American newsreader Ted Koppel returns to Pendle roots (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)
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American newsreader Ted Koppel returns to Pendle roots
2:00pm Saturday 9th March 2013 in Pendle
ONE of America’s most famous newsreaders is returning to East Lancashire to trace his unlikely Pendle roots.
Ted Koppel is a household name in the United States, having presented ABC’s Nightline programme for 25 years, and he is still working for NBC News.
But the 73-year-old anchorman was actually born in Nelson in 1940, and next month he will return to the town keen to trace his first steps into the world.
He said: “We left Nelson before my first birthday and I have never been back to the town, but next month I will be visiting Nelson and I am looking for help in tracing my local family history.
“I know my father ran a rubber factory in Nelson and that we lived in a house that had a name, rather than a number, but I don’t know where abouts it was.”
Ted’s parents were Jewish immigrants from Germany and his father, Edwin, was on the Isle of Man when the war broke out, and as a result he was interned.
They held him for a year before releasing him and Edwin and his wife, Alice, then moved to Nelson, where Ted was born.
Within a year of his birth, in February 1940, the family had moved to London, and in his teenage years Ted moved to the United States.
He said: “I would like to know more about where I was born but I’m only in Nelson for less than a day so if anybody has any information or can point me in the right direction then I would like to know.
“I’m guessing anybody who knew my parents are probably gone now but I would like to see the house and the area where I lived as a child.”
Ted was anchor of Nightline, which was the US version of the UK’s Newsnight programme, from its inception in 1980 until 2005.
After leaving Nightline he worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel before resigning in 2008.
Now he is a senior news analyst for National Public Radio and contributing analyst to BBC World News America, and contributes to a new NBC News primetime news magazine show.
