New York City is America’s #1 television market. It’s nineteen licensed television stations enter 7.4 million households in twenty nine counties across four states.
Television news journalists dream about getting to New York.
Dana Tyler was a news anchor at WCBS-TV in New York, the local flagship station of the CBS TV network. Their studios are in the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
Dana was born in Ft Lauderdale, Florida but grew up in Columbus, Ohio. At eight years old, she appeared on “Lucy’s Toy Shop”, a popular children’s program in Columbus in the 1960s with her local Girl Scout troop. Her father was a pharmacist on the east side having taken over the family business Tyler’s Drugs from her grandfather.
When her dad tried to move the family to Worthington in the late 1960s, he found himself struggling to secure a mortgage, despite having great credit. Dana relayed this story when she spoke on Martin Luther King Jr Day this past January at the Worthington United Methodist Church where she was the keynote speaker.
The family eventually got the loan and moved to Worthington.
Dana graduated from Worthington High School in 1976 and got her B.S. in Marketing & Broadcast Journalism from Boston University. She summer interned at WCOL radio in 1974 and moved on to intern at WBNS-TV where in 1981 she was offered a job as a tv reporter.
By 1986, she worked her way up to co-anchor of the 5pm & 11pm news. She won a local Emmy for her ‘Heart of Ohio’ series traveling the state with the station’s satellite truck.
Then her life changed.
In July 1990 she accepted an offer from WCBS-TV in New York for the weekend anchor and reporter position. She would team with Reggie Harris to become NYC’s first all-black co-anchor team.
By 1993, Dana moved to weeknights at 5 & 11pm as co-anchor. She’s probably one of the most recognizable faces in New York today.
At WCBS-TV, Tyler worked alongside some of the best known television news anchors in New York City. She was the last anchor desk partner for Jim Jenson and has worked alongside Brian Williams, who later anchored NBC News.
Dana won six Emmy Awards for her coverage of breaking news events in and around New York City, including her 2009 coverage of “Flight 1549 Lands in the Hudson River.”
She traveled to Moscow and London; she covered the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1995 where he celebrated mass with the masses at Central Park; the Sep 11th terrorist attacks and the election of Barack Obama.
Tyler lives in Stamford, Connecticut which was a one hour rail commute to work every day. She never got married but did have one famous boyfriend.
‘Tarzan’ the musical opened on Broadway in 2006. Phil Collins wrote fourteen songs for the stage version. Tyler covered Broadway for WCBS-TV and interviewed Phil who sat at a piano and made jokes as Dana laughed. It wasn’t until August of 2009, after Collins’ divorce was finalized from his third wife Orianne Cevey, that the couple’s dating status went public.
Collins, of course, is a living legend. He was the former frontman of the iconic English band Genesis. His solo career was incredibly successful, producing eight albums over thirty five years. Collins as an artist won seven Grammys and sold over one hundred million albums worldwide. His net worth was a staggering $350 million.
Over the years Collins and Tyler were photographed attending galas, musicals and sitting courtside at New York Knick games.
Then in 2015, Collins ended the relationship by dropping – in television news lingo – ‘a bombshell’. He announced that he was getting back with his ex-wife Orianne. This is the same Orianne who had won $45 million in the divorce settlement in 2008. The couple had two sons together.
Collins abruptly moved to Miami Beach and dropped $33 million into a lavish 12,000 square foot Mediterranean mansion on Biscayne Bay.
Dana was devastated. She took three months off in late 2015 and early 2016 to digest the news and heal. Eventually she returned to the warm embrace of her co-workers and moved on.
In 2022, Dana’s mother and sister were on hand to see her get inducted into the New York State Broadcaster’s Association Hall of Fame. Among a long list of other awards, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Association of Black Journalists.
Dana Tyler retired in 2024 after thirty four years with WCBS-TV. She was the longest-tenured anchor in the history of the CBS affiliate.
Dana through the years was adopted by New York as one of their own, in and of itself an impressive accomplishment. “The real honor is for NYC to have you seated here. You have been an extraordinary force not just in journalism but the way you touch people’s lives,” spoken by one of her on air colleagues on her last day.
In her hometown Columbus, Dana Tyler’s roots run deep. Her great grandfather was hired by the Columbus Dispatch back in 1888 and was later named the only accredited foreign correspondent to document the lives of African American service members on the front lines in WWI.
Phil Collins sold his Miami Beach mansion in December 2020 when he found out his live-in ex-wife Orianne had secretly married another man. She had demanded $20 million from Collins to leave his house. Details of the settlement were never released. Ouch! Karma, PC.
When Dana comes back to Columbus to visit family & friends, she likes to drive around town to see what has changed, particularly Worthington; she’ll make her way to Easton, maybe drive by her father’s old pharmacy on Mt Vernon Ave and always visits her father’s grave at Greenlawn Cemetery “I go there every time,” she says.
Sources: Former 10TV News Anchor and Music Superstar Dating by Rone W Stevens, mycolumbusmagic.com (Magic 95.5FM), Nov 11, 2010; CBS New York anchor Dana Tyler emotionally signs off by Nicholas McEntyre, New York Post, Mar 28, 2024; Dana Tyler, Emmy Award-Winning Anchor at CBS New York Signs off after 34 years by Abigal Adams, People, Mar 28, 2024; Roger Friedman’s Showbiz 411 Hollywood on the Hudson, March 27, 2024; GoodNewsBroadcast, YouTube, 2018; Alchetron, Sep 25, 2024; CBS2’s Dana Tyler inducted into NYSBA Hall of Fame, YouTube, 2023; NY Daily News, Phil Collins is to blame for WCBS anchor Dana Tyler’s absence on air by Don Kaplan, Apr 9, 2018; CBS New York, 2024; NY State Broadcasters Assoc Hall of Fame; Columbus Black History by Rita Fuller Yates, Facebook, April 22, 2021; Dana Tyler keynote speaker address at the MLK Jr Community Celebration, Worthington United Methodist Church, Jan 20, 2025; Columbus Radio by Mike Adams, 2016; The Lifestyle of Phil Collins 2025, YouTube, Jan 13, 2025; Arch City Anchors, Columbus Monthly, May, 2015; www.USTVDB.com. Both featured pictures of Dana courtesy Worthington.org.