Lopez, pictured at the Journalism Awards with his wife, becomes the latest in a string of recent KCBS-KCAL winners of the Quinn. They include anchors Laura Diaz and Pat Harvey. Past recipients have included Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel, Patt Morrison and Edward R. Murrow.
One of Southern California television’s hardest-working street reporters will be the recipient of the club’s prestigious Joseph M. Quinn Award for lifetime achievement.
CBS 2 reporter Dave Lopez, a 28-year veteran of CBS 2, will be honored with the award at the 48th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, to be held June 24th at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.
Lopez took over Channel 2’s Orange County beat a year after he started working at the station. He has covered some of the biggest stories of the last two decades. He reported extensively on the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the Northridge earthquake. Dave Lopez is known as a tough, smart reporter who has covered a wide range of Southland stories, says club President Anthea Raymond. Both “streetwise” and “friendly,” Lopez has told the ongoing story of Orange County’s rise.
“Orange County was the ugly stepchild and now it’s ‘The O.C.,'” Raymond adds.
Lopez has received numerous awards throughout his career. They have included eight Emmy Awards, seven Golden Mike Awards and three Associated Press Awards. The Orange County Register calls Lopez “The ‘Star’ TV reporter in Orange County” and readers of media news site “Ron Fineman’s On the Record” voted him the best local TV field reporter.
Before joining CBS 2 , Lopez was a general assignment reporter, weekend anchor and sports reporter at KFMB-TV in San Diego. He also worked as a general assignment and sports reporter at KHJ, Channel 9, which is now KCAL. Then, he also produced KHJ’s sports specials.
He began as a newspaper sports writer. Lopez worked at the Huntington Park Daily Signal newspaper before making the move into television. Lopez attended East Los Angeles College and graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. He has two grown children and lives in Long Beach.
The Quinn Award was established in 1979 in the name of the late Joseph M. Quinn, a former Press Club president and World War II veteran who built City News Service and founded the club’s awards program in 1957.
I know he has at least 45 years in the TV news field. We often ran across each other when he worked for KHJ channel 9 and I with Theta Cable TV in 1972. I kept getting mistaken for him. I wish I could have lasted just one half of his career but in those day it was almost the rule, one Hispanic per station, no more. I wish Dave many more years of success.