Warner Saunders was the 10 PM co-anchor for WMAQ-TV

WMAQ-TV

WMAQ-TV, channel 5, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Chicago, Illinois. WMAQ-TV's main studios and offices are located within the NBC Tower in the Streeterville neighborhood, with an auxiliary street-level studio on the Magnificent Mile at 401...

 in Chicago. Saunders' primary co-anchor in the NBC 5 evening newscasts was Allison Rosati

Allison Rosati

- Early life :Rosati was born in Dover, Delaware and grew up in Pine City, Minnesota. She attended Gustavus Adolphus College where she studied speech and communications. She graduated in 1985 and received cum laude....

. A Chicago native, Saunders holds a bachelors degree from Xavier University and a Masters degree from Northeastern Illinois University

Northeastern Illinois University

Northeastern Illinois University is a public state university located in Chicago, Illinois. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park with three additional campuses in the metropolitan area. Tracing its founding to 1867, it was first established as a separate branch of a...

. He and his wife, Sadako, live in Chicago.

Career

He is a member of the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame and the Chicago Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Silver Circle. He was once President of the Chicago Association of Black Journalists (1996–97). He also did a series of reports from South Africa in 1990 on the historic release of Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

 culminated in the documentary titled, South Africa: What Happens to a Dream Deferred?. Saunders came to WMAQ from WBBM where he was Director of Community Affairs, host of Common Ground, and a children's show known to many kids as The Good Gang Express.

He portrayed a news anchorman in the second season of the drama series ER

ER (TV series)

ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, a show which is set in Chicago.

Saunders was a former public school teacher, youth worker and Boys Club Executive Director. His WBBM-TV

WBBM-TV

WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...

 documentary, The End of the Line, spurred investigations of local gangs. His teaching career includes Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools

Chicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians and officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, is a large school district that manages over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois...

, National College of Education, Malcolm X College

Malcolm X College

Malcolm X College is a two-year college of the City Colleges of Chicago located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, USA, at 1900 W Van Buren St. It was founded as Crane Junior College in 1911 to serve graduates of the nearby Crane High School, and was the first of the City Colleges to be...

, Northeastern Illinois University

Northeastern Illinois University

Northeastern Illinois University is a public state university located in Chicago, Illinois. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park with three additional campuses in the metropolitan area. Tracing its founding to 1867, it was first established as a separate branch of a...

, and Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 where he was voted teacher of the year for two consecutive terms.

Saunders retired from the 5 PM and 6 PM newscasts and retired from the 10 PM newscast on May 20, 2009. He plans to pursue "diversity education".

He has publicly accused former Chicago newspaper columnist Robert Feder

Robert Feder

Robert Feder is a noted Chicago media blogger who was the TV and radio columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1980 until 2008 and a blogger for Vocalo.org from 2009 until 2010...

 of racism during Feder's career at the Sun-Times. (See Chicago Tribune column at http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2009/02/wmaqtvs-warner-saunders-confronts-former-suntimes-columnist-robert-feder-at-aftra-meeting.html)

His career in broadcasting was honored by the Museum of Broadcast Communications

Museum of Broadcast Communications

The Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...

 on May 16, 2009 during "A Salute to Warner Saunders" the event was held at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Awards

He has won 19 Emmy Awards for news, sports, documentaries, children's shows, talk shows, and town meetings. Other awards he won are the Illinois Broadcasters Association Public Service Award, the Gabriel Award

Gabriel Award

The Gabriel Awards were originated by the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals in 1965. They were designed to honor works of broadcast excellence that have a positive and creative treatment of concerns to mankind....

, The Ohio State Award, and the 1999 Hull House Jane Addams Award for his commitment to the Chicago community.

External links

• NBCChicago.com biography