WBZ-TV Reporter Bill Shields Retiring After 41 Years
BOSTON (CBS) – Award-winning journalist Bill Shields is retiring after more than four decades at WBZ-TV. His last day on air will be Friday, September 24.
Shields has been a general assignment reporter with WBZ-TV since he began working at the station in 1980.
"I fell in love with news in the late 60's," said Shields. "Turbulent times on the evening news. The war in Vietnam escalating...the protests. I told my parents I wanted to be in the middle of it all...not just watch it on the television."
For more than 40 years, he has covered stories throughout Boston and the region spanning from Hurricane Bob to the COVID pandemic today.
WBZ-TV President and General Manager Mark Lund said Shields "has been instrumental" in the success of the station.
"Not only is Bill an outstanding journalist, with sources like no other, he is a one of a kind human being who always told stories compassion and understanding," Lund said.
WBZ-TV News Director Jessi Miller Bradley said Shields is "a legend at the station and in the community."
"Bill is an incredible storyteller and he is someone we all count on for a laugh when we need it most," said Miller Bradley. "It has been a privilege to know and work with Bill for the past 24 years. We will miss him dearly but thrilled for his next chapter."
Prior to joining WBZ-TV Shields was a reporter for KENS-TV in San Antonio, Texas from 1977 to 1980. He also worked as a photographer and reporter for KTVV-TV and as a reporter for KHFI radio, both in Austin, Texas.
"I couldn't have landed in a better place, than WBZ-TV," said Shields. "I've had more fun in my career, and life, than anybody is deserving of. I laugh easily and often...sometimes at inappropriate times. But it's kept me healthy and "young." I can find humor in the darkest moments or maybe it just finds me."
WBZ-TV will celebrate Shields' career over the next week.
