Kaity Chung Biography
Kaity Tong is a Chinese-born American broadcast journalist. She is well known as a television news anchor in New York City since 1981.
Kaity Chung Age
Tong was born on July 23rd, 1947 in Qingdao, China.
Kaity Chung Family | Young
Kaity arrived in the United States with her family at age four. Her parents anglicized their names to George and Anita Tong. She later became a United States citizen in 1985. She was raised up in Washington, D.C., she was inspired to become a journalist by her great-uncle, Hollington Tong, an ambassador to the US from China as well as an acclaimed author. Her mother worked for the Voice of America as a broadcaster and producer in Washington, D.C
Kaity Chung Married | Children
Tong is a married man, she has a son, Philip Long, from her first marriage to Robert Long, former news director and a vice-president at Los Angeles’s KNBC-TV until September 25, 2009. She later got married photographer Patrick Callahan.
Kaity Chung Education
Kaity got enrolled at the attended Bryn Mawr College on an academic scholarship. She later graduated with honors with a bachelor of arts degree in English literature. She was accepted to the doctoral program of Stanford University in Chinese and Japanese literature, and she intended to be an instructor in English literature. However, while at Stanford.
Kaity Chung Career
Tong began his television career began as a reporter for KPIX-TV in San Francisco, where she worked from 1976 to 1979. Originally hired as a writer for the station, Tong was asked to do an on-air test and was immediately promoted to a street reporter, where her first on-air story was a report on the new carts that transported people around the airport.
In December 1979, she became co-anchor of the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California where she soon became number one-rated out of all the television news personalities in Sacramento. In 1981, she moved to WABC-TV in New York City. Within two years, she became co-anchor of the station’s 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, first with Tom Snyder from 1983 to 1984 and later with Ernie Anastos until 1986.
She moved to the 6 p.m. newscast, rotating the anchor chair with John Johnson alongside Bill Beutel after Roger Grimsby was fired in 1986, while still co-anchoring the 11 p.m. broadcast with Anastos until he left for WCBS in 1989.
Eventually, her sole anchor role was the 11 p.m. news, as Beutel became the solo anchor of the 6 p.m. broadcast. In 1984, she appeared as herself, reporting on the defection of the Soviet circus performer played by Robin Williams in feature film Moscow on the Hudson. She has also played a newscaster in Wolf, City Hall, Marci X, Night Falls on Manhattan, and 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate.
Her firing from WABC-TV in 1991 caused considerable outrage. She was replaced by Susan Roesgen, who came from a small Midwestern station and who never adjusted to New York, lasting only a year on WABC-TV. According to Tong, her direct boss Channel 7 Vice President and General Manager Walter Liss acknowledged that Tong’s newscast at 11 p.m. had the highest ranking in that time slot, but he wanted “…a much bigger No. 1”, and had a vision of what the ideal look of how television should be in the 1990s.
In early 1992, Tong joined WPIX as the station’s top female anchor and has been there ever since. She co-anchored the station’s 10 p.m. newscast with Marvin Scott from January 1992 to September 1992, with Jack Cafferty from September 1992 to October 1998, and with Jim Watkins from October 1998 to 2010, when Watkins was fired.
She has been a weekend anchor for the station. Tong was involved in a 2010 lawsuit by former news director Karen Scott against WPIX for age discrimination when Scott and other veteran broadcast personnel lost their jobs, later testifying in court. She returned to weekdays, co-anchoring a new 6:30 p.m. newscast alongside longtime WWOR anchor Brenda Blackmon. However, in September 2016, the newscast was canceled and Tong was moved back to weekends.
Tong joined Gloria Steinem and Beverly Sills by receiving the Exceptional Achievement Award from The Women’s Project. She was the first woman honored by Rotary International with its Paul Harris Fellowship. She was also honored with a Star award by the New York Women’s Agenda. She has been recognized by the Chinese America Arts Council for her excellence in communication.
She received a Distinguished Woman award from the Chinese-American Planning Council and a Champion of Excellence Award from the Organization of Chinese Americans. A naturalized citizen, Tong received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for her work. In 2018, the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Tong the Governor’s Emmy Award “for her four decades of presenting the news with integrity and compassion.”
Kaity Chung Net Worth
Tong has an estimated worth of around $4.5 million. A major source of her earning comes from her anchoring career on the television. She was the highest paid anchor in WABC-TV; her salary was $750,000 per year in 1991.
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