Dennis Anderson

Inducted 2019

Dennis Anderson’s broadcast career started in 1961 when he was a senior in high school. He produced 15 minute weekly radio plays that soon grabbed the attention of Jim Praise, Station Manager of WHLB Radio, which ultimately landed him a job on-air. Later, at the tender age of 19, listeners would hear him break the story of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

In October of 1968, KTHI-TV in Fargo hired Dennis as News Director and News Anchor. After a year of broadcasting in Fargo, his career moved him to WDIO-TV in Duluth. 1971 brought unexpected national media attention when his 16mm film camera was confiscated by Duluth police while filming a burglary in progress. This action was later ruled a constitutional violation of the first, fourth and fourteenth amendments, a landmark decision made by U.S. District Court Judge Phillip Neville.

Dennis Anderson was named WDIO-TV’s chief anchor in 1972 and would retire from this position in 2011. After retirement from WDIO, he became coanchor of Almanac North on WDSE-TV, the Duluth PBS station.

Throughout his television anchor career, Dennis Anderson has broke and covered many significant news stories; F-4 tornado near Outing, the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Duluth’s Glensheen Mansion murders, the Northwest Airlink passenger plane crash in Hibbing, and the plane crash of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone near Eveleth.

Awards and achievements include: Three regional Emmys, 2003 UMD Chancellor’s Outstanding Media Persons’ Award, 2008 City of Virginia Hall of Fame inductee, 2011 Gold Circle Award from The National Academy of Arts And Sciences, and being ordained as a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church.