CNYTVNews.com is very sorry to share the news that former NewsChannel 9 (WSYR-TV) producer Shaun Ganley has passed away, following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Ganley, 45, passed on Friday, according to a family member’s public post on social media. He was only diagnosed with the disease about 10 weeks ago.
After originally enrolling at SUNY Oswego as a meteorology major, Ganley got bit by the “TV bug” at student-run station WTOP-10. He switched his major to broadcasting and eventually became General Manager of WTOP.
Ganley was perhaps one of the few general managers to resign from the post, but for good reason — he was hired as weekend producer at NewsChannel 9 (then WIXT) in Syracuse during his final semester at Oswego. After graduation in 2003, he was promoted to full-time, producing the station’s “Daybreak” newscast and later helping with the transition to “The Morning News.” In 2005, Ganley moved to the 11pm news, and a couple of years later, he became the station’s first full-time web producer.
After a brief stint in the New York City area working for the now-defunct NBC WeatherPlus, Ganley returned to WSYR-TV for nearly two more years to serve as the station’s webmaster. From there, he found himself joining Hearst Television. After nearly two years managing digital media at WTAE in Pittsburgh, he moved to Hearst’s biggest station, WCVB in Boston, where he spent the next 12 years.
Anywhere he went — and he went to a lot of places — Ganley always had his camera with him, building his own personal library of “stock images” of notable locations, just in case they might ever come in handy for news stories… and on more than one occasion, they did!
Ganley, who grew up in Brooklyn, is survived by his parents and extended family. As of this writing, no services have been announced.
In the interest of full disclosure, this one hits close to home. As a fellow SUNY Oswego alumnus (class of 2001), I knew Shaun since he was a freshman and we’ve been good friends ever since. A few years after college, we had the chance to work together again at channel 9. Outside of school and work, we had common interests in biking, skiing and the New York Mets, and Shaun was the best man at my wedding. I’m still in disbelief while writing this. Shaun was well-regarded in TV news and was well-liked by anyone he crossed paths with. He was a great friend and he will be missed by many.
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