Longtime News 12 anchor Scott Feldman to retire
Photo credit: Undated / Handout | News 12 anchor Scott Feldman, center, stands with Great Neck South High School students and advisers.
Scott Feldman, one of the best-known anchors on Long Island television and a regular presence on News 12 Long Island for the past two decades, is retiring, the channel will announce Monday. His last day is Friday.
A respected journalist and local Emmy award-winner who was the channel's on-air marathon man during coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and TWA Flight 800, Feldman's departure is also significant for the singular fact that so few top anchors ever actually leave News 12.
Working in a business where the doors don't merely revolve but spin, Feldman, 60, has been a member of an unusually stable cadre of anchors who have been here since the news channel's inception in 1986 (he joined in January 1988), including Lea Tyrrell, Carol Silva, Colleen McVey, Doug Geed, and weekend meteorologist Norm Dvoskin.
The channel recently hired Jodi Applegate, onetime co-anchor at WNYW/5's "Good Day New York,"
Ron Corning, will join News 12 this week as Feldman's replacement as evening co-anchor.
News 12 Networks president Patrick Dolan called Feldman "an excellent reporter and anchor, so it was a little bit like having a guy who can pitch and a hitter who can knock it out of the park. He was a tremendous utility player and we called on him to do both."
Feldman - also a former longtime host of the channel's high school quiz show, "The Challenge" - said in a statement, "leaving News 12 Long Island was not an easy decision for me." He thanked viewers for putting "their faith and trust in me."
A St. Louis native, Feldman, 60, joined News 12 after stints in Cleveland, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix and Kansas City, Mo.
News 12 Long Island is owned by Cablevision, which also owns Newsday.
