Dawn Stensland Mendte is an American television talk show host and

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

working at WJLP-TV in

Freehold, New Jersey Freehold, New Jersey may refer to: * Freehold Borough, New Jersey, the county seat of Monmouth County * Freehold Township, New Jersey Freehold Township is a township in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a r ...

, and on

WPHT WPHT (1210 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its transmitter and broadcast tower are in Moorestown, New Jersey. The radio studios ...

1210 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1210 kHz: 1210 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WPHT Philadelphia is the dominant Class A station on 1210 AM. In Argentina * Del Promesero in José C Paz, Buenos Aires * LRI22 ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. She is also a past anchor of

CBS Saturday Morning ''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller, Dana Jacobson and Jeff Glor. Although the program's name has changed sever ...

. Stensland-Mendte has anchored the news at TV stations across the country including

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

and

WTXF-TV WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market ...

in Philadelphia and

WKYC-TV WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the stati ...

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. She is married to

Larry Mendte Lawrence David Mendte (born January 16, 1957) is an American news anchor, commentator and radio talk show host. Mendte is currently hosting three TV shows, ''Jersey Matters'', ''The Delaware Way'', and ''Another Thing with Larry Mendte''. Mend ...

, a radio talk show host, TV news commentator and news anchor.

Biography

Education

Born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, her family moved quite a bit in her school years to

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

and

Farmington, Minnesota Farmington is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 23,632 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. History Settlers began arriving in Empire Township, in which Farmingto ...

, where Dawn graduated from Farmington High School. Stensland-Mendte earned a B.A. in Journalism from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, where she was president of the school's Society of Professional Journalists chapter.

Career

Stensland started her television career at

KSTP-TV KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities area as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagsh ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, when she earned the one paid internship that the station awards every year. She was hired as a producer and anchor at

WREX-TV Urdnot Wrex is a fictional character in BioWare's ''Mass Effect'' franchise, who serves as a party member (or "squadmate") in the first game of the ''Mass Effect'' trilogy. He is a krogan, an alien race near-sterilised by other galactic races f ...

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

, and at

WKOW-TV WKOW (channel 27) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Allen Media Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Tokay Boulevard on Madison's west side, and its transmitter is locate ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, where she also hosted the Sunday morning political talk show, "Capitol City Sunday." She was the main anchor at

WINK-TV WINK-TV (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Southwest Florida. It is owned by the McBride family and their Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, making it one of a hand ...

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

, before being hired by WBBM-TV, the CBS

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

in Chicago, where she was an anchor and reporter. Next, she was hired by WKYC-TV in Cleveland to co-anchor the 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts.

Philadelphia

Stensland-Mendte is best known for her anchoring in Philadelphia. From 1997 to 2000, she co-anchored the 5 and 6 o'clock newscasts with Ukee Washington and

Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia owned and operated television stations ...

at KYW-TV, CBS's Philadelphia outlet. While she was at KYW-TV, Stensland-Mendte also co-hosted CBS News Saturday Morning with

Russ Mitchell Russell Edward Mitchell (born March 25, 1960) is an American journalist best known for his career at CBS where he was anchor of ''The Early Show'' on Saturday, news anchor for ''The Early Show'' during the week, and weekend anchor of the ''CBS ...

. In 2000, she was hired by WTXF-TV, the Fox owned and operated station in Philadelphia, to be the main anchor. Stensland-Mendte anchored the award winning, top rated 10 o'clock newscast for nearly a decade. Since 2010, Stensland-Mendte has been the TV spokesperson for Dreambaby child safety products, manufactured by the Australian Company Tee-Zed. In September, 2012, Stensland-Mendte started hosting her own talk show, "A New Dawn," on

WMCN-TV WMCN-TV (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Princeton, New Jersey, United States, serving the Philadelphia area with programming from ShopHQ. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Willow Grove, Pennsylvania–licensed independe ...

, a

ShopHQ ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake in th ...

- affiliated station with studios in

Cherry Hill, New Jersey Cherry Hill is a township within Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a population of 74,553, which reflected an increase of 3,508 (+4.94%) from the 71,045 counted in the 2010 census.

, a suburb of Philadelphia. In March, 2013 WMCN changed the name of the show to simply "Dawn." Stensland-Mendte is now heard on

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

as the news anchor of the Rich Zeoli morning show, and hosting the 10 a.m. to noon slot. She can also be seen as a featured reporter and host on ''Jersey Matters'', a public affairs show at

WJLP WJLP (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Middletown Township, New Jersey, United States, broadcasting the classic television network MeTV to the New York City area. It is owned and operated by network parent Weigel Broadcasting alon ...

-TV in Freehold, New Jersey.

Scandal

Stensland-Mendte's husband Larry Mendte co-anchored at KYW-TV with

Alycia Lane Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American television journalist. Until October 2013, she served as weekday morning anchor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. From September, 2003 until January, 2008, she was co-anchor of the weekday evening newscast ...

when she was fired for striking a New York City woman police officer and calling her a "dyke bitch" in December, 2007. Lane then complained to the FBI that Mendte was looking at her emails. Mendte pleaded guilty to one federal charge and admitted to a physical romance with Lane while his wife was going through a difficult pregnancy. He ended the romance when his wife found racy emails from Lane to Mendte. In a public statement, Mendte says Lane then tried to get him fired and he looked at her emails to defend himself. These details were reported on newscasts that Stensland-Mendte anchored. When Mendte was sentenced, Dawn Stensland-Mendte took the stand, looked at Lane and said "there is nothing but sadness in our house." The scandal was front page news in Philadelphia for more than a year and Stensland-Mendte was praised for her courage and for standing by her husband.

Congress

In 2010, Stensland-Mendte made headlines in Philadelphia when she was approached to run as a Republican in

Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district includes all of Carbon, Lehigh, and Northampton Counties; and parts of Monroe County. The district is represented by Democrat Susan Wild. From 2013 through 2018, the district incorporated parts of the ...

. She would have run in a primary against

Pat Meehan Patrick Leo Meehan (born October 20, 1955) is a former American Republican Party politician and federal prosecutor from Pennsylvania who represented parts of Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties in the United States Ho ...

, who was the U.S. Attorney, overseeing the case against her husband. After a flurry of new reports and columns, Stensland-Mendte decided not to run.

Family

Stensland-Mendte has been married to Larry Mendte since 2000. Together, they have two children, both sons; Michael was born in 2004, and David was born in 2006. She is also a step-mom to Mendte’s two adult children, Stacia and Jonathan, from a previous relationship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stensland-Mendte, Dawn 1964 births Living people American television journalists American women television journalists Journalists from Illinois People from Chicago People from Farmington, Minnesota Television anchors from Cleveland Television anchors from Philadelphia 21st-century American women