Charles "Chick" McCuen

Inducted 2008

As one of the Twin Cities’ first TV news directors and anchors, Chick McCuen had a knack for covering both hard news and human interest features, and helped set the standards for all who followed.

An Iowa native, McCuen graduated from Drake University and became a newscaster at KRNT Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. As a war correspondent during World War II, he covered General Patton’s Third Army in Europe. He came to Minnesota in 1951 to take over the news department at WCCO TV, directing the newsroom, anchoring daily newscasts, and helping define what television news would be in those early days. Seven years later he became anchor at WTCN TV (now KARE TV). In 1961, he moved to NBC and WMAQ TV in Chicago, where he served as anchor, political correspondent, reporter, moderator, and head of NBC’s Illinois Bureau. Seeking new challenges, he became head of educational television for the Illinois State Board of Education in 1970. Later in the decade, he returned to KARE TV as an independent writer, producer, and narrator producing features and documentaries, including Color Me Old, his award-winning series on aging. He passed away in 1995.