Fox59 morning news anchor Ray Cortopassi is heading to Chicago.
WGN-TV, a Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. television station in Chicago, announced Thursday that Cortopassi will be the new co-anchor of WGN Evening News.
"I haven’t been quite able to put all the emotions into something meaningful," Cortopassi told the IndyStar. "But I will say I’m excited about the next chapter in my life."
Cortopassi starts Sept. 28 as an evening news anchor of WGN Evening News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., WGN News at Nine and WGN News at Ten alongside Micah Materre.
He will replace Joe Donlon, who will now co-anchor News Nation, Nexstar's national news startup, which debuts Sept. 1.
“I am honored to join Micah and the WGN family,” Cortopassi said in a press release. “It’s been my dream and our family’s wish to come back since leaving my hometown in the mid-1990s. I’m humbled and thrilled by the chance to work in the best newsroom in America and grateful to join a team of journalists who know the value of telling Chicago’s story.”
A TV broadcaster for more than 25 years, Cortopassi joined the FOX59 news team in 2009 and anchored morning news from 7-10 a.m. alongside Angela Ganote. Previously, he was the evening anchor at the ABC station in Indianapolis and an anchor and reporter at TV stations in Michigan and Las Vegas.
Cortopassi, who has received multiple Emmy and Associated Press awards, is originally from Dolton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and started his career in Chicago as a reporter for City News Bureau.
“We’re excited to welcome Ray back home to Chicago,” said WGN-TV news director Dominick Stasi in a press release. “Ray has a passion for this city and knows the stories that shape it. He is an accomplished and talented journalist and will be a great addition to our team.”
Cortopassi told the IndyStar he and his wife, Leslie, always expected to return to Chicago in a few years, but those few years turned into 26 years. Together, they raised four children in Indiana and made Indiana their home, he said.
"At the back of my mind I wondered if a move back to my hometown would still be in the cards," he said.
After years passed, Cortopassi began to think he was meant to be a Hoosier. But when an opportunity at the station he grew up watching in Chicago came along, Cortopassi knew he had to take it and continue his own story as a journalist where his life began.
While he grew up in Chicago, he said he grew into a journalist in Indianapolis alongside lifelong friends including Ganote, Jim O'Brien and many others who he worked with.
"You live a life in large part by the friendships that you make, and your reputation is served by the work that you do," he said. "I’ve always tried to approach my job with compassion and honesty — and that’s exactly what I got back, both from friends I know and friends who connect with us through the news. So to say goodbye is going to be tough."
Cortopassi said he is thankful to his Fox59 colleagues for helping him learn to tell stories and for his viewers in Indianapolis for allowing him to tell their stories.
"To the viewers who’ve encouraged me to be myself on the air, been there through the ups and downs, you’re the reason I’ve had any measure of success," he said. "Thank you for offering me a wonderful life."
Contact Pulliam Fellow Christine Fernando at cfernando@gannett.com.
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August 21, 2020 at 02:18AM
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'To say goodbye is going to be tough': TV anchor Ray Cortopassi is leaving Fox59 - IndyStar
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