Dawn Stensland Mendte is an American television talk show host and

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

working at WJLP-TV in Freehold, New Jersey, and on

WPHT WPHT (1210 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a talk radio radio format, format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios are in Audacy's corporate headquarters on Market Stree ...

1210 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1210 kHz: 1210 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WPHT Philadelphia is the dominant Class A station on 1210 AM. In Argentina * Del Promesero in José C Paz, Buenos Aires * LRI ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. She is also a past anchor of

CBS Saturday Morning ''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson. Although the program's name has changed several times ...

. Stensland-Mendte has anchored the news at TV stations across the country including

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 ...

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3), branded as CBS Philadelphia, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned and operated by the CBS television network through its CBS News and Stations division alongside WPSG (channel 57 ...

and

WTXF-TV WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market Street in Center City an ...

in Philadelphia and

WKYC-TV WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longt ...

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. She is married to

Larry Mendte Lawrence David Mendte (born January 16, 1957) is the host of Mendte in the Morning on WOR radio in New York City, after spending a year at the station as new director and anchor. Mendte is a longtime American TV news anchor, commentator and h ...

, a radio talk show host, TV news commentator and news anchor.

Biography

Education

Born in

Chicago, Illinois 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 ...

, her family moved quite a bit in her school years to

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

and

Farmington, Minnesota Farmington is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,632 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. History Settlers began arriving in Empire Township, in which Farming ...

, where Dawn graduated from Farmington High School. Stensland-Mendte earned a B.A. in journalism from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, where she was president of the school's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.

Career

Stensland started her television career at

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 ...

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 ...

, when she earned the one paid internship that the station awards every year. She was hired as a producer and anchor at

WREX-TV WREX (channel 13) is a television station in Rockford, Illinois, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Allen Media Group, it is the market's only full-power VHF station and is Rockford's second oldest television station. WREX's studios a ...

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, Winnebago and Ogle County, Illinois, Ogle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River (Mississippi River tributary), Rock River, Rockfor ...

, and at

WKOW-TV WKOW (channel 27) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Group. The station's studios are located on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side, and its transmitter is located on So ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

, where she also hosted the Sunday morning political talk show, "Capitol City Sunday." She was the main anchor at

WINK-TV WINK-TV (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a hand ...

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...

, before being hired by WBBM-TV, the CBS

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

in Chicago, where she was an anchor and reporter. Next, she was hired by WKYC-TV in Cleveland to co-anchor the 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts.

Philadelphia

Stensland-Mendte is best known for her anchoring in Philadelphia. From 1997 to 2000, she co-anchored the 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts with Ukee Washington and

Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author known for his over 6 decade career. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia own ...

at KYW-TV, CBS's Philadelphia outlet. While she was at KYW-TV, Stensland-Mendte also co-hosted CBS News Saturday Morning with

Russ Mitchell Russell Edward Mitchell (born March 25, 1960) is an American journalist best known for his career at CBS where he was anchor of ''The Early Show'' on Saturday, news anchor for ''The Early Show'' during the week, and weekend anchor of the ''CB ...

. In 2000, she was hired by WTXF-TV, the Fox owned and operated station in Philadelphia, to be the main anchor. Stensland-Mendte anchored the award-winning, top rated 10 o'clock newscast for nearly a decade. Since 2010, Stensland-Mendte has been the TV spokesperson for Dreambaby child safety products, manufactured by the Australian Company Tee-Zed. In September, 2012, Stensland-Mendte started hosting her own talk show, "A New Dawn," on

WMCN-TV WMCN-TV (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Princeton, New Jersey, United States, serving the Philadelphia area with programming from Shop LC. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Willow Grove, Pennsylvania–licensed indepen ...

, a

ShopHQ ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) was an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., whose assets were acquired by IV Media on ...

- affiliated station with studios in

Cherry Hill, New Jersey Cherry Hill is a Township (New Jersey), township within Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As a suburb of Philadelphia, the township is part of the South Jersey and Delaware Valley regions. Cherry Hill ...

, a suburb of Philadelphia. In March, 2013 WMCN changed the name of the show to simply "Dawn." Stensland-Mendte is now heard on

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

as the news anchor of the Rich Zeoli morning show, and hosting the 10 a.m. to noon slot. She can also be seen as a featured reporter and host on ''Jersey Matters'', a public affairs show at

WJLP WJLP (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Middletown Township, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting the classic television network MeTV to the New York City area. It is owned and operated by network parent Weigel Broadcasting along ...

-TV in Freehold, New Jersey.

Congress

In 2010, Stensland-Mendte made headlines in Philadelphia when she was approached to run as a Republican in

Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district includes all of Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties, and parts of Monroe County. It has been represented by Republican Ryan Mackenzie since 2025. From March 2003 through 2018, the district inc ...

. She would have run in a primary against

Pat Meehan Patrick Leo Meehan (born October 20, 1955) is a former American Republican Party politician and federal prosecutor from Pennsylvania who represented parts of Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties in the United States Hou ...

, who was the U.S. Attorney, overseeing the case against her husband. After a flurry of new reports and columns, Stensland-Mendte decided not to run.

Family

Stensland-Mendte has been married to Larry Mendte since 2000. Together, they have two children, both sons; Michael was born in 2004, and David was born in 2006. She is also a step-mom to Mendte's two adult children, Stacia and Jonathan, from a previous relationship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stensland-Mendte, Dawn 1964 births Living people American television journalists American women television journalists Journalists from Chicago People from Farmington, Minnesota Television anchors from Cleveland Television anchors from Philadelphia 21st-century American women