Cyndy Brucato (born August 13, 1951) is a journalist, public relations consultant and former longtime

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, news anchor. She was born and raised in

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, and was educated there through graduate school at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

's Medill School of Journalism.

Early broadcasting career

After getting her start at WDIO-TV in

Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...

, in the mid 1970s, Brucato garnered respect in the late 1970s as a hard hitting, no-nonsense reporter at

WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4), branded CBS Minnesota, is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations divisi ...

in Minneapolis-St. Paul, followed by

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's CBS network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington St ...

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 ...

. Amid much fanfare,

KSTP-TV KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Hubbard Broadcasting, which has owned th ...

brought her back to Minnesota in 1979 as a news co-anchor alongside Ron Magers. They were the Twin Cities' top-rated news team—an era unparalleled at the station. After Magers' departure in 1981, she was paired with Stan Turner for most of the next five years, with a short stint sitting next to Bob Vernon. In 1986, Brucato sought a news anchor position in Boston. Although a move never transpired, KSTP management decided to pull Cyndy off-air for the months remaining on her contract. After her non-compete agreement with Channel 5 expired, she briefly moved to

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in 1987. She gave featured reports under the heading 'Cyndy's Notebook'.

Gubernatorial press secretary

From 1990-1996, Brucato served as Deputy Chief of Staff, Director of Communications and Press Secretary for Republican Minnesota Governor

Arne Carlson Arne Helge Carlson (born September 24, 1934) is an American politician who served from 1991 to 1999 as the 37th governor of Minnesota. Carlson is considered a liberal Republican. Before his governorship, he served as the Minnesota State Audito ...

. She also served as Director of Communications for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and as Communications Director for Republican

Norm Coleman Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senate, United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Mi ...

Establishment of public relations firm

During the next eight years, Brucato was President and Chief Consultant of Brucato & Halliday Ltd., a Minnesota-based public relations company. Her business was certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, the nation's leading advocate of women-owned businesses.

Return to KSTP and aftermath

In 2004, after an 18-year absence from the station, Brucato made a surprise return to the

anchor desk. Her comeback had been preceded by a guest appearance as a fill-in sportscaster, at Sports Director Joe Schmit's request. Management then decided to rehire her for a news anchor position. During her first year back at Channel 5, Brucato anchored the 10:00 p.m. news until a new main anchor team was in place. She remained on the KSTP 6:30 news anchor desk until September 2010. During her tenure, she received a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

and a national

Emmy 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 catego ...

, and was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. While Brucato's return to KSTP only caused an initial bump in the ratings, her greater significance was to add insight and depth to the news desk, which has many newer personalities in the market. She also expressed public support for the Hubbard family. Brucato is currently a featured political reporter for MinnPost.com. and is the host of Greater MSP Business, a weekly business program which aired on KSTP-TV from 2012 until 2015 when due to low ratings, it was pulled from KSTP's schedule and moved to online exclusively.

References

External links

Brucato's biography on Brucato.com.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brucato, Cyndy 1951 births Living people People from Hennepin County, Minnesota Writers from Minneapolis Journalists from Minneapolis Journalists from Chicago American television journalists Medill School of Journalism alumni American women television journalists Television anchors from Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota 21st-century American women