CBS4 Denver General Manager Tim Wieland on His Health Crisis

Tim Wieland returned to his job as general manager of CBS4 Denver this week following a health crisis — a clogged artery in his heart — that could easily have killed him had the issue not been discovered in time. After all, he was preparing to run a marathon, and had he actually started the race, he might not have finished it.

"I was heading for a very bad outcome," he acknowledges.

Instead, Wieland was rushed into emergency surgery on June 29, and after the blockage was cleared and a stent was put into the affected artery, he came back to work with a new message to spread. During a July 10 editorial meeting, he recalls telling staffers that "because this business is so stressful and demanding on our lives, and the things that we have in our personal lives are demanding, too, we sometimes rationalize things about our health or make excuses about why something doesn't feel right. So this is a huge reminder to pay attention to your body."

Wieland is no stranger to the pressures of television news. He earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1991 and spent the next decade paying his dues. He began his career as a reporter for KREX-TV in Grand Junction before landing a gig at CBS4 Denver that included writing for and producing newscasts. Then, following a three-year detour to CNN — as a field producer there, he covered stories such as the 1999 attack on Columbine High School — he came back to CBS4 Denver as assistant news director. He was elevated to the main news director position in 2004 and became general manager in 2021 upon the retirement of his predecessor, Walt DeHaven.

Since taking the helm, Wieland has faced plenty of challenges, including the decision to move Michael Spencer from his sportscaster position to the news desk as successor to co-anchor Jim Benemann, who stepped away from the station earlier this year after two decades in the spotlight. But he assumed his level of activity meant that his body was handling the demands of his life and career well.

He was wrong.

"I try to run one marathon a year," Wieland notes, "and I was in the process of training for one when I noticed a little shortness of breath. At first I kind of wrote it off as just getting older — but then I went in for something called a calcium heart scan, and the results weren't great. That sent me down a path to a series of other tests."

While waiting for those results, Wieland went on with his plans, including preparing for a highly anticipated vacation to Venice. "The doctor called four hours before the flight," he recalls, "and said, 'You're not going. We need you to come into the hospital and have this procedure done immediately.'"

The urgency of the situation "was scary because of how generally healthy I seemed to be," he continues. "I just kept believing it wasn't going to be a big deal — that maybe I'd have to take blood pressure medicine, but that's all. I didn't think it was going to be a problem even when the doctors were concerned. I didn't really understand how serious it was until the doctor called and told me, 'The only place you're going is the hospital.'"

Fortunately, the procedure was a success. "Something like this gives you a whole new appreciation for medical science and how quickly they can get you back on your feet," Wieland notes. "Just days after the procedure, I was walking three times a day. I'm now cleared to come back to work on a little bit of a reduced schedule. But I'm basically back to full strength." His marathon training is currently on hold, however.

He hopes that sharing his experience will convince others not to assume everything is fine in the face of evidence to the contrary. "You know yourself better than anybody," he says, "and if you can tell there's an issue, there probably is. At the very least, go to see a doctor and make sure you're okay."

This is especially true for his colleagues in the media business. "While we work in this incredibly demanding environment, we can't just neglect our health," he emphasizes. "I'm as guilty or more guilty than anyone about that. I learned that lesson in a big way over the past couple of weeks."