Ted Koppel '60

Ted Koppel is one of America’s most distinguished journalists, best known for serving as anchor and managing editor of ABC News’ Nightline from 1980 to 2005. Over a broadcast career spanning more than five decades, he reported on every major story since the Vietnam War, covered every U.S. presidential campaign since 1964, and held key roles as ABC’s chief diplomatic correspondent and Hong Kong bureau chief. His incisive interviews and reporting on Nightline set the standard for television journalism and established him as the nation’s longest-serving network daily news anchor.

Koppel’s work has earned virtually every major honor in broadcast journalism, including 41 Emmy Awards, eight George Foster Peabody Awards, ten duPont-Columbia Awards, and the first-ever duPont-Columbia Gold Baton. He has also received the Overseas Press Club, George Polk, and Sigma Delta Chi Awards, along with more than 20 honorary degrees from American universities.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Koppel began his career as a student broadcaster at WAER, where he later served as program director in 1959. He was the station’s first Hall of Fame inductee, embodying WAER’s legacy of shaping journalists whose work resonates worldwide.