Another Action News veteran is moving on.

Dann Cuellar wrote this on Facebook:

To our Action News viewers:

It’s a source of great pride to have been invited into your homes to report the news over the last three decades. I don’t think I could ever fully capture what an honor it has been. I’ve had a tremendous run here at Action News. I really have. Together with my colleagues we traveled the world reporting on major events of our times, like being there to witness the bravery of our troops on the battlefields of Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bosnia.

The 9-11 attacks in NYC, the Columbine massacre, the Waco siege, the Oklahoma City Bombing, Katrina and other hurricanes across the U.S. and so many other significant events, most recently, the horrible Covid-19 Pandemic.

But also capturing stories of true grit and heroism, including so many that touched our hearts and gave us hope for the future. And sometimes even having fun like when the Eagles won the Super Bowl and the Phillies won the World Series…and of course, our annual preview of the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I am deeply honored to have worked with some incredible colleagues at 6abc WPVI-TV.

But now, after 34 plus years at Action News, the time has come to move on.

This is the end of a chapter and the beginning of another.

There are so many things I want to do. First and foremost, for the next few months I’ll be with family, the people I love the most and the ones who enabled my career to happen

I plan some travel and things I’ve been wanting to do.

Ultimately I would like to teach TV & Digital journalism at a local university. Do some charitable works in our communities. Perhaps some consulting work and maybe even write a book or two.

But right now I want to say, thank you for watching over the decades and giving me the opportunity to spend some time together and share so many events of our times. It’s been an honor and a pleasure.

May we have left the world a better place than we found it.

God Bless You!

-Dann

Jeez. All of the O.G. TV news people in this town are dropping like flies. Not dropping dead, but retiring. Calling it quits. Moving on to whatever comes next. We’re losing Jim Gardner, Hurricane Schwartz, Vai Sikahema, and now Dann Cuellar, who was a second-shift machine for years. What is Action News at 11 p.m. without the anchor tossing to Dann Cuellar for the big story? WPVI hammered that basic formula successfully for years. Jim Gardner would come on, read the cold open, and then Dann is live at the scene. Rinse and repeat over and over and over again to the #1 spot for however many years it’s been.

Dann is one of those veterans who is hard to replace. It’s like when Eyewitness News lost Walt Hunter or the Inquirer bought out all of the old white dudes. Institutional knowledge goes out the door. Years of contacts and phone numbers and useful relationships. Action News does a great job keeping a stockpile of talent, but it really does look like a different operation than the one you grew up watching when you think about Vernon Odom, Cathy Gandolfo, Nora Muchanic, etc, and now Cuellar no longer being there.