Lou Waters

Inducted 2005

Known to millions around the world for his 21 years with CNN, Lou Waters has been a success in everything from Top 40 rock and roll radio to worldwide television news. A Minneapolis native, Waters became interested in broadcasting while studying architectural engineering at the University of Minnesota. He broke into radio as an announcer with WMIN AM in 1959, and later worked at WLOL AM before joining KDWB AM, where, as "Loveable Lou Riegert," he was the Twin Cities' number one disc jockey in the early 1960s. After a stint at WWTC AM, he moved on to radio jobs in San Francisco, Honolulu, and Los Angeles, New York City, and Buffalo, where he also did weather for WGR TV. He began his television career in earnest at KVOA TV in Tucson, Arizona, later becoming news director at KCST TV in San Diego. In 1980, intrigued by an offer of "very little money, long hours, and no guarantee of success," he joined Ted Turner's Cable News Network in Atlanta in 1980. The network's longest-serving anchor, he led CNN's coverage of such stories as the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1987 and the Bay Area earthquake in 1989. He retired from CNN in 2001 but later returned to Tucson as news anchor with KWBA TV.