Signing Off in Cleveland

After more than 4 decades of giving viewers the sport in his hometown of Cleveland, John Telich is signing off from WJW.

“It was kind of tough,” he said of the decision to retire. “Maybe it was the pandemic that forced me to look at it a little bit more, but it just kind of felt right that this would be the time to go out on my terms. I feel good about stepping away with my health and all my faculties and being able to enjoy whatever that next chapter might be.”

Telich says he knew he was in The Land for the long haul and never considered leaving for a bigger market as many people in his line of work do.

WJW assembled what would become the Mount Rushmore of Cleveland TV news teams with anchors Tim Taylor and Robin Swoboda, meteorologist Dick Goddard and Coleman and Telich on sports.

He says that he always remained objective as journalists are taught to be even as the Cleveland kid inside of him was rooting for the teams he grew up watching.

“I never came to work each day saying, ‘God, I hope this is the year the Cavs do it,’ or, ‘Man, the Browns haven’t,” he said.

And while he is sad to be leaving, there are things he won’t miss working in today’s TV news.

Gaining access to athletes has become more difficult as teams and players are increasingly sidestepping reporters and telling their own stories from their perspectives. The proliferation of social media has muddied the waters even further.

“There’s a lot of floating going on these days,” he said. “Stuff is floated out there that doesn’t have much substance, so you really have to check it out.”

He signs off early next week.

H/T Cleveland.com