Pat Collins retires from NBC4 after 36 years
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Who's going to tell us how deep the snow is? Screenshot: NBC4
Legendary NBC4 reporter Pat Collins is retiring.
Why it matters: Generations of Washingtonians have grown up watching Collins deliver the news on the ratings-leading NBC4. He has a one-of-a-kind news delivery that has transfixed and entertained locals for more than 36 years on the channel.
Some of his greatest hits:
❄️ His famous “snow stick” guided viewers through countless winter storms. He tells Axios that he hopes the "Pat Collins snow stick lives on forever."
😱 A vengeful vandal who mistakenly spray-painted a woman’s car with “Mike is a cheater.” Pat’s report turned into a banger music video.
🍇 That time he wore a grape costume to interview “banana man” — a high school kid who was suspended for wearing a banana costume.
- “Woodward and Bernstein, they took down a president,” he said on his 35th anniversary last year. “Just remember, this is the guy who dressed as a grape to save a banana.”
The big picture: Collins, 76, reported on everything from crime to the quirky. It’s a big loss for local TV loyalists, especially after anchor Doreen Gentzler's retirement last month after 33 years at the station.
- A D.C. native, Collins grew up on H Street NE. He got his start in newspapers as a teenager before working in TV for 49 years.
Driving the news: Collins tells Axios that he took a voluntary buyout offer, because "you're not certain that there will be another chance for an offer like that six months from now or a year from now."
- NBC Universal tells Axios the voluntary early retirement offers were recently presented across the giant media company. Eligible staffers had to have worked at the company for at least 10 years and be 57 years or older. Buyouts were offered to fewer than 2,000 employees out of a 74,000 total
- The media industry is dealing with advertising headwinds due to uncertainty around the economy, forcing cuts and cost-saving measures.
What they're saying: "I don't know many 76-year-old street reporters in television," Collins said. "It's hard work."