MINNEAPOLIS — After four and a half decades, WCCO bids farewell to a loyal photojournalist and wishes him much success.
Dave Chaneys career has taken him around the world, though some of his best stories are right here in Minnesota.
“When you’re young, you don’t realize how big this job is until you do it for a while,” Chaney thought.
He was hired as a sound engineer for WCCO on March 8, 1978. The young man from Shell Lake, Wisconsin was promoted to photographer just eight months later.
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In his career since then, he has been in the room with every president since Ronald Reagan, he has been to political conventions and he has chased hurricanes.
Chaney remembers meeting a little boy trapped under a house during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
“We told him he was a Twins fan and they immediately sent us a bunch of Twins stuff,” he said.
The job also took Chaney and his camera around the world.
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“I’ve traveled to Bosnia, Africa, Saudi Arabia. But some of my favorite stories are the farm stories,” he said. “I love being out there with the people.”
He covered the very first Farm Aid event headlined by Willie Nelson, and met his Hollywood and TV heroes such as Clint Eastwood and Red Fox. The last 46 years have had some upsides, especially when he got to ride in the Channel 4 helicopter.
“I always told the mother of my children, the only reason she went with me was because I gave her a ride in the helicopter. That was a playboy thing to do, you know?” he said.
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With humor and wit, Chaney did it all while helping to raise his three daughters. It was his career that gave him a front-row seat to history, but he still considers fatherhood his greatest achievement.
“My youngest daughter is going into this field. I’m proud of her, but she grew up in this station,” he said.
So he retires as steward of Minnesota history and administrator of WCCO. In all his time, he claims he has never missed a deadline at WCCO.
“When you’ve been in this business as long as I have, a lot of your friends have left and moved away, but then we get new people who are just as good and who love their job… and that’s what I love about WCCO,” Chaney said. “The stories keep changing, but they are good people. And that’s WCCO, it’s the people.”
Chaney says he hopes to travel and spend more time with his family in retirement.
John Lauritsen
