Updated at 12:39 p.m.
One of Vermont’s best-known and most respected journalists is preparing to call it a career.
After 41 years in broadcast journalism in the state, NBC5 anchor Stewart Ledbetter plans to sign off on Feb. 16, the station announced Monday.
“It’s been a great run,” Ledbetter said Tuesday. “I did not foresee when I started that it would provide such a wealth of opportunities to cover politics in Vermont.”
A former news director for the South Burlington-based station, Ledbetter has most recently anchored its 5:30 p.m. newscast and hosted its Sunday public affairs program, “NBC5 In Depth.” He’s also known for his tenure as moderator of “Vermont This Week,” the Friday roundtable aired on what is now called Vermont Public, from 2007 to 2023.
The son of a former state banking and insurance commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate, Ledbetter grew up in the Manchester area and graduated from the University of Vermont. He began his career as a radio reporter in 1983 and joined the station now known as NBC5 the next year, covering Burlington City Hall and then state government and politics.
Ledbetter remained in Vermont throughout his career — save for a year in Plattsburgh, New York, where the station was based at the time. Though he occasionally considered leaving the state for new professional opportunities, he said he’s glad he stayed put.
“What stands out to me is how rich Vermont politics turned out to be,” he said, citing some of the significant stories he had the opportunity to cover: the creation of civil unions and legalization of same-sex marriage; the defection of then-U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords from the Republican Party; the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant; and the presidential campaigns of former Gov. Howard Dean and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“What an experience to see thousands of people come out in places like Seattle and Chicago and New York for your small-state governor,” he said of Dean’s 2004 run. “And it was just as exuberant for Bernie Sanders.”
Ledbetter noted that he had covered seven New Hampshire presidential primary seasons, though he sat out this year’s.
Throughout his career, he was repeatedly recognized for his reporting, winning a national Edward R. Murrow Award and a place in the Vermont Association of Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame.
“There are very few people who can provide the wealth of knowledge Stewart has when it comes to state politics,” NBC5 news director Michael LaFlesh said in a written statement, noting that Ledbetter might return to the station from time to time as a political contributor. “We’re grateful to know we’ll still have access to a valuable resource to provide our community with his insight.”
Ledbetter said he’d been considering retirement for several years and had started to ask himself the question, “What are all the other things you’d like to do?” His answers so far are to travel more (Australia is on the list), hike, ski and relax.
“I might write a guide to the best and worst gas stations in Vermont,” he said with a laugh. “Because I think I’ve been to most of them.”
