Printer Friendly Version - Ann Nyberg: Making News

For close to four decades, Ann Nyberg has been the face of Connecticut news. Her career at WTNH is nothing short of legendary, but Ann is also the face of a number of charitable organizations, always using her position to reach out to her viewers and her community.

Ann originally hails from South Bend, Indiana, and says she started early with her interest in writing and broadcasting.

“My mom bought me a diary when I was 8 years old, and I still have it. And that really started me writing. Certainly, it was a bit mundane at first, like ‘I have to go to the dentist’ or these little entries, but I swear it got me loving the written word,” Ann says.

“I always say I never met a brochure I never loved,” she adds. “I always loved to write and to tell people what’s going on. I see a story in everything, in everyone, in every animal. I’m just built that way.”

Ann is also an accomplished author, having written several books, including one focused on Katharine Hepburn, and says that her love of writing has matured her entire career. According to Ann, though the broadcasting bug has always been strong, she initially went to school for business, but her passion for being on air and telling stories became her overriding aim.

“I married my high school sweetheart, Mark. I was on air in South Bend while he was getting his Ph.D. Then I got a job in Oklahoma City, and he followed me out there and got his doctorate at the University of Oklahoma. Then he got a postdoc opportunity at Yale, so we came here, and that was almost 40 years ago. So, we ended up here as a couple of Midwestern kids but fell in love with Connecticut,” says Ann.

While a self-proclaimed “Midwestern kid,” Ann says that she and Mark fell in love with New England.

“I feel I was meant to be here. We just love it here. It reminds me a bit of Michigan, where I spent time at my parent’s lake cottage, so we always loved it here. We just love New England, especially the shoreline,” says Ann. “I guess I’m still a Midwesterner at heart, but I know pasta now, after living here on the East Coast!”

Ann says it’s hard to pin down her favorite story or most memorable broadcast simply because of the immensity of her career, but she fondly recalls a number of interviews.

“It’s so hard to pin one down, but the pinnacle moment of my life as a journalist was interviewing Walter Cronkite years ago on the stage at Southern Connecticut State University,” Ann recalls. “I’ll never forget that. Once the most trusted man in America, and there he was. It was just me and him on stage. And I was like, ‘Wait. I don’t have the credentials to sit across from Walter Cronkite!’ But he was so delightful and so fun, and it was an out-of-body experience that was just amazing. He was a reporter’s reporter, and that was terrific. But those everyday stories are the ones that excite me. Everybody has a story; I don’t care who they are. So, people like me often talk about the stars and celebrities they interview, but really the everyday person in Connecticut…finding that person and spotlighting them is what I love. To find out about somebody and tell the world about them is what I love.”

Ann just recently became the first female inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame for her dedication to the game and the greater sports community.

“I was in a state of shock to be honored. I have worked with the Walter Camp Football Foundation for more than 25 years. I’ve seen what they do and their kindness toward others, and it has been a beautiful ride watching these men and women do what they do. I was really honored to receive this award,” says Ann. “It’s about community. I was beyond thrilled. I actually love being around a bunch of guys.”

She adds, “My husband swam in high school and was quite a good swimmer, and early on when we were dating, I became the Clay High School men’s swim team manager, and then as he went on, I became the Purdue men’s swim team manager, so I could see Mark at the NCAAs. So, I’ve always been around guys, and I’m comfortable with them, so I was beyond thrilled to be part of what they have built.”

Ann is a mother and grandmother, and another cause dear to her is called Congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which afflicts an astonishing number of newborns. Though some with the virus suffer no symptoms or ill effects, other babies strongly react to this virus, which can cause serious and lifelong health issues.

According to Ann, the syndrome is far more common than even many physicians know. When Ann’s granddaughter was diagnosed with CMV last year, she took up the mantle to raise awareness about the debilitating disease and how widespread and little-studied the virus is.

“My grandbaby, Bevin, was born on Sept. 29 of last year, and all was going well, but unbeknownst to us, she was born deaf. But there was a law passed in Connecticut in 2015 that mandated that any baby born deaf would be automatically tested for what’s called congenital cytomegalovirus. Sure enough, she came up positive for it. Nobody has heard of this, but this virus is global, and yet there simply is no awareness of this. It’s glossed over in medical schools because they say it’s considered so rare. But it’s not rare. It’s the number one cause of nongenetic deafness on the planet.”

Ann explains that the virus can cause cystic fibrosis, deafness, seizures, blindness, stillbirths, and even death.

“And none of us have even heard about it,” Ann says. “So I made it my mission to change laws in Connecticut. What I’m trying to do is educate the state because the most dangerous aspect is pregnant women around toddlers. Toddlers carry the virus in their saliva and urine. We don’t know how my daughter contracted it…so we want education across the state and in daycare centers. Because there are ways of preventing it. Being clean as you can around toddlers is the best defense, and we want universal screening for every baby born in Connecticut. It’s definitely not rare if 1 in 200 babies gets it. So we want to spread the word on this. We don’t want other families to go through what we have endured. It was a mission thrust upon us that we didn’t see coming…but are fighting like hell in Hartford to mandate universal screening.”

Ann says her granddaughter is now on the road to recovery but stresses the importance of expectant mothers and their families getting educated on this developing issue to understand its implications.

“Being as clean as you can when you’re pregnant around toddlers is the best prevention we know of,” says Ann. “No one has heard of this, but we need to avoid and prevent this and to use universal screening. Adding this to the prenatal screenings we already do is extremely important.”

Ann says it is difficult to sum up a nearly 40-year career, but for her, it always comes back to the people and to community.

“I’ve been with WTNH for 36 ½ years. At the end of the day, you have to look people in the eye and touch them and understand what is going on in their life, and we are getting so far from that, and it is not good. Everybody has a story, and the best way to write a story is to listen, especially in television. If you listen, you will learn something. We’re just short sound bites now, and we’re just a headline, but you can read a headline and miss what the real story is.”