KMGH Channel 7's Mike Landess to retire in late August

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:



Mike Landess, the silver-haired veteran of four decades as a TV anchor, will retire from KMGH in late August. Landess has spent more than 20 years in the Denver market, 16 of them as part of the most ratings-rich team in local TV news history, when paired with Ed Sardella at KUSA.

Among numerous awards, he received Emmys for his live coverage of the bombing at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park and, in Washington, D.C., for anchoring 16 hours of live coverage after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years and hitting that 50-year mark seemed like an appropriate time to do it,” Landess said in a statement released by KMGH Thursday.

His first job was in radio in Tyler, Texas, as a high school senior. This year marks his 50th in broadcasting.
His first TV anchor job was in Cleveland.

In 1977 he was hired by Channel 9 (then KBTV) and began a 16-year co-anchor run with Sardella. The duo was unmatched, anchoring the highest-rated late newscast in the country, at times claiming a 51 share. (These days a 14 share wins at 10 p.m.) Their heyday was at a time when local TV news was not challenged by the internet or proliferating cable TV programming.

In 1983 Landess was transferred by Gannett to WXIA in Atlanta after a rocky chapter in his personal history; from there he jumped to WTTG in Washington, D.C. He returned to Denver in 2002 at 7News.

Over the years Landess has made headlines both frivolous and serious: he held a spot on the best hair on a male TV personality list multiple times; he also disclosed his diagnosis for prostate cancer on the air and worked to increase awareness of the issue.



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