Ronald N. Handberg, a journalist who ultimately became general manager at WCCO TV, died of pancreatic cancer on January 26. The Northeast resident was 87.
Handberg was born in Minneapolis in 1938. He attended Robbinsdale High School, where he co-edited the school’s newspaper. In 1961, he graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism.
He began his reporting career in the summer of 1960 with a summer job at WCCO Radio. He moved to WCCO TV in 1964; in 1971, he became its Director of News and Public Affairs.
Under Handberg’s leadership, WCCO won five Peabody awards, five national Emmy awards, six Sigma Delta Chi Awards, four Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards for investigative reporting, six duPont-Columbia Awards, 13 national Radio Television News Directors Association Awards for news and public affairs coverage. Handberg served as a reporter, news director and general manager for the station.
Mark Rosen, a WCCO anchor and reporter from 1969-2019, called Handberg “the heart and soul of arguably the single greatest local newsroom in the country.”
Handberg’s newsroom was ranked first in the nation for on-air chemistry. When asked about how they did it, Handberg and his staff said that they were simply friends.
In 1989, Handberg retired from WCCO. Four years later, he returned to television, however briefly, to help launch NewsNight Minnesota, an award-winning public television news show that ran on TPT from 1994-2010.
In 2008, he was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame. At the time, The Pavek Museum, a St. Louis Park-based communications gallery, wrote that “Ron Handberg is that rare journalist who found his way to the top and never lost sight of the powerful relationship a television station can have with its community.
“Under his leadership, WCCO TV created the region’s largest investigative journalism unit and launched such award-winning mainstays as the I-Team and Dimension features as well as the Moore Report documentaries.”
Following his retirement in 1989, Handberg wrote and published seven novels, often focusing on Minnesotan news reporters solving mysteries. His most recent title, “On Nowhere Street: Jennie’s Journey,” was published in 2023. The book had a focus on Minnesota’s homeless youth.
Handberg was a member of Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church. Funeral services were held at the church on Monday, February 9. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the University of Minnesota Foundation’s Ron and Carol Handberg Scholarship Fund or to Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church.
Handberg is survived by his wife, Carol; his children, Deborah Louwagie, Greg Handberg and Mindy Rosenow; grandchildren Nate, Sam, Zach, Tony, Kate, Allie, Maddy, Ben and Jake; and six great-grandchildren.