Yesterday, WNBC announced that senior correspondent Ralph Penza passed away at age 74 yesterday morning. WNBC said, "Ralph was a consummate professional with that rare ability to touch the viewer. A longtime friend, he was a true gentleman who embodied integrity and whose company will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family at this time."
Many people in the NYC-metro area had been reassured by Penza's presence on TV over the past three decades, and he actually started working in the city's local TV news back in 1961. He worked as a writer and producer at WABC-TV, then moved to WCBS-TV where he became a reporter. In 1972, he became co-anchors with Jim Jensen on the WCBS 2 11PM news. He joined WNBC in 1980, working as reporter and weekend anchor, and most recently as a senior correspondent and back-up anchor.
The Daily News called him the "ultimate street reporter" and the NY Times had a great description of Penza's style:
Mr. Penza, a senior correspondent for WNBC-TV, was best known for his aggressive reporting style and investigative news series, which often carried provocative titles like “Killer Fish” and “Dangerous Doctors.” He was also known for his signature “walking stand-ups,” in which the camera would follow him as he moved around a scene instead of standing still in one spot.
Penza was often on location. When he covered the Pope's visit to Cuba in 1998, he interviewed Joanne Chesmiard, aka Assata Shakur (and who a CUNY campus center is sometimes named after) about her involvement in the killing of a NJ state trooper in the 1970s.
WNBC producer Diane Drummey Marino told the NY Times, "I used to say he was like the Dalmatian in the firehouse. He lived to report the news and to let people know what was going on so they could make decisions that were informed. He was a Brooklyn guy who loved New York and never thought of himself as above his viewers.”
WNBC has video of Penza on its site.
