Emmy winner and nationally awarded journalist Patrick Fazio anchors the weekend morning news and reports for NBC 5. He came back to Chicago in 2017 after previously living in the south suburbs and graduating from Valparaiso University.
Before returning to Chicago, Fazio anchored and reported in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as at TV stations in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Springfield, Illinois. His investigative reports are credited with leading to new laws and helping to free a wrongly imprisoned man.
Fazio's reporting earned the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service in Television Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists as well as two national Wilbur Awards for best local TV report on religion.
He has also won eight Emmy Awards, ten Edward R. Murrow Awards, Best Investigative Reporting from the Missouri Broadcasters Association, and the First Amendment Award from Indiana’s Society of Professional Journalists.
Besides reporting internationally from Israel and Poland, his career highlights include interviewing Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mike Pence, as well as U.S. Senators, members of Congress, governors, and military generals.
Fazio started on-air in radio at Valparaiso University where he also ran track and played wide receiver on the Division I-AA football team (fortunately he managed not to drop the two passes thrown to him during a home game at Soldier Field).
He earned his master’s degree from Indiana State University while teaching undergraduate courses in media writing and public speaking.
In his younger and slimmer days, Fazio served as a volunteer firefighter and umpired high school baseball, but now he coaches his son’s and daughter’s sports teams. Fazio was born in California and later moved to Missouri, but he and his wife are happy to call the Chicago area home again with their children and two dogs.
Connect with him on Social Media:
Facebook/Instagram: @PatrickFazioNBC5
X (Formerly Twitter): @PatrickFazio
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Titanic survivor descendants honored at Skokie exhibit
Wednesday marks 112 years since the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Days later, it would hit an iceberg and sink.
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Chicago pays $5.5 million in wrongful imprisonment case as 7 more men ask for exoneration
The city of Chicago agreed to pay $5.5 million in another wrongful imprisonment settlement involving former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara.
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Chicago sues gunmaker over Glock switches that convert pistols into ‘illegal machine guns'
The city of Chicago and the gun safety group Everytown Law filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Glock, Inc., alleging the gunmaker “unreasonably endangers Chicagoans by manufacturing and selling … semiautomatic pistols that can easily be converted to illegal machine guns.”
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Girls flag football will be an official high school sport in Illinois starting this fall
The IHSA announced Wednesday that girls flag football will become an official high school sport in Illinois starting this fall.
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Charges dropped against Northwestern students over parody newspaper protesting war in Gaza
The students’ parody newspaper, which they placed on top of hundreds of copies of The Daily Northwestern, criticized the university’s response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
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Judge rules to delay police board discipline until Chicago council votes on the issue
Chicago’s City Council on Wednesday again deferred a vote on how to discipline police. Hours later, a judge ruled to delay any police board discipline until Feb. 24.
