CBS 2 Photojournalist Mike Klingele honored with Silver Circle Award
CHICAGO (CBS) -- We would like to congratulate a member of the CBS 2 family who was honored Friday night at the prestigious Silver Circle Awards.
Longtime photojournalist Mike Klingele was inducted as part of the latest class of honorees.
Klingele is a 43-year veteran of the local news business. A Glen Ellyn native, he began his photojournalism career at Illinois State University's TV-10 News. He went on to NewsCenter 31 and News 25 in Peoria – before joining CBS 2 in 1985.
Starting out at CBS 2, Klingele worked with a roster of legendary anchors and reporters – including Bill Kurtis, Walter Jacobson, Harry Porterfield, Bob Wallace, Mike Parker, Susan Anderson, Phil Walters, and Johnny and Jeannie Morris, to name a few.
Klingele won his first Emmy for shooting and editing Kurtis' Focus reports, "Midwest Drought."
Klingele's assignments have taken him around the world. He traveled to Poland with reporter Jim Avila in 1989. He went to Berlin with Jacobson to examine the white supremacy movement that was resurging after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He traveled to Israel with Chief Correspondent Jay Levine and producer Marda LeBeau to cover Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's trip to the Holy Land.
Klingele has also worked on medical reports with Mary Ann Childers, "Best of Chicago" feature reports with Steve Baskerville, and all kinds of breaking news. In the realm of sports, Klingele operated CBS 2's sideline camera in the Bears-Eagles Fog Bowl on New Year's Eve 1988 – among many other assignments.
More recently, Klingele worked with CBS 2 Investigator Dave Savini on the story of the wrong police raid in which social worker Anjanette Young was handcuffed naked and terrified.
Just this week, Klingele worked with Brad Edwards on a conversation with former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk.
"My career has been an incredible journey, and I feel truly blessed to have spent the last 38 years working with such an amazing team at WBBM-TV," Klingele said. "It's been a hell of a ride."
The Silver Circle Award is one of the most prestigious awards given to Chicago broadcasters.
