Ernie Anastos, the legendary Big Apple news anchor who was a trusted voice in the tristate area for decades, has died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was 82.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Ernie Anastos, who died at the age of 82,\u201d Fox 5 said in a statement posted online Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Ernie Anastos on the Fox5 News set in an undated photo. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Emmy Award-winning journalist and beloved former Fox 5 news anchor, his voice, integrity, and lasting impact on New York journalism will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anastos died early Thursday morning of pneumonia at Northern Westchester Hospital, his wife said,\u00a0according to CBS 2.<\/a><\/p>\n During a storied on-air career that spanned decades, he earned 30 Emmy awards and nominations and covered notable events like the 9\/11 terror attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n He also clinched the prestigious Lifetime Emmy Award.<\/p>\n The proud Greek-American worked for several different flagship New York television networks and was inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n He started out at ABC 7 in 1978 and lasted there until 1989. He then joined CBS 2, before moving on to WWOR in 1997 and then returning to CBS in 2001, according to the state broadcaster association.<\/p>\n Anastos died at age 82. Getty Images<\/p>\n Anastos inked a deal in 2005 with Fox 5 NY, where he and Rosanna Scotto paired up to deliver the nightly news.<\/p>\n He left Fox 5 around 2020 to enroll in leadership management classes at Harvard Business School.<\/p>\n Calling Walter Cronkite one of his heroes, Anastos was working as a 77WABC radio host leading up to his death.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to teach truth in our homes and in our schools, wherever we have that opportunity,\u201d he said in a March 3 Instagram video.<\/p>\n News Anchors Rosanna Scotto and Ernie Anastos enjoy each others company out of the office. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cI think we all have to sit back and say let\u2019s stand up for truth and support it and make sure that we live it on a day-to-day basis.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in his career Anastos was pressured to abandon his iconic Greek last name, he told the\u00a0New York Times in a 2010 profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n His boss at a Boston radio station asked him if he\u2019d be uncomfortable if he was called Ernie Andrews while a superior at a Rhode Island television station suggested, Keith Andrews, according to the Times profile.<\/p>\n \u201cEthnic names were not all that hot,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n WABC news anchors Ernie Anastos, Kaity Tong seen in 1986. ABC<\/p>\n Condolences poured in shortly after the news of his death.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoyed working with him, anchoring alongside of him on the 10 o\u2019clock news. He was a good man and someone we really looked up to,\u201d wrote Scotto in a\u00a0Facebook post.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are all heartbroken.\u201d<\/p>\n Another former Fox 5 colleague, Teresa Priolo, called him the \u201cheart of our newsroom.\u201d<\/p>\n