WLWT Anchor Lisa Cooney Retiring After 30 Years

Lisa Cooney

Hearst-owned NBC affiliate WLWT Cincinnati (DMA 35) announced today that long-time anchor Lisa Cooney will retire in April after 30 years at the station.

Cooney, a Northern Kentucky native, was hired by WLWT in December of 1988 as a parttime writer. She rose through the ranks to become an Emmy Award-winning reporter, and morning and evening anchor. Since 2004, Cooney has been a familiar face in the morning, anchoring WLWT News 5 Today.

“It’s hard to describe what Lisa has meant to WLWT,” said WLWT President-GM Branden Frantz. “Her tireless work for more than three decades is a lasting tribute to the commitment she’s made to the people and communities we serve.”

In announcing her retirement, Cooney said: “It’s been an honor and privilege to work in a job that I’ve loved so much in my hometown. I will always be grateful to the wonderful people of Cincinnati, to WLWT and to my managers and co-workers here at the television station.”

As a reporter, Cooney covered the 1993 Lucasville prison riot, staying on-site for 11 days and was part of the team that stayed on the air for eight straight hours as part of the agreement between the inmates and the FBI to end the riot. She also covered Pope John Paul II’s visits to the United States in New York in 1993 and St. Louis in 1999, and John Glenn’s last space shot.

Cooney was briefly off the air in early 2001 while donating a kidney to a family friend. Since the transplant, she has advocated for the need for more donors.

“Lisa’s experience and hometown knowledge has guided viewers through so many of Cincinnati’s biggest news stories,” said WLWT News Director Jeff Benscoter. “Working a morning news shift can be very demanding, yet it’s something she did for most of her three decades at WLWT. It truly speaks to her passion for journalism, and her commitment to the people we serve every day.”