Don Alhart’s first day of work at Channel 13 was June 6, 1966, two days after he graduated from Ithaca College.

His last is today, June 6, 2024, less than a month after his 80th birthday.

Alhart, who holds the Guinness World Record for the longest career as a male TV broadcaster, will sign off after exactly 58 years at the conclusion of the 6 o’clock report Friday night on WHAM-TV (Channel 13), an ABC affiliate.

As much as the program will recognize that amazing accomplishment, what the five-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner will miss most, he says, is “The ability to put others in the spotlight.” 

Early in his career, he sought advice on emceeing an event from Rochester’s toastmaster supreme, Jerry Flynn.

“And he said, ‘Remember, the audience did not come to see you.’ In emceeing, others are in the spotlight and you simply are there to make the transitions,” said Alhart, also a 2010 New York State Broadcasters’ Association Hall of Fame inductee. “I have tried to carry that mantra into the daily newscasts as well.”

Those newscasts, stretching back more than half a century, involve the region’s most historic moments.

In advance of his retirement, we asked the Pittsford resident to talk about the stories that have left the biggest impressions on him:

Pamela Moss killing

In 1962, 14-year-old Pamela Moss was snatched off a trail near her Penfield home, raped, killed and left in a water-filled gravel pit off Old Penfield Road. “I actually helped in the search,” said Alhart, who graduated from Penfield High School in 1962 and later followed developments as a reporter. James R. Moore was convicted of the crime and in April died in prison.

Allendale School fire

A 1966 fire that leveled the Allendale School in Pittsford was Alhart’s “first ‘exclusive,’” he said. “We lived in Brighton, and I heard fire sirens, called the fire dispatcher and went to the scene with my own Bolex 16mm camera.”

Vietnam War (1955-’75)

Alhart conducted interviews with Josephine Christiano of Irondequoit, whose husband, Lt. Col. Joseph Christiano, disappeared when his plane was shot down over Laos Dec. 24, 1965. “I remember going out and interviewing her on his birthday,” Alhart said. It was delicate, talking with families about their loved ones who were missing or had been killed. (Lt. Col. Christiano’s remains were identified in 2012.) Alhart said his colleague Dick Burt often was the one who made the calls and with great sensitivity gathered information for on-air tributes.

Rochester Mafia wars

Rochester’s Mafia wars were front-page news from the 1960s to the ’80s and led to numerous criminal trials. “I remember Frank Valenti would come out of the Hall of Justice, and he swore repeatedly,” said Alhart of the mob boss. Back then, you couldn’t just bleep obscenities with the push of a button. “You literally had to take this special tape to cover that audio track and put it on just right so it wouldn’t get caught in the projector,” he said.

Attica prison riots

Thirty-three inmates and 10 corrections workers died in the 1971 uprising at Wyoming County’s Attica Correctional Facility. “I went there by myself, shot film and covered news conferences outside the prison,” Alhart said.

Double Initial Murders

The series of slayings in the early 1970s, still unsolved, took the lives of three young girls — Carmen Colon, Wanda Walkowicz and Michelle Maenza — and shook the community. “Once they were linked together, you kind of knee-jerk reacted to any similar incident. Like, I hope this isn’t another one,” Alhart said.

Hurricane Agnes

The storm originated in June 1972 in the Gulf of Mexico and traveled up the East Coast, leaving a path of death and destruction. Remnants of the historic weather system dumped a massive amount of rain on upstate New York. Alhart covered lakeshore flooding and sandbagging operations.

Erie Canal bed collapse

In 1974, the failure of a section of the Erie Canal’s concrete bed swamped Bushnell’s Basin. “I was on my way to work and heard about it on the radio,” Alhart said. “I called the station from a payphone and went to the scene before going to work to film the flooding and response and devastation.” The disaster was blamed on a contractor installing a sewer line beneath the waterway.

Greece Holiday Inn fire

The blaze on Nov. 26, 1978, killed 10 people. Alhart’s wife, Mary, had given birth to the couple’s youngest son, Jonathan, on Nov. 25. After leaving the hospital, an exhausted Alhart went home. “I had barely closed my eyes, and the phone rang,” he said. In addition to the enormity of the tragedy, which he described as “haunting,” it was one of the first times the station shot a story on video rather than film. “So, we were just getting used to this new camera,” Alhart said. The cause of the fire was thought to be arson. Forty-six years later, no arrests have been made.

Brighton ax murder

Said Alhart of the 1982 case, in which Cathleen Krauseneck was killed by a single ax blow to her head as she slept in her Brighton home: “I think that, given that neighborhood and the violent nature of it, it just never made sense to people.” In 2022, her husband James was convicted of killing her and in 2023 died in prison.

Terry Anderson kidnapping

In 1985, journalist Terry Anderson, who grew up in Albion and Batavia, was abducted by Islamist militants while working in Lebanon for the Associated Press. Alhart covered Anderson’s captivity, which lasted until 1991 and was kept in the news by his sister, Batavia resident Peggy Say. “Our own Jane Flasch would go to Germany to cover his release,” Alhart said. Anderson died in April at age 76. “To lose him in the last year, you begin to realize how long you’ve been doing this,” he said.

Arthur Shawcross serial killings

In 1990, Arthur Shawcross was convicted of murder in the brutal slayings of 10 Rochester women during 1988 and ’89. Coverage unfolded over years, from the discovery of bodies through Shawcross’ trial and imprisonment and his death in 2008. In a strange twist, before his arrest, “My mother-in-law and father-in-law were 99% sure he came to their house for a garage sale and bought some of their old linen draperies,” Alhart said.

AMSA heist

The $10.8 million Armored Motor Services of America, or AMSA, robbery in 1990 in Henrietta was one of the largest armed car heists in the nation’s history. FBI agents initially focused on Albert B. Ranieri Jr. and his son, AMSA driver Albert M. Ranieri. Ultimately, the younger Ranieri was convicted of the crime, which happened not far from 13WHAM studios. Alhart recalls reporters being sent out to try to talk to the family. But, “The Ranieres were never very cooperative,” he said.

Ice storm of 1991

Like more than 200,000 others, the Alharts lost power when the Rochester region froze over on March 3, 1991. “I remember everybody was scrambling. If you could find a generator, that was like gold,” he said. “That was a good example of what it was like to be the family of someone in TV news because reporting on it was a major priority, but taking care of your family is a major priority, too. And then you’re doing newscasts that very few people can see. We were saying, ‘90% of people can’t even turn on the TV to watch this.’”

Death of Kali Ann Poulton

In 1994, 4-year-old Kali Ann Poulton of East Rochester was abducted and killed by a neighbor. In 1996, her remains were found in a coolant tank at Rochester business. Her family’s anguish haunted then-Monroe County Sheriff Andrew Meloni, Alhart said. “He had the ability to be tough, but he was also very tender,” the newsman said of Meloni, who died in 2015 at age 84. Alhart and Ginny Ryan covered Kali’s funeral service live from the Rochester convention center. “I remember the massive crowd that turned out,” Alhart said. He also remembers a substation police set up in East Rochester prior to the arrest and conviction of Kali’s killer, Mark Christie, and still thinks about it when he exits the expressway there.

Sept. 11 terror attacks

“I remember going through Delta Sonic car wash and listening to the radio. And by the time I got through the car wash, the second tower got hit,” Alhart said. One of the most moving stories he said he’s ever done was about fellow Rochester Rotary Club member Kathleen Cattrall, who was in Lower Manhattan that day and witnessed the second plane go into the South Tower. In an interview with Alhart on the anniversary in 2021, for the first time since the 11^th, she opened a box containing the shoes she was wearing and other artifacts. “She had come so close to that, and it had such an impact on her,” Alhart said. “That day kind of froze in time for her, and she put it in this little trunk and packed it away — mentally as well — and she finally opened it up.”

Fast ferry

The Spirit of Ontario I, better known as the fast ferry, carried passengers across Lake Ontario between Rochester and Toronto during portions of 2004 and ’05 before operations ceased amid low ridership and $10 million in losses. “I was only local reporter to go to Perth, Australia, to cover the ferry being built,” Alhart said. He made the trip in 2003 while visiting Sydney for a Rotary Club convention, used video shot Down Under for a documentary and covered the vessel’s maiden voyage live from Rochester to Toronto.

COVID pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic, which arrived here in March 2020, not only was the biggest story in recent history, Alhart said, but one that resulted in “many adjustments to how we operated as a news organization.”

Finally …

“My own retirement!”

From 2016: Don Alhart celebrates 50 years on the air.

Reporter Marcia Greenwood covers general assignments. Send story tips to mgreenwo@rocheste.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaGreenwood.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Don Alhart retires from WHAM and looks back at big stories he covered