WXYZ investigative reporter Jim Kiertzner is retiring after nearly 50 years in the business.
“I’m done with the daily grind,” Kiertzner told Deadline Detroit. “I’ve been doing this for 49 years. … It’s been a great run. I love what I do, but at 65, I’m at the end of a contract here now and I have chosen to hit the brakes. I’m going to do some traveling, relax. I’m not totally done, I will do something next year in television in 2023, so I can say I’ve done this 50 years.”
Kiertzner has been working at the Detroit ABC affiliate since 2007. He started his local TV career when he was 16 with a half-hour monthly community show on KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa. He later went to work at KAKE in Wichita, Kansas in 1980. Two years later, he did one of his favorite feature stories of his career, about a man actually named Joe Blow which aired on ABC’s Good Morning America. Click here to watch the story.
“I’m obviously proud of that story—and I was 25 years old when I did it,” he said.
He’s also worked at WNEM in Saginaw, Mich., and WDIV in Detroit.