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Rick Sallinger
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The fact that he doesn't take no for an answer may explain why Rick Sallinger has accomplished so much, so quickly. As a reporter and anchor, he has been an eyewitness to history and brushed elbows with death on too many occasions to count. He has traveled around the world twice and speaks French and Spanish, in addition to English.
Since returning to Denver for the second time and joining CBS4 in December of 1993, he has covered arguably the most publicized story in 1997 -- the death of England's Princess Diana.
But it was as early as high school that Rick felt the journalism bug bite, as he observed a friend broadcasting over a school radio station. By 1980, Rick was in Denver as a reporter for KUSA-TV, where he organized a drive that collected 5,000 pairs of shoes, which he delivered to Cambodian refugees at camps in Thailand.
He also was the founding host of the "9 Cares-Colorado Shares" food drive and broke many important stories including numerous developments regarding the murder of KOA radio talk show host Alan Berg. In 1986, Rick returned to his hometown, Chicago, to work as a reporter for WMAQ-TV. There, in addition to covering local stories, he reported nationally for NBC-owned television stations, covering such events as the San Francisco earthquake, Miami riots, Continental plane crash in Denver, and Gary Hart's withdrawal from the U.S. presidential race.
In 1990, Rick signed on to become a correspondent for CNN's London bureau. The very next day, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and within the next three years, he made five trips to Iraq, five to Jordan and one to Kuwait, and spent two and a half months, including the entire Gulf War, in Saudi Arabia. During his years with CNN, he covered the reunification of Germany, the war in Yugoslavia, and other major events in Moscow, Somalia, Northern Ireland, Paris, Geneva, Spain and Denmark.
Rick has won numerous awards, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for his series on improprieties in U.S. Army recruiting.
It's no wonder that today Rick's idea of relaxing is being in Denver with his wife Isabel, a journalist from Spain, and their two young sons, Marc and Eric. The "friendly people, good weather and high quality of life," he says, made his return to this city high on his priority list. It's a place where -- between wars and other international chaos -- you can find him taking a breather in his Jacuzzi.