When I got into TV news, I felt to be successful, you had to keep moving up in market size.

After a couple of decades in TV news, my thoughts changed on that.

I now tell people all the time, if you’re in a place that you love and you are making enough money to support your lifestyle, don’t feel like you have to move on to a bigger market.

WEHT (Evansville) Anchor Brad Byrd figured that out mush quicker than me.

Byrd recently marked 45 years on the job. But his tenure in journalism extends even further back to his beginnings as an 18-year-old working for a radio station in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana.

Byrd's career path eventually led him to the Evansville market, where he started working night shifts for WFIE after previously working at WANE in Fort Wayne. Over the course of his career, Byrd has covered a wide range of stories, from presidential inaugurations to local Peace Corps workers in Poland after the country's emergence from the Soviet Union.

But it's his dedication to covering local news that has truly set Byrd apart. He's been on the ground for every major Evansville story, from the tragic University of Evansville plane crash to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And in 2018, he did a report on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination that brought his career full circle, as the events of the 1960s had originally inspired him to become a reporter.

For Byrd, the principles of journalism that inspired him from the beginning have remained a guiding force throughout his career. "Getting it right and putting yourself in the shoes of the people you're reporting on" has been a consistent theme, and it's clear that his dedication to those principles has helped him earn the trust and respect of viewers throughout the Evansville area.

As we continue to navigate an ever-changing media landscape, it's worth taking a moment to appreciate the achievements of those like Brad Byrd, who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of truth and the art of storytelling. Here's to another 45 years of excellence in journalism.