Joseph Christopher Glenn (March 23, 1938 – October 17, 2006) was an American radio and television news

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

who worked in broadcasting for over 45 years and spent the final 35 years of his career at CBS, retiring on February 23, 2006 at the age of 68.

Early life

Glenn was born in Queens, New York City. He earned a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in English from the University of Colorado Boulder. His early years in broadcasting were spent working for the American Forces Network while he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

in 1960.

Career

Glenn worked at various radio stations in New York,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, and Washington, D.C. before joining CBS in 1971. While at CBS, Glenn worked in a variety of capacities in its news organization. He was a narrator for '' In the News'', a long-running

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning TV news program geared toward children and young people, which aired between the network's Saturday morning children's shows. Glenn also appeared on camera as an anchor for the short-lived '' 30 Minutes'', a young people's version of ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...

''. He served as an anchor for two of the CBS Radio Network's signature news roundups carried by affiliates in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

- ''The World Tonight'' (now the '' CBS World News Roundup'' Late Edition) from 1988 to 1999, and the morning ''CBS World News Roundup'' from 1999 until his retirement. Glenn's final morning broadcast occurred on February 23, 2006. From 1982 to 1984, Glenn served as a television news anchor on '' CBS News Nightwatch'', which aired from 2-6 a.m. weekdays. Glenn made his best-known report on January 28, 1986, when he anchored CBS News Radio's live coverage of the launch of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. Glenn had just signed off—after what was thought to have been a normal launch— when the shuttle disintegrated, killing the seven

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s on board. "I had to get back on the air real fast to describe that, and had a very difficult time doing that," he recalled. Glenn and correspondent Frank Mottek (now a reporter at CBS Radio station KNX in Los Angeles) covered the Challenger disaster from that point as a CBS NetAlert bulletin. Glenn was among the first CBS News correspondents to use a

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

(an

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

). Glenn continued to play sound clips in his newscasts from Fidelipac, carts long after most of the industry had switched to computer-based playback systems.

Personal life

Glenn married Dianne West in 1960, and had two daughters.

Death

Glenn, who suffered from liver cancer, died suddenly on October 17, 2006 at the age of 68 in

Norwalk, Connecticut Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The city, part of the New York metropolitan area, New York Metropolitan Area, is the List of municipalities of Connecticut by population, sixth-most populous city in Connecticut ...

. Glenn was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on November 4.

References

External links