Chris Regimbal

Chris Regimbal has been named news director at WDAZ Channel 8 in Grand Forks, N.D., a Forum Communications Co. station.

Regimbal, a 19-year veteran of the station, was previously an assignment editor and chief photographer at WDAZ. He started at WDAZ in 1991 as a sports photographer.

Regimbal is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared frequently on national television. In addition to contributing to the station’s daily news coverage, Regimbal has covered many of WDAZ’s biggest stories: In 2000, Regimbal was part of the WDAZ team that first reported from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where troops from Grand Forks Air Force Base were among those patrolling the Iraq border after the Gulf War. In 2002, his news coverage for WDAZ was the first from Base X, the secret staging grounds for U.S. military attacks in Afghanistan. In 2003, he helped break the national story of the arrest of Alphonso Rodriguez Jr, later convicted in the abduction and murder of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin.

Regimbal has been honored numerous times by the Northwest Broadcast News Association, the Associated Press Broadcasters Association in both Minnesota and North Dakota and received the North Dakota Broadcast News Association’s Teddy Award for the state’s best news report of the year. In addition, Regimbal’s work during the 1997 Grand Forks flood helped the station win a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, one of journalism’s highest honors.

Regimbal is a native of Stephen, Minn. and a graduate of Moorhead State University.