Chuck Scarborough, Kaity Tong and 27 more longtime local newscasters reveal their biggest moments

We know them well. We hardly know them at all. Over a quarter century on TV tends to confer such casual familiarity. 

Because we're on a first-name basis with them, say hello to Chuck, Dana, Doug and Bill, also Colleen, Lee, and Kaity. With us through the years, day by day, night by night, they've told us about traffic tie-ups on the LIE and FDR, or that low pressure system approaching from the west. There were the fires, shootings, crashes — also, the Yankees and Mets' latest triumph (or debacle), and a lot of other teams, too.

They've reported the first draft of history (Superstorm Sandy, the pandemic, 9/11) which is usually the one scored onto our memories. With tragedies, we also remember who first told us about them.

Nevertheless, we take local TV news for granted because that's exactly what we're supposed to do. Reliable and steady, this is the information soundtrack to our lives — or at least weekdays at 5, 6 and 11. Not to mention 4 and 10.

 What's perhaps surprising is just how reliable and steady so many of the local TV reporters themselves have been. This past spring, WNBC/4's Chuck Scarborough marked 50 years as an anchor in a major city — 48 of those in the most major city of them all. It's an unprecedented milestone but he's far from alone in the durability department. 

 There are well over two dozen local TV anchors and reporters who have reported continuously since the mid-90s and before. That's when the internet first arrived along with all those self-assured predictions about the death of "legacy media" like local TV news — roadkill on the information superhighway.

So much for predictions, or those ones anyway. These survivors are testament to local TV news' continued relevance and that's in no small measure due to the bonds they've forged with viewers over the decades. 

    Who are they? What was the moment that defined their career? What's the secret to their durability? Newsday reached out to all of them recently to find out. Via interviews conducted by phone or email, here are their stories in (what else?) sound bites.

THE ANCHORS

BRUCE BECK

 WNBC/4 chief sports anchor joined in 1997 after a long run at MSG Network (1982-94) and various other NY venues, including CBS Sports (where he was "voice," and much else, of Hofstra football).

SANDRA BOOKMAN 

Weekend "Eyewitness News" co-anchor,  a reporter at WABC/7 since 1998. 

MAURICE DUBOIS

Port Jefferson's own (Port Jefferson High class of '83), DuBois is co-anchor of the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts at WCBS/2, which he joined in 2004 after seven years with NBC News and WNBC/4 (his first job there as anchor of "Today in New York").

DOUG GEED 

Anchor, News 12, creator/host, "The East End" and record-holder (36 years) as News 12's longest-serving anchor/reporter. .

CINDY HSU

WCBS/2 weekend anchor and reporter, joined the station in 1993, with specialties in education, children, adoption and mental health awareness — notably her own, when she was the focus of a July, 2021 special on her attempted suicide, "Breaking the Stigma." 

COLLEEN MCVEY

Anchor, senior producer, Catholic Faith Network (Uniondale-based) but best known as News 12's evening anchor for more than 30 years. She joined News 12 shortly after launch in 1986 and left in 2019. 

ODALYS MOLINA

Anchor, "Noticiero 47 Telemundo Primera Edición," "Noticiero 47 Telemundo Al Mediodía," who joined WNJU/47 in 1991.

BILL RITTER 

Ch. 7 anchor for top-rated 5, 6 and 11 newscasts, joined ABC News in 1992, as founding co-host of "GMA/Sunday." He succeeded Bill Beutel on the 11 p.m. weeknight broadcast in 1999.

ROSANNA SCOTTO 

Co-host, "Good Day, New York," and an anchor/reporter for WNYW/5 since 1986 — before that, WABC/7 anchor, reporter (and host of a show that would eventually morph into "Live!").

LORI STOKES

Anchor, 5, 6 and 10 p.m. editions, WNYW/5, which she joined in 2017 after a 17-year run at WABC/7, and before that NBC News and MSNBC — which she helped launch in 1996 — where she was the network's first Black anchor. 

JOE TORRES 

Brooklyn-born Torres — who joined Ch. 7 in 1996 as a street reporter — is weekend co-anchor for the 5, 6 and 11 p.m. editions of "Eyewitness News," and host of Sunday morning public affairs show, "Tiempo." 

KAITY TONG

Onetime Ph.D. candidate (Chinese and Japanese literature from Stanford) who instead became a radio reporter and TV anchor in California, then joined WABC/7 in 1980 as its hugely popular 5, 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor. Since 1992, she's been an anchor (now weekends) at WPIX/11. 

DANA TYLER

WCBS/2 6 p.m. anchor, joined the station in 1990 as weekend co-anchor and reporter.

THE REPORTERS

LYNDA BAQUERO

Ch. 4 consumer reporter ("Better Get Baquero"), host of "News 4 Latino" (formerly "Visiones"), also co-anchor of various news programs at one time or another, who joined in 1995, after runs at Ch. 2 and New York 1.

N. J. BURKETT 

WABC/7 reporter on both local (TWA Flight 800, Sandy Hook, police misconduct) and international (Iraq, Israel, Gaza) stories since 1989. (His coverage of 9/11 is now iconic.) Burkett was also Ch. 7's Long Island reporter for six years.

GREG CERGOL

Ch. 4's Melville-based Long Island reporter who joined in 1999 after nearly ten years at News 12. 

CAROLYN GUSOFF 

Among the longest-serving LI TV reporters, she joined News 12 shortly after launch, in 1987, then Ch. 4 (1993-'08), Ch. 5 ('09) and Ch. 2 in 2012. 

MAGEE HICKEY

WPIX/11 reporter who first started at WNYW/5 in 1983 and has since worked at every TV station in New York, three of them twice (yes, believed to be a record). Other than Ch. 11, her longest tenure was at Ch. 4 (1985-'95.)

MARCIA KRAMER 

WCBS/2 chief political correspondent who arrived here in 1990 after a run as City Hall Bureau Chief at the New York Daily News, which had gone on strike; Kramer famously extracted that "did not inhale" gaffe out of then-candidate Bill Clinton during a 1992 debate.

MARY MURPHY

One of the "deans" of New York TV street reporters began her long run at WCBS/2 (1981), then WPIX (1982-86), and back to Ch. 2 (1986-95.) She's been an anchor and investigative reporter at Ch. 11 since '95. 

JENNIFER MCLOGAN

Ch. 2's Long Island reporter since 1993, before that NBC News' Northeast correspondent, is based in her hometown Garden City.

STACEY SAGER 

Dix Hills native who joined WABC/7 in 1996 as a general assignment reporter then — in 1999 and 2011 — produced extensive reports on her own battle with cancer. 

LINDA SCHMIDT 

WNYW/5 investigations/consumer reporter since 1993.

MARVIN SCOTT 

Veteran of veterans, Scott started at WNEW/5 (now WNYW) in 1970, later worked for CNN, Mutual Broadcasting and Ch. 7, then joined WPIX/11 in 1980, as anchor, reporter and host (of the weekly, now defunct," PIX11 News Close-up").

SARAH WALLACE

Investigative reporter for Ch. 4 since 2015, but three decades before that she was at WABC/7, which she sued over gender discrimination after the station dropped her.

THE WEATHER GUYS

IRV GIKOFSKY

Ch. 11 weather forecaster — "Mr. G" — who first joined Ch. 2 in 1977 (after a stint as science teacher at Albert Einstein Intermediate School in the Bronx) and Ch. 11 in 1993. 

LEE GOLDBERG

Chief meteorologist, "Eyewitness News," who joined Ch. 7 in 1996 after brief runs in Syracuse and Boston.

NICK GREGORY

WNYW/5 meteorologist since 1986, and before that morning weather forecaster for startup CNN. There's also the unusual side-gig — as seasoned pilot, and FAA Designated Flight Examiner.

AND 7 MORE