KOMO reporter Keith Eldridge is retiring from the Seattle ABC affiliate after 50 years in the news business.
Eldridge started working at KOMO in 1983 and has been the South Sound bureau chief at the station for 23 years.
“I’m amazed I’m sitting here,” Eldridge said in a story about him on the station’s website. “All these years later. 50 years of doing this. Nixon was president when I started.”
Eldridge started his career in Fresno as an anchor and reporter in the late ’70s and joined KOMO after three years in Denver.
In his story about Eldridge, KOMO reporter Eric Johnson said “Day in, day out, nobody worked harder. Nobody came up with as many story ideas. Nobody covered a bigger area. Nobody had the contacts. The sources. Keith was on it. Always on it.”
“Well we see so much tragedy, and that takes its toll on you, but if you can somehow talk to people, whether they’ve lost loved ones or they’ve lost their homes or livelihoods, and you can somehow get something positive out of it, you can ask you know if somebody’s passed away or lost at war, what do you want us to know about your loved one,” said Eldridge. “What would you like us to share?”
Eldridge said he is ready for his next chapter.
“This is really a young person’s career,” he said. “I’m ready to take it a little bit slower, do some traveling, play some golf and enjoy my wife Jan and see what happens next.”