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WHIO announces retirement of Jim Otte

DAYTON — After a storied, award winning 43-year broadcasting career, News Center 7′s Jim Otte has announced his retirement. Otte, a Dayton Broadcaster Hall of Fame inductee and News Center 7′s lead investigative reporter & WHIO Reports anchor’s last day on the air will be November 1, 2021. Jim’s passion for investigations has never wavered over the last four decades. By holding the powerful accountable and giving voice to the voiceless, he has had an unmeasurable positive influence on the Miami Valley community.

“This is part of us, this is what we do. You get up in the morning and say ‘what did I miss last night for those six hours I was asleep?’” Otte recently told News Center 7 anchor Cheryl McHenry about what he will miss about the job.

The Cincinnati native and Miami University graduate’s broadcasting career started in Top 40 radio. However, nearly 40 years ago, Otte started covering politics for the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. Otte says he was ‘lucky enough’ to get the statehouse reporter job in 1988 with Jim Baldridge and Deborah Countiss on the anchor desk.

Otte would soon add lead investigative reporter and community affairs show WHIO Reports anchor to his job duties. 33 years and numerous awards later, including a 2014 EMMY for his documentary profiling VA treatment of veterans with medical issues, Otte says he is ready for his next chapter.

“My hope is that my toughest deadline is getting the grandkids to soccer practice at the right time, at the right place,” Otte told McHenry as part of an upcoming interview about his career. This special report centers on Otte’s decades of journalism and its’ impact on the Dayton community. The special airs Monday, November 1.

Otte has influenced many of his WHIO colleagues over the years.

“I know I speak for so many of us as to what Jim means. Not just to WHIO’s product, but more importantly to the vital personal relationships we’ve all formed by working with him,” WHIO Special Projects Executive Producer Matthew Simon said. “Jim truly leads by example. His work ethic is amazing. Most recently, through COVID, he’s consistently been an information life-line to our audiences from the statehouse, while still figuring out a workaround to make WHIO reports a meaningful program. Through him doing the work, we’ve all been made better.”

“Jim Otte has been a passionate journalist for WHIO for nearly four decades by helping our viewers really understand the issues and opportunities created around the valley and in the statehouse,” Cox Media Group Ohio Vice President & General Manager Rob Rohr added. “He is respected by every lawmaker I’ve ever talked with due to his knowledge of the issues and his unbiased reporting. He will be missed by all of us but we wish him well as he enters the next chapter of his life.”

For more than three decades, as News Center 7′s lead I-Team reporter, WHIO viewers & listeners became familiar with Otte holding the powerful accountable and giving voice to the vulnerable. His are important shoes to fill, and longtime News Center 7 Anchor John Bedell is committed to continue the important I-Team mission to investigate and inform.

“As Jim Otte retires, I will carry on the tradition. That’s my promise to you,” Bedell said of his promotion to succeed Otte as WHIO’s lead investigative reporter and WHIO Reports anchor. “I take seriously the trust our viewers place in us to deliver even-handed and informative reporting every day about the stories they care about happening in their communities. It’s an honor to be able to share your stories in the Miami Valley, to give voice to the previously unheard, to hold the powerful accountable, and to be the people’s auditor.”

Bedell, an Ohio native and University of Dayton graduate joined WHIO 11 years ago. His resume of award-winning reporting on important community stories, and considerable work with the News Center 7 I-Team includes: the Montgomery County water crisis, FBI public corruption probe of Dayton City Hall, the 2019 Memorial Day tornado outbreak, the Oregon District mass shooting, and the murder of Dayton Police Detective Jorge Del Rio. Bedell has also covered high-profile crime and court cases, including the Pike County Rhoden family murders, Brooke Skylar Richardson murder trial and trial of former Springboro gym teacher Austin Hopkins. Bedell’s extensive EMMY-nominated investigative work on the Takoda Collins child abuse murder case prompted change in Columbus, as lawmakers credited his reporting for inspiring legislative reforms.

“John Bedell has a passion for this community. It’s where he lives, works and is raising a family. He is a passionate journalist who will build on the WHIO legacy of outstanding investigative reporting,” Cox Media Group Ohio Vice President & General Manager Rob Rohr said.

With Bedell’s promotion, WHIO continues the legacy of weekend journalism excellence by hiring EMMY-award winning journalist Haley Kosik as News Center 7′s new weekend anchor. Kosik, an Illinois State University graduate holding dual journalism and political science degrees, joins WHIO after spending three years with our Charleston, WV affiliate, WOWK-TV. Most recently Kosik served as weekend anchor, where her storytelling was twice EMMY-nominated, before this year, when the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded her a regional-EMMY for video storytelling. Kosik will begin anchoring on the weekend of October 30.

Otte’s last I-Team investigation will air October 28. His final WHIO Reports will air October 31. Cheryl McHenry’s special retrospective report on Otte’s career will air November 1, during our 90 minutes of news beginning at 5pm.

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