Buffalo Host/Reporter is Dead

Many years ago, FTVLive worked with Brian Kahle.​

In fact with WKBW GM Bill Ransom laid off Brian, we took him to lunch on his last day at work. Brian was a good guy.​

Monday night he was found dead in his home. ​

Authorities say there was no signs of foul play and Kahle had been ill in recent days. The family’s physician signed off on the decision not to have an autopsy.​

Kahle worked at WKBW from 1978 to 2001 (when he was laid off from the station by Ransom). He was best know as the co-host of AM Buffalo.

Back in Kahle's day, AM Buffalo was a local morning show that was very well done and did a good job on mixing news with features.​ Now the show is nothing more than paid sponsors coming on the air to pimp their product.

Kahle maybe best known for an interview he did on AM Buffalo with then Mayor Jimmy Griffin, the interview turned nasty and Kahle threw the city's mayor off the set.​

The clash with Griffin “is certainly something people talk about when they talk about Brian, but he was so much more than that,” said John Di Sciullo, who left Channel 7 last year to become executive director of production and promotion at WBBZ-TV. “He was a real broadcaster.”

​It was an attack on that characteristic that drove Mr. Kahle to end an interview with Griffin on the set of “AM Buffalo” in August of 1987, Di Sciullo said. During the mayor’s monthly appearance on the show, Mr. Kahle asked Griffin about the allegations that his brother, Thomas J. Griffin, mishandled money meant for a federal lunch program. Griffin bristled and repeatedly snapped at Mr. Kahle, “Brian, do your homework.”

Finally, Mr. Kahle replied, “You say that once more and I’ll throw you off this program.”

The pair exchanged a few more remarks before Mr. Kahle announced that the interview was over. In the control booth, Di Sciullo, who was producing the show, said, “I looked at the director, the director looked at me, we went to a wide shot and went to commercial, and the mayor stormed off the set.” A camera crew followed him to the door as he stormed out, uttering an expletive at another reporter he spotted on his way out.

​Mr. Kahle is survived by a daughter, Christina, and a son, Michael.

H/T Buffalo News