Tom McIntyre is retiring from Peoria NBC affiliate WEEK.
McIntyre started at WEEK in 1973 as a reporter. He was later promoted to anchor.
The Peoria Journal Star reports Mcintyre’s last day will be Thursday, May 21.
McIntyre, known as “Mac” to many, recalled his start in the Peoria market in a 2011 interview. “Starting at WIRL TV/WIRL-AM 1290 in 1969, all the reporters were photographers for the TV station as well. I shot a lot of film for voice-overs of fires, accidents and city council meetings,” he said.
“I do know the first story I did for WEEK-TV. It was in July of 1973, which was the steamboat race between the Julia Belle Swain and the Delta Queen,” said McIntyre.
Coming from radio, which had at least two deadlines an hour, was a good training ground for the TV news beat, he said.
“It taught you to write quickly, then rewrite, while editing audio tape and listening to the police monitor. This later became known as multitasking,” he said.McIntyre has seen plenty of changes in the way TV news gets on the air during his tenure.
“Our deadline back when film was king was 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Film had to be developed, rough-edited, hard-spliced and stories put in order on a single reel. Now a newscast can be started while stories are still being edited. When I began in the business, going far out of town and getting the story back for the 6 p.m. news was a major event. With laptops and computer editing and WiFi, it’s not really a big deal,” he said.