Larry Mendte

Larry Mendte writes, produces and delivers a news commentary every night for PIX11 News at 10.  The commentaries also air at Tribune TV stations across the country.

Mendte’s commentaries have been credited with helping to pass the 9/11 First Responder’s Health and Compensation Bill.  For his efforts, Mendte has been named an honorary board member of The Fealgood Foundation, the leading advocacy organization for the heroes of 9/11

Mendte recently returned from Libya after travelling with former Congressman Curt Weldon on his peace mission.  Mendte was the only journalist permitted to sit in on negotiations between Weldon’s delegation and the government to end the Libyan crisis.  His reporting was quoted by news organizations around the world.

One of the nation’s most honored broadcasters,  Mendte this year won two New York Emmy awards for his PIX commentaries, giving him a total of 84 regional Emmy awards for his 30 years in broadcasting.  He also has 6 Edward R. Murrow Awards and a National Sigma Delta Chi Award.

Mendte comes to New York from Philadelphia, where he was the 6 and 11 PM anchor at KYW, a CBS station.  He is a member of The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame.  Mendte earned 40 of his regional Emmy Awards in philly, a record four of them in the “Best Anchor” category

From the anchor desk and in the field, Mendte has covered some of  Philadelphia and the nation’s biggest stories of the past decade. He was on the air for several days in a row helping the area through the pain and panic of 9/11. He anchored live from Washington, D.C. for the Clinton Impeachment hearings and for the funeral of Ronald Reagan. Mendte also anchored the news from Los Angeles during the ‘76ers’ run at the NBA championship and from Jacksonville, Florida during the Eagles’ 2005 trip to the Super Bowl. His special assignments have also included the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. And live coverage from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway during the historic Live 8 concert.

In 2005, Mendte received several awards from Veterans groups for a series of reports that prompted the city to re-light Philadelphia’s Eternal Flame in honor of the nation’s war dead. It had been extinguished for more than a decade. His work on behalf of the Eternal Flame was honored on the floor of the United States Senate that year and is now part of the Congressional Record.

Mendte is also an accomplished documentary film maker.  His documentary Alex Scott: A Stand for Hope, about the little girl who started the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation before she died at the age of 8, won over 20 film festivals across the country and was the inspiration for a yearly telethon.  Larry hosted the telethon and produced several touching stories about children with cancer.  The telethons have raised over three million dollars to fight pediatric cancer.

Mendte has also at the forefront of another civic project – the worldwide celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s 300th birthday. In addition to many special reports and public appearances at Ben events, Mendte wrote, hosted and produced the EmmyAward-winning Stealing Lightning from the Sky, a half hour documentary about Franklin that aired locally and in 22 additional markets across the country.

Before joining CBS 3 in July, 2003, Mendte was evening news anchor for WCAU-TV, the NBC station in Philadelphia. Mendte returned to Philadelphia in 1997 to anchor at NBC10. Previously, he co-hosted Access Hollywood, the daily half-hour entertainment news magazine produced by NBC in Los Angeles and was weekday anchor and investigative reporter at Chicago’s WBBM-TV. While at WBBM, Mendte earned a record 27 Emmy Awards and was twice named “Best Reporter” in Illinois by the Associated Press. His series of reports on school bus safety in Chicago led to two new state laws. Prior to WBBM, Mendte was a main anchor for KFMB-TV in San Diego and a weekend anchor at WABC-TV in New York.

In his free time, Mendte is active with a number of charities including The Alzheimer’s Association, Autism Speaks and the juvenile Diabetes Foundation.

Raised in Lansdowne, Mendte graduated from Monsignor Bonner High School and has been inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from West Chester Universityand has been awarded the school’s distinguished alumni award and the President’s medal for community service. Mendte and his wife, former Fox and CBS Anchor Dawn Stensland, have four children