R.I.P.: Retired CBS Newsman Lou Miliano Dies At 67

Lou Miliano

Lou Miliano, who reported for CBS Radio News on the local and national levels as part of a distinguished 40 year career  as a broadcast journalist, died Monday in a Pinellas Park, Fl., hospice.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer several years ago; he was 67.

Miliano spent much of the 1980s overseas as radio correspondent before joining  the local News Radio WCBS 880 AM in New York in 1989, where he could also be  heard nationally on other CBS-owned stations.

He covered an array of stories for WCBS, from East Coast hurricanes and Midwest floods to the bombings of the Federal building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center.  Overseas, Miliano covered the Gulf War and was one of the first to report from Kuwait City and Southern Iraq as Iraqi troops fled advancing coalition forces. He was in Mogadishu, Somalia, when the U.S. Marines landed and spent a month covering famine relief and civil unrest.

Miliano was honored with a number of awards for his reporting at WCBS, including two Associated Press Awards---one for “Best Investigative Reporting” for “The Lessons of Lockerbie,” his series about the downing of Pan Am Flight 103, and one for “Best Continuing Coverage” for his work on the crash of TWA Flight 800. He earned the prestigious Ben Grauer Award from the Overseas Press Club of America for “Best Radio Spot News Reporting from Abroad” for two consecutive years.

“Lou was one of the unique, wonderful individuals in our business. He was an extraordinary broadcaster,” said Harvey Nagler, VP CBS Radio News.  “His use of sound and ability to transport the listener to the scene of the story set the standard in our industry, one that has been emulated by other broadcasters nationwide.  He was expert in incorporating natural sound, vivid descriptions and visual references laced with the voices of those making or affected by news events. More than that, Lou was a joy to be around.”

When he retired in 2007, Miliano was based in New York anchoring hourly newscasts, an assignment he requested at the beginning of the decade after 30 years of reporting from the field. But soon after he arrived in New York, the 911 attacks rocked the city and he was sent to Ground Zero for weeks and then on the road again covering the effects of the terrorist attacks.

Miliano joined the CBS Radio Network  in Washington, DC, in 1998, where he covered the Crisis in Kosovo, the Starr Grand Jury, the  government’s antitrust suit against Microsoft and the impeachment of President Clinton.

In his earlier career, Lou Miliano was based in London as the European Bureau Chief for the RKO Radio Networks (1983-1989).  Miliano began his career at KOWL, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1967.  He then spent a dozen years  as a reporter, anchor and news director in local radio at several stations around the country.