Ted Reinstein is best known around New England as a longtime correspondent for “Chronicle,” the equally longtime and celebrated nightly newsmagazine which airs on Boston’s ABC affiliate, WCVB-TV. In 2012, “Chronicle” marked its thirtieth year on television. Having won most major U.S. broadcasting awards, it remains the nation’s longest-running locally-produced TV newsmagazine. Ted joined the show in 1995 as a reporter and producer. Early on, he was drawn to cover Boston’s famous (some would say infamous) Big Dig project, and for several years filed stories that brought viewers deep underground, and high up on hundred-foot cranes. In 2002, he was part of a “Chronicle” team that won a prestigious national DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award for their comparison of the Big Dig with other massive public works projects around the world. Today, while he occasionally appears in the show’s studio filling in at the anchor desk or delivering an opinion commentary, it’s mostly out in the field where viewers have come to expect to see Ted. From literally every corner of New England he has found the offbeat, the interesting and the just plain quirky, all while telling the enduringly colorful stories of New England’s people and places. As a native, it’s a region he knows well and loves deeply; he was born on the edge of Boston Harbor in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Politics is also a passion (what better place to be than Boston?), and he gets to indulge it on-air once a week as a contributor for WCVB’s political roundtable show, “On The Record.” (He’s indulged elsewhere, too; in 2010 he was one of five national finalists in the Washington Post’s “Next Great American Pundit” competition.) He continues to write a weekly opinion column (“And Another Thing”) for WCVB.com, and since 2008 has been a member of the station’s editorial board.
Elsewhere on television, Ted hosted the premiere season of the Discovery Channel's “Popular Mechanics” show. (A wonder, really, considering that at the time he owned but two power tools.) Out of the studio, he explored Hawaii's volcanoes, the caves of Puerto Rico, and the islands of Tahiti as host and correspondent for the Travel Channel's photo/adventure series, “FreezeFrame.”
Ted also maintains a strong love of live theatre, the place where his early career started. He performed in regional theatre as well as in Chicago, New York (where he lived and studied acting) and Boston, where he appeared in over 500 performances of America’s longest-running non-musical, “Shear Madness,” as well as in award-winning productions of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” and David Mamet’s “Speed-the-Plow.” As a playwright, he’s co-author of “Yom Kippur in Da Nang,” which premiered in 1992 at the Jewish Theatre of New England under the direction of the late David Wheeler (American Repertory Theatre). He has also written several shorter plays which were produced as part of Boston’s annual Theatre Marathon.
In 2013, Globe Pequot Press published his first book, “A New England Notebook: Six States, One Reporter, Uncommon Stories.” The book, in an unusual encyclopedic style, recounts many of Ted’s favorite people and stories from his many travels around New England for “Chronicle.”
Ted received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Brandeis University, where he was valedictorian on graduation in 1984. He’s an avid skier and hiker, has published political cartoons, and volunteered for many years in the “Big Brother” program. He’s a member of the Board of Trustees for both Longfellow’s Historic Wayside Inn in Sudbury, Massachusetts, and Temple Beth David in Westwood, MA. He lives with his wife and two daughters just west of Boston where, his trustee memberships aside, he’s frequently out-voted.
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