Boston (WBZ Newsroom) -- WBZ News Radio 1030 will undergo a major change in its program line up come January 1, 2007. When many New Englanders return from extended Christmas vacations, they will wake up to a new voice delivering their morning news. As previously announced, Gary LaPierre, WBZ’s long-time and legendary morning radio news anchor, will retire from the morning all-news anchor position he has held for more than four decades. LaPierre’s last day on the morning news will be December 29, 2006.
WBZ News Radio 1030 is now pleased to announce that veteran radio news man, Ed Walsh, will return to his home town and assume the morning radio news anchor duties at the powerhouse WBZ News Radio 1030 beginning Monday, January 1, 2007. Walsh returns to Boston from WBZ’s sister station, WCBS News Radio 880 in New York City, where he anchored and was host of the station’s election coverage.
“This is a perfect dream job fit for me and my family,” said Walsh upon being named to the WBZ anchor position. “For a guy who loves news and grew up in Boston listening to Gary LaPierre anchor the WBZ morning news for so many years, this is a better script than I could have ever come up with. There isn’t a better news anchor job in the country than mornings at WBZ News Radio 1030.”
WBZ Vice President and General Manager Ted Jordan said, “Ed Walsh will be the perfect addition to the veteran WBZ morning news team. We realize there will never be another radio news anchor like Gary LaPierre but after our national search, we know Ed Walsh is the right person with the right amount of news experience for WBZ’s morning news audience.” Walsh joins the already well known WBZ morning news team of co-anchor Deb Lawler and long-time sports anchor Gil Santos. “Ed will be the voice of news for New England for the next generation of WBZ listeners,” said Jordan. “He already knows so much about Boston from growing up and working here we won’t have to teach him how to pronounce Gloucester and Quincy. With the increased importance of local news on radio it’s critical for WBZ to have someone with the experience and credibility of Ed Walsh behind the WBZ microphone.”
Morning drive is “prime time” for the radio industry and Ed Walsh brings a tremendous amount of experience to the job of news anchor. He has been a morning drive anchor his whole career and besides working at WCBS, has previously worked at 1010 WINS in New York, another CBS Radio station. In addition to his on-air experience, Walsh also spent 10 years as a radio news director in Boston in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also vice president of news and programming for WOR (AM) radio in New York as well as morning news host and director of programming and news at KFYI radio in Phoenix, AZ. Walsh has reported from major news events in the United States and from Moscow, Rome, and Britain. He considers his most important assignment his continuous coverage of the 9-11 attack which occurred while he was on-air at WOR in New York and for which he was honored by the Associated Press. He has also received numerous national and regional journalism awards from major national news organizations at each of the stations he’s worked at, including best newscast awards from AP, UPI, RTNDA, New York State Broadcasters Association, and New York Press Club. Walsh was also named to Talkers Magazine’s list of the top 100 Talk Hosts in America.
Born in Somerville, Walsh was raised in Natick and Wellesley and is a graduate of Wellesley High School and Holy Cross College, with a degree in Economics. He served in combat as a naval officer in Vietnam. Walsh and his wife, Chris, will live in the Boston area. They are the parents of a son and three daughters.
Walsh will join the staff of WBZ, New England’s only all-news radio station, next week and begins anchoring the morning news in January.
WBZ News Radio 1030 is owned by CBS Radio Incorporated, a unit of CBS, Inc.
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