Penny Daniels
Penny Daniels | |
---|---|
Born | Elizabeth Penny Comm |
Alma mater | University of Michigan |
Occupation | Communications consultant and trainer, television news anchor |
Spouse(s) | Rick Leventhal (divorced) |
Children | 2 |
Penny Daniels is an American communications consultant and trainer and a former television news anchor who once hosted the TV show A Current Affair.
Early life and education[]
Born as Elizabeth Penny Comm, Daniels is a native of Highland Park, Illinois. She earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1977 and a Master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University in 1980.
Professional career[]
Daniels began her career in 1980 at the CBS affiliate in Green Bay Wisconsin, then moved to Buffalo, New York to report and anchor newscasts at WKBW-TV, the ABC affiliate. From there she moved to Washington, D.C., where she was a reporter and fill-in anchor at WJLA-TV, the ABC station from 1985-1988. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Daniels was an anchor at WSVN-TV in Miami, where she was the first woman to solo anchor a nationally-syndicated, tabloid-style magazine program Inside Story. The magazine program only ran from 1989-1990, but, according to local ratings, was hugely popular in Miami where it was beating the famous A Current Affair, which was then-anchored by Maury Povich and at the time aired on competing station WCIX-TV (now WFOR-TV).[1][2] Shortly before leaving WSVN, Daniels was caught on the air telling a producer "You suck!" "I'm sorry I said it," Daniels later said, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times on March 22, 1993. "I don't usually lose my temper when I'm doing a newscast."[3]
In April 1993, Daniels joined WBBM-TV in Chicago, Illinois as an anchor and reporter. In mid-1993, Daniels and Joan Lovett began anchoring the station's new noon newscast.
In September 1994, Daniels left WBBM to join A Current Affair as a New York-based weekday host. She hosted the show until September 1995, when she shifted to being a correspondent for the program's weekday editions and the anchor of the show's weekend edition. The show went off the air in 1996.[4]
In 1998, Daniels joined KHQ-TV in Spokane, Washington. In October 2000, Daniels abruptly resigned from KHQ and left the TV news business to work as a communications consultant and trainer in Washington, D.C. .[5]
In 2003, Daniels and two partners created the communications consulting and coaching firm, 3D Communications, with offices located across the country.[6] Daniels also interviewed infamous criminal Charles Manson in 1989.[7]
Personal life[]
Daniels currently lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her two children. Her former husband, Rick Leventhal, was an on-air reporter for WSVN-TV in Miami and WFLD-TV in Chicago while Daniels was working in those cities. Leventhal now works for Fox News Channel. Her brother is famed 5'oclock somewhere happy hour host Benjamin Comm of Ashburn, Va.
References[]
- ^ Feder, Robert (March 22, 1993). "Channel 2 Imports Miami Anchor Duo". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 27.
- ^ THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE TELEVISION WRITER TOM JICHA TAKES A DAYLONG LOOK AT WHAT VIEWERS WATCH IN SOUTH FLORIDA South Florida Sun Sentinel, 5 December 1989 (retrieved 8 February 2021)
- ^ Feder, Robert (March 22, 1993). "Channel 2 Imports Miami Anchor Duo". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 27.
- ^ https://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1995/09/15/1995-09-15__central_park_west__premiere.html[permanent dead link]
- ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services-miscellaneous-business/4809535-1.html[bare URL]
- ^ http://www.3dcommunications.us/who.htm
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Charles Manson Interview With Penny Daniels 1989. YouTube.
External links[]
- Living people
- 1954 births
- Medill School of Journalism alumni
- American television reporters and correspondents
- Communications consultants
- University of Michigan alumni