Alan Pergament: Jacquie Walker says goodbye to anchor desk tonight after a week of memories (2024)

WIVB-TV (Channel 4) legend Jacquie Walker’s last assignment as a regular anchor is at 6 tonight (Wednesday) and there may be some surprises.

Walker also will be celebrated with an hourlong special at 7 tonight on sister station WNLO-TV (CW 23) that will replace the station’s regular low-rated newscast at that time.

The hour will repackage several long pieces Walker has done for five days on the 5:30 p.m. newscast she anchors. The lengthy stories highlighted her favorite and most important stories; her marriage to her supportive husband Mike Beato; celebrity interviews she has done; and sporting events she has covered.

Walker’s biggest stories included the crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence; the Oklahoma City bombing; the racist shooting at Tops; and the Covid-19 pandemic, which she called “the biggest story of my career.”

Her favorite stories included catching a 20-pound salmon in a fishing contest and covering a tornado and a blizzard. She said her “all-time favorite assignment” was interviewing Western New Yorkers on a U.S. aircraft at sea.

Her favorite celebrity interviews included ones with Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman and Gloria Steinem. Walker also called a few moments with Paul Newman before a race car event in Dallas “one of the most exciting and engaging interviews” she has done.

The final installment Tuesday addressed the big sporting events she has covered, including the four Buffalo Bills Super Bowls; the World University Games held here in 1993; the 1988 Niagara Falls Grand Prix when Bruce Jenner was briefly interviewed; and the Buffalo Sabres “No Goal” loss in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, one of two Cup Finals the NHL team has made.

Of course, some new material is expected to be added tonight in the WNLO special.

Walker has been at Channel 4 for 40 years, overtaking former WKBW-TV (Channel 7) anchor Keith Radford and the late Channel 7 Irv Weinstein for longevity at one station.

She isn’t retiring. She will remain a part-time employee working on special projects, conducting interviews and working on community activities and charities that she and her husband support. She also may pop up occasionally on the anchor desk.

In an interview last month, Walker talked about her plans for a final message to viewers.

“I’ll have a thank you to viewers because so much of this is about gratitude,” she said. “When you’re sitting where I’m sitting, you realize how lucky and grateful I am to have been allowed to be at one station, in one position, with the opportunities that I’ve had for the last 40 years.”

WIVB General Manager Joe Abouzeid hasn’t named Walker’s replacement, and it may be some time before that will happen.

In the interim, he said Kelsey Anderson, who has been anchoring at 11 p.m. since Walker dropped that newscast in January of 2023, will be solo anchoring at 5:30 p.m. She is one of the candidates for Walker’s job.

Don Postles, Walker’s longtime co-anchor, will be solo anchoring at 6 p.m. for the time being as well.

After further review, WKBW-TV (Channel 7) won’t be able to bid for the broadcast rights to the Buffalo Bills “Monday Night Football” game with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 23.

According to NFL sources, the ABC affiliate will have to carry the Washington-Cincinnati game that starts about 45 minutes later in its entirety.

That leaves WIVB-TV, WUTV and WGRZ-TV as the potential bidders for one of two Bills games on "MNF."

In other NFL notes, all the leaks of the regular season NFL schedule over a few days led the actual announcement on The NFL Network and ESPN 2 to be considerably less than must-see TV here a week ago. The announcement had a combined 1.1 rating on The NFL Network (0.7) and ESPN 2 (0.4).

A rating point in Western New York is equal to 6,375 households.

It looks like Western New Yorkers will be able to tune in to Tom Brady’s debut as a game analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt on Sept. 8 for the Cleveland-Dallas game. The 4:25 p.m. game is expected to be carried on WUTV, the local Fox affiliate, after the Bills open the season with Arizona at 1 p.m. on WIVB.

Finally, Michael Wilbon of ESPN’s “Pardon Your Interruption,” acknowledged on Tuesday’s edition of the show he co-hosts with Tony Kornheiser, that he is a Bills fan.

The Chicago native, who is a Bears fan, praised Bills fans after Kornheiser discussed the 28th birthday of Josh Allen and all his statistics as the Bills quarterback.

“Everybody is asking is the Super Bowl window closing for Buffalo and Josh Allen,” said Kornheiser. “Why would it be at 28? Who wouldn’t want Josh Allen?”

“I’ll admit it, I root for the Buffalo Bills,” responded Wilbon. “Outside of my own circ*mstance (with) the Chicago team, I’d like to see the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen win. I really do.”