Mark Concannon, who's been a fixture on Channel 6's morning newscast for 20 years, announced today that he's leaving Milwaukee's Fox affiliate next month.
In an e-mail to co-workers today, Concannon wrote:
I was part of the Wakeup News broadcast that signed on in 1990 as a
one-hour morning show. Since then, we've grown the program to
4.5.hours, the longest daily TV newscast in Milwaukee history.
It's been a great ride but I feel this is the right time for me to pursue other opportunities.
My last day on Wakeup will be March 24th. I feel privileged to have been a part of Wakeup's continuous success and hope the show does well in the future.
I will miss the many special people I've worked with since starting here as a sportscaster in 1987. I am grateful to Channel 6 for giving me the opportunity to work and live in a city I love and that's what I'll continue to do going forward.
News director Jim Lemon e-mailed this to his staff:
I want to take this opportunity to thank Mark for the contributions he has made to this newsroom during his significant tenure here. Mark is a professional who wants the best from himself and for his newscast. That passion for quality has served all of us well in this hyper competitive market.
Mark and I have been talking about this new chapter in his life, and I have the highest respect for him and what he has brought to our broadcasts: a rock-solid anchor who can handle anything thrown at him; a remarkable storyteller who regularly brought compelling stories to our newscasts. Thanks, Mark for all that you have done here.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
