WHAM Rochester Anchor Duo Of Ginny Ryan And Doug Emblidge To Retire

WHAM Rochester, N.Y.’s longest running anchor duo of Ginny Ryan and Doug Emblidge, who have anchored the ABC affiliate’s 5 p.m. weeknight newscast since 1990, today announced plans to retire from television.

The duo, who were inducted in the New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2018, have also co-anchored 13WHAM News at 10 and 11 p.m. for the past two years.

Commenting on the announcement, Chuck Samuels, the station’s vice president and general manager, said: “Doug and Ginny are consummate professionals, and great people on top of that. You won’t find two better journalists who care more about their community than these two Hall of Famers. Their dedication to making 13WHAM News the best it can be is second to none. I am very happy for them as they take on new challenges and extremely grateful for the legacy they will leave here.”

A third-grade assignment to tell the story of someone else’s life was all it took to hook Ginny Ryan on reporting. At Cardinal Mooney High School and at Buffalo State College, she wrote for the school papers and worked at the campus radio and television stations, seeking any and every opportunity to “tell stories.” She got her first professional job at WENY Elmira, N.Y., before graduating from college. She worked as a reporter and anchor before being hired by WHAM in 1987. It was the job she always wanted to do, where she wanted to do it, in her hometown. In addition to co-anchoring the 5 p.m. news with Emblidge, Ryan co-anchored the 11 p.m. news since 1991.

After a visit to WOKR (now WHAM) as a boy, Doug Emblidge knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. His first broadcasting experience came in radio, starting while he was still a student at Rush-Henrietta Roth High School. Through high school and college, Doug worked at WHAM and WHFM Rochester, WDNY Dansville and WHEN  Syracuse.

Emblidge earned a bachelor’s degree from the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University in 1982. After a year as a producer and reporter at WROC Rochester, he joined WOKR in 1983 to anchor a program called NewsScope. In 1984 he took on weekend anchoring duties while also reporting weeknights. Emblidge served as weeknight sports anchor from 1986 through 1989, then returned to news to anchor at 5 p.m. He co-anchored WHAM’s morning news from 2000 until 2020.

Ryan’s last day at the Sinclair station will be Oct. 7, while Emblidge will sign off on Nov. 29.

An on-air send-off celebrating the team will air in early October.