Cheryl Chodun

Inducted 2014

TV news reporter, WXYZ

If you don’t think about it too hard, you could say that Cheryl Chodun started her career at the kitchen table of her childhood home. One of four daughters, Chodun would stand on a chair at dinner, hold a fork as a pretend microphone and deliver the “news” of the day to her family.

With Chodun’s passion for telling a good story, her career took off quickly. She free-lanced for the Southfield Eccentric and the Detroit News. She wrote and produced stories at WXYZ-TV and then moved to reporting and anchoring on Detroit’s radio stations, WCXI and WWJ. The bulk of her career, however, began when she returned to WXYZ-TV, covering the biggest stories of the day. She did that for 25 years, winning EMMYs and national awards along the way.

When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, Chodun tracked down the story of Timothy McVeigh’s co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, who was from Dexter. When the date-rape drug, GHB, captured the nation’s attention, Chodun followed the story of a local young woman who died after boys slipped the drug into her drink. And, Chodun covered the story of Malice Greene who was beaten and died at the hands of two police officers.

“Tenacious” is how many newsmakers have described Chodun. Other words used are determined, fair, accurate, compassionate and trusted. She has been likened to a moving train on a story, never stopping or giving up until she had it.