments
Aug 3, 2009 9:03 am US/Central
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Veteran broadcaster Harry Porterfield is returning to CBS 2 Chicago where he began his television news career in 1964.
Porterfield will reintroduce himself to CBS 2 viewers when he appears on today's 11:00 AM newscast. And, beginning Monday, August 10, he will co-anchor CBS 2 News at 11:00 AM and serve as a news reporter for station broadcasts.
Described as a gentleman-journalist by his peers, Porterfield has earned the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia journalism award, along with 11 Emmy awards in his 45-year news career, including two features on WBBM-TV: Channel Two: The People and Two-on-Two.
In returning home to the station where his television career was launched, Porterfield will also continue the franchise he created at CBS 2 in 1977 -- Someone You Should Know, a series of profiles on everyday people who make a difference.
"Harry has a storied relationship with viewers in Chicago. It is both meaningful and important that the relationship continue," CBS 2 News Director Jeff Kiernan said in making the announcement.
"We are proud to welcome Harry back to CBS 2. We are excited to have 'Someone You Should Know' return to CBS 2 where it started and having him anchor alongside Roseanne Tellez at 11:00 AM."
"I am both humbled and thrilled to return home after a 24-year hiatus," Porterfield explained. "Telling stories and reporting the news is what I do and I'm not done yet, even at age 81."
"My career as a broadcast journalist has allowed me to report on the stories and people that have shaped our world and I'm pleased that the leadership at CBS 2 is affording me an opportunity to continue reporting the stories that are important to the people in and around Chicago."
Porterfield began his broadcast career as a jazz and gospel radio disc jockey in 1955 in Saginaw, Michigan, after earning a B.S. in chemistry from Eastern Michigan University in 1954.
His decision to pursue a career in television began at WKNK-TV, where he worked as a stagehand, cameraman and editor until 1964.
That year, Porterfield accepted a position as a news writer for WBBM-TV and was eventually elevated to reporter and then anchor of the station's 6:00 PM news -- a position he held until accepting a position as feature news reporter and substitute anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago in 1985. While working at WLS-TV, Porterfield earned a law degree from DePaul University in Chicago in 1993.
After 25 years at WLS-TV, Porterfield's contract expired and he signed-off from the station last Thursday (July 30).
In 2008, the National Association of Black Journalists awarded Porterfield the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award -- an honor which he shares with former CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley, Black Enterprise publisher Earl Graves and former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw.
In addition, Porterfield has been the recipient of several awards throughout his 50-plus-year career, including: The Distinguished Journalism Award from the Coalition for United Community Action; The Richard J. Daley Police Medal of Honor; Outstanding Journalist Award from the Chicago Association of Black Journalists; the Studs Turkel Award for Journalism; the Media Fairness Award from PUSH; the Distinguished Service Award from the Gary, Ind. NAACP; the Kimberly Circle Guest of Honor Award from the Hadley School for the Blind; and merit awards from the National Catholic Association and Allied Communications.
CBS 2 is part of the CBS Television Stations group, a division of CBS Corporation.