WNBC anchor Chuck Scarborough retiring after more than 50 years

Chuck Scarborough announced his retirement as WNBC/4 anchor during the station's 6 p.m. broadcast Thursday, wrapping a historic run at Ch. 4 that reached the half-century mark this past March.

"I'd like to break some personal news — the time has come to pass the torch after 50 years, eight months and seven days," Scarborough said at the end of the newscast, adding: "I will step away from this anchor desk" on Dec. 12.

No one individual — anchor or reporter — has appeared on any New York TV news broadcast longer than Scarborough, who turned 81 on Nov. 4. And no single individual on TV has come to represent such a vast stretch of New York City's tumultuous history over these past 50 years.

Scarborough has anchored Ch. 4's coverage of 9/11, the COVID-19 pandemic, AIDS, Superstorm Sandy, five major plane crashes, three blackouts, a couple of Wall Street crashes and seven mayors, beginning with Abe Beame. There also were Son of Sam, the city's near-bankruptcy, John Gotti and Donald Trump.

There are believed to be only two anchors in the United States who have done this job longer — Dave Ward, of Houston's KTRK/13 (who retired in 2017 after 51 years) and Don Alhart, of Rochester's WHAM/13, who hit the 50-year mark in 2016 and retired this past June.

But Houston and Rochester are not New York City — far and away the most competitive TV news market in the nation. On the major stations, WABC/7's Bill Beutel came closest to Scarborough's record. He retired in 2003 after 37 years on the air (Beutel died in 2006). Rafael Pineda, of Univision flagship WXTV/41, came closer, at 41 years, until his retirement in 2013. Among active anchors, only WPIX/11's weekend anchor Kaity Tong — 43 years on the air in New York — is closest.

To look at this historic run from a different perspective, Scarborough — who joined Ch. 4 from Boston's WNAC/7 (now WHDH) on March 25, 1974 — started at Ch. 4 two years after Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" moved from 30 Rock to Burbank, and a year before "Saturday Night Live" launched. When he arrived at Ch. 4 to anchor a new 5 p.m. newscast, Scarborough's program originated out of the studio Carson had recently vacated.

In 1980, he was paired with Sue Simmons on the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts, and over the next 32 years they became easily the most familiar — to their fans beloved — anchor team on New York TV news. Of Simmons, who retired in 2012, Scarborough said in an interview with Newsday last March that he "probably" wouldn't have lasted these 50 years without her.

During that interview, Scarborough also said he was in the process of wrapping a new contract to remain on the 6 p.m. newscast, which he now co-anchors with Natalie Pasquarella, and had no immediate plans for retirement. "I do think about [retirement]," he said, "and nothing has popped into my head that's more interesting than what I'm doing now."

In a phone interview Thursday after the announcement, Scarborough said of the timing that "I wanted to at least get through the election," then added that "I'm not leaving. NBC and I are still contractually tethered so if a special project comes up or catches my fancy, I'll do that." His new role will be as a special contributor, calling this "retirement with an asterisk. It's liberating myself from the anchor desk to explore some things that I want to do." When he steps away, there will still be "seven months remaining" on his current contract "and what happens after that, I don't know."

Scarborough said he settled on Dec. 12 — a Thursday — as his departure date from the anchor desk "because I wanted to have some free time over the holidays. My grandkids — they're 8 and 10 — are coming into town and we're going to the last Broadway show of 'Back to the Future' the following night."