Anchor No Longer Going to Play Peoria

After 4 decades, WEEK (Peoria) Anchor Tom McIntyre says you can stick a fork in him.

He's done. 

Of course he'll officially step down at the end of the May book.

McIntyre's exit follows that Bob Larson, who retired across the street at WMBD last November after racking up 43 years with the station. McIntyre will have logged 42 years at Channel 25 when he steps away from the anchor desk in May.

“I do know the first story I did for WEEK-TV. It was in July of 1973, which was the steamboat race between the Julia Belle Swain and the Delta Queen,” said McIntyre.

A lot has changed in the TV news business since he started. “Our deadline back when film was king was 4 p.m. in the afternoon. Film had to be developed, rough-edited, hard-spliced and stories put in order on a single reel. Now a newscast can be started while stories are still being edited. When I began in the business, going far out of town and getting the story back for the 6 p.m. news was a major event. With laptops and computer editing and WiFi, it’s not really a big deal,” he said.

His last day will be May 21st.