A big celebration is right around the corner, and it honors some of the people you have watched and listened to for years. Former 7 News photographer and reporter Ed Reilly is among the class of 2022 for the Buffalo Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame. Ed retired in 2021 after working for WKBW for more 40 years. He will join other legends like former Buffalo Bills great, Steve Tasker and even Lucille Ball immortality.
When asked what feels like to be a member of such a great group, Ed says,”Well, I feel honored and thankful. Honored that my name is going to be included into the Hall of Fame with people like Irv Weinstein, Rick Azar, Tom Jolls, Keith Radford and Mike Randall but thankful, number one that my wife and family put up with forty years of weird shifts and long hours, news is a tough business, but also thankful that I have an amazing team of people here at Channel 7 that supported every day and they made it possible for me to do my work and I really thought of them as my friends no just co-workers because they meant so much to me, people like Katie.”
Katie Morse, anchor and president of the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame says, “No one is more deserving that Eddie, he was one of the hardest members of our team, every single day he would go out there and he gave it all every single day and that’s the kind of person that you want to learn from. I know I learned a lot from him, and I know he taught a lot of other people too.”
He was asked after forty years what would he say to the young journalist or the people aspiring to get into television? Ed says, “You have to realize you have to work. This is a job that’s going to require long hours, shifts overnight, so you have to be ready to put the time in but you have to be determined to keep working because people will try and discourage you. You go out on stories and they will call at you, ‘you’re fake news,’ and they will put things on social media and just beat you down. You have to stay true to your journalistic ethics and just keep going for the truth and don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. I mean there were days where I felt stories weren’t coming together and I would just keep calling people and keep calling and realize if I just keep working it, eventually I will be able to get the story and the information for our viewers and that’s what we are working for, to give the viewers information on their community.”
If you would like to celebrate Ed and the other honorees by attending the induction ceremony Katie shares that there are tickets available. You will have until Friday to purchase tickets. The event is taking place on September 22nd at Samuel’s Grande Manor in Williamsville.
For more information go to BuffaloBroadcasters.com
