After August 26, you won’t be seeing Tim Ryan when you turn on Fox 4 in the mornings. He’s been in that spot for 27 years, at one point broadcasting from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., which required that he wake up at 1:30. Lately, though, he’s been sleeping in. Fox 4’s Good Day goes from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. (He’s been with the station for 33 years in all.)
The hours nearly killed him. Ryan has had two heart surgeries to fix an atrial fibrillation that made his ticker do drum solos as he lay in bed. He’s better now, or at least better enough to knock out 40 to 45 miles on his bike on Saturdays and another 20 to 25 on Sundays. (The longest he’s ever gone is 108 miles, for Bike MS, which he tries to do every year.)
Retirement looks a lot like that. More time cycling in more places. More time with his wife, Beth. More time with his kids and his new granddaughter, Lucy. It’ll take him a week to get back to a normal sleeping schedule, which seems ambitious to me, but I haven’t woken up before 6 a.m. in years, so I’ll trust him.
This morning, the station announced that it is promoting Brandon Todd to the co-anchor seat alongside Lauren Przybyl, Evan Andrews, Chip Waggoner, and Hanna Battah. He’s been with the station for 24 years and already has a few years of anchoring experience on Good Day. “The strength of the show, and of the station, is consistency,” Ryan told us on the podcast, which seems right in line with Todd’s promotion.
Ryan joined us at the Old Monk to talk about his career and what comes next. First, though: “I threw away all the makeup except for what I need through August 26.”
Listen after the jump or with your favorite podcatcher.
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