Updated 12/10 -- SYRACUSE -- Shortly after former WSYR news anchor Tara Howard lost her battle with cancer in October, one of her former colleagues remembered having a group photo that included Howard from a Syracuse Press Club awards luncheon during her time in Syracuse. Chris Weidman found that photo and shares it with us for our latest Picture of the Week.
From left: Weidman, Justin Pizzi, Tara Howard Knauff, Suzanne Schultz and Andrea Demianczyk Kearns.
Weidman recalls this photo was taken in April 2001, shortly before Tara left WSYR to accept a job offer at KTRH in Houston, Texas. The WSYR radio news team presented Tara with a bouquet flowers in appreciation for nearly a decade of service at WSYR.
Howard started her career at WTLB in Utica, then worked across town at WIBX, then at Albany's WGY before making her way to WSYR. Her career would eventually take her to Houston's KTRH and then to ABC News Radio in New York City, where she continued to work during the four years since she had been diagnosed with cancer. Howard passed away on October 14.
Our thanks to Chris Weidman for sharing this photo, which he hopes Howard's former colleagues will appreciate. Every Monday, we have another "Picture of the Week" here on CNYRadio.com and CNYTVNews.com, and it's thanks to submissions from readers like Chris. We're always grateful for your photos of anything related to radio or television, past or present, in Syracuse, Utica or Ithaca. Email those shots to cnyradio@cnyradio.com or use the Contact Form.
Pretty sure that's Justin PIZZI, not Pizza.
Thanks! We checked with Chris Weidman (who gave us all the names) and he confirms that it should be Pizzi. The article has been corrected. Thanks!
To set the record straight, I hired Tara at WTLB, Utica, as a screener for a daily afternoon talk show I produced and hosted. This was her first job in broadcasting and came after I met her as a student in a Radio-TV sequence I taught at Utica College. She went on to WGY and, as I recall, WSYR from there.
Thanks for the added history. Our source about Tara's start at WIBX was John Swann, who said he worked with Tara there. Between what you said, what Swann said, and Tara's LinkedIn profile, it looks like you are correct -- if you hired her during her time as a student or right after, that would be about 1983, and John said she started at WIBX in 1985. Then WGY, then WSYR. This has been corrected.