Longtime KTVU (San Francisco) Reporter Rob Roth has called it quits after almost 4 decades reporting the news.

Roth signed off on March 1st and is now adjusting to a quieter life in retirement, but says he's still listening to and watching the news.

"I think I always will be interested in the news," he said. "That’s what got me here in the first place. I have people I adore at the station and I root for them."

"Most reporters are eager to trade in the 'life on the streets' for a climate-controlled studio, a team of producers and writers but he always relished the independence that came with being paired up with a photographer and flung to the winds," said Gasia Mikaelian, a lead anchor at KTVU. "He advocated so much for doing the stories that were hard to do and involved lots of legwork and tracking people down — and in areas that didn’t always get lots of news coverage such as those small cities that we’d only go to otherwise if there was a terrible crime or huge lottery winner. He could have easily pitched stories that took one-tenth the effort, but he never did."

As for retired life, Roth says “I’ll tell you the big difference. I don’t start the day wondering, with that pit in my stomach, what I’m going to have to chase today, and I’m already late to it and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet.”

H/T SF Gate