WCCO's Mike Binkley Announces Retirement

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A fixture on Minnesota airwaves for decades, WCCO-TV anchor Mike Binkley announced Wednesday that he plans to retire from the business after 34 years.

He shared the news Wednesday morning on social media, and since then we've seen hundreds of comments about what a great journalist is and how much he'll be missed.

After 34 years of working as a news reporter and anchor, Binkley said he's ready for a new adventure.

As Angela Davis reports, you can see it in his face how much he loves telling the stories of people who make Minnesota unique.

He spent 27 of his 34 years in TV working in the Twin Cities, but it all started in Topeka, Kansas, where he grew up.

"I was still in college when they first put me on TV there," he said. "Of course, Topeka is a very small market. But the fact that they would throw me out there looking that young, still kind of amazes me."

His next stop was Cincinnati, Ohio. And then, in 1986, he made his debut in the Twin Cities at KSTP-TV.

"I got to travel with the Twins to see them when they won the 1987 and 1991 championships. That was definitely a highlight," he said. "I got to go down to Cape Canaveral to see the shuttle blast off, the first one after the Challenger disaster."

Binkley anchored the morning news at KSTP for seven years, often stepping out of his comfort zone to show viewers his comical side, like when he lost a bet and had to change Davis's newborn son's diaper.

Binkley remains a huge sports fan and is now looking forward to going to even more Twins games and Vikings games.

"I was just in Washington recently and I went  to a news museum; it's called the Newseum. Literally, one of the news trucks that I did live reports from is now in this museum," he said. "Is that a sign? I'm old, I'm old."

Binkley hasn't announced what he intends to do following his retirement, but we at WCCO are betting it involves a lot of quality time outdoors continuing to find Minnesota.