Joseph Christopher Glenn (March 23, 1938 – October 17, 2006) was an American radio and television news

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who worked in broadcasting for over 45 years and spent the final 35 years of his career at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, retiring on February 23, 2006 at the age of 67.

Early life

Glenn was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. He earned a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in English from the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

. His early years in broadcasting were spent working for the American Forces Network while he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in 1960.

Career

Glenn worked at various radio stations in New York,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

before joining CBS in 1971. While at CBS, Glenn worked in a variety of capacities in its news organization. He was a narrator for '' In the News'', a long-running Emmy Award-winning TV news program geared toward children and young people, which aired between the network's Saturday morning children's shows. Glenn also appeared on camera as an anchor for the short-lived '' 30 Minutes'', a young people's version of '' 60 Minutes''. He served as an anchor for two of the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

's signature news roundups carried by affiliates in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

- ''The World Tonight'' (now the ''

CBS World News Roundup The ''CBS World News Roundup'' is the longest-running network radio newscast in the United States. It airs weekday mornings and evenings on the CBS Radio Network. It first went on-air on March 13, 1938, at 8 p.m. ET as a one-time special in res ...

'' Late Edition) from 1988 to 1999, and the morning ''CBS World News Roundup'' from 1999 until his retirement. Glenn's final morning broadcast occurred on February 23, 2006. From 1982 to 1984, Glenn served as a television news anchor on '' CBS News Nightwatch'', which aired from 2-6 a.m. weekdays. Glenn made his best-known report on January 28, 1986, when he anchored CBS News Radio's live coverage of the launch of the

Space Shuttle Challenger Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challenge ...

. Glenn had just signed off—after what was thought to have been a normal launch— when the shuttle disintegrated, killing the seven astronauts on board. "I had to get back on the air real fast to describe that, and had a very difficult time doing that," he recalled. Glenn and correspondent Frank Mottek (now a reporter at CBS Radio station KNX in Los Angeles) covered the Challenger disaster from that point as a CBS NetAlert bulletin. Glenn was among the first CBS News correspondents to use a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

(an Apple II). Glenn continued to play sound clips in his newscasts from

carts A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed ...

long after most of the industry had switched to computer-based playback systems.

Death

Glenn, who suffered from liver cancer, died suddenly on October 17, 2006 at the age of 68 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Glenn was posthumously inducted into the

National Radio Hall of Fame The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicati ...

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

on November 4.

External links

*
Glenn's final ''CBS World News Roundup'' broadcast: 2/23/2006
* CBS Radio news bulletin anchored by Christopher Glenn of the Challenger disaster, 1/28/1986
Part 1Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glenn, Christopher American radio journalists American television journalists CBS News people Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Deaths from liver cancer People from Norwalk, Connecticut University of Colorado Boulder alumni 1938 births 2006 deaths American male journalists Journalists from New York City

Early life

Career

Death

See also

External links