Ralph Penza (November 22, 1932 – February 16, 2007) was a senior correspondent and substitute anchor for

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo statio ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He first joined WNBC in 1980, left the station in 1995 and rejoined it in October 1997. Among his many honors are six Emmy Awards and two

New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a private nonprofit membership organization which promotes journalism in the New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from politics. While the c ...

''Gold Typewriter'' awards. He is credited by peers within the journalism community with introducing the 'walking head shot' whereby the reporter literally walked the audience through the scene of the crime, event, etc. The technique has been widely emulated and is currently taught at Columbia University and NYU. Penza had done reporting in

Coatesville, Pennsylvania Coatesville is a city in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,350 at the 2020 census. Coatesville is approximately 39 miles west of Philadelphia. It developed along the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike beginni ...

and

Waterloo, Iowa Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census the population was 67,314, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. The city is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Fall ...

. Prior to joining WNBC, Penza worked as news director at WSAV-TV in

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

, Georgia, anchor and reporter at WDVM in Washington, D.C., an anchor at

WCAU WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, a producer, reporter and anchor at WCBS, and a producer at WABC. While in high school Penza served as a copy boy for

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...

. Penza graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Delta, with a bachelor's degree in radio and television. Previous to that he had graduated from

Valley Stream Central High School Valley Stream Central High School is a public senior high school (grades 10–12) in the village of Valley Stream, New York, Valley Stream, New York (state), New York on the South Shore of Nassau County, New York, Nassau County. It is part of the ...

Valley Stream Valley Stream is a village in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population in the Village of Valley Stream was 37,511 at the 2010 census. The incorporated Village of Valley Stream is within the Town of Hempstead, ...

, New York. He lived most of his adult life in

Malverne Malverne is a village in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 8,514 at the 2010 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area o ...

, immediately adjacent to his boyhood hometown in Valley Stream. In February 1998, while covering

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

's trip to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, Penza located

Joanne Chesimard Assata Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron; July 16, 1947; also married name, JoAnne Chesimard) is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder ...

, who was convicted of killing New Jersey state trooper Werner Foerster 24 years earlier. She was sentenced to life in prison but escaped in 1979 and fled to Cuba for

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another ent ...

. She spoke to Penza in an interview where she maintained her innocence and recounted the night of the shooting. Penza's coverage of the Pope's visit to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Ho ...

earned him an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2000.

Personal life and death

Penza died from an undisclosed illness at the age of 74 in 2007. He was survived by his wife Lucille and two children. Penza's daughter Christina was an Emmy Award-winning television producer in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

(

KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona-li ...

, a reporter at Los Angeles station UPN 13, and a general and investigative reporter at

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...

KLAS and

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 2 ...

WINK-TV television stations. She currently is the CEO of Los Angeles-based Attorneys Edge, a production company that uses digital video to recreate visual evidence for court trials. His son Ralph Scott is an audiobook producer and narrator who records audiobooks along with his wife Kendra and produces serialized audio drama in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, California, San Jose, and Oakland, Ca ...

area. The two have won multiple awards for their work in audio drama.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penza, Ralph 1932 births 2007 deaths American male journalists People from Malverne, New York American television journalists Television anchors from New York City New York (state) television reporters New York University alumni Television anchors from Philadelphia Television anchors from Washington, D.C. American people of Italian descent People from Valley Stream, New York Valley Stream Central High School alumni