Beloved News Anchor Reveals Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis During His Final Broadcast

Longtime ABC New York television anchor Bill Ritter is moving away from the anchor desk.

Ritter announced earlier June 12 that he’s retiring, noting that very broadcast would be his last time anchoring the news at New York’s WABC TV. Ritter, 76, joined the station in 1998 and has been anchoring the 6 p.m. news telecast since 2001. The reason for his retirement is because of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

“After a series of tests, my doctors have told me I have Alzheimer’s. It’s early-stage Alzheimer’s, and they say the treatments I’m getting are keeping it at bay. For now,” Ritter told WABC viewers late last week.

He admitted to becoming forgetful of names and places increasingly more over the last two years.

Ritter later added: “… there is no guarantee, because there’s no cure yet for Alzheimer’s. So, unless someone finds an amazing cure, and soon, tonight will be the last newscast I anchor.”

When Ritter first noticed Alzheimer’s symptoms he stepped away from doing the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts and trimmed his workload down to just the 6 p.m. news. Despite the abbreviated schedule, his symptoms did not improve.

He told Good Morning America that upon hearing of his diagnosis his first thought was to his father who died of Alzheimer’s in 1998. “… It was scary. Because it was like, ‘Wait a minute, I’m supposed to be doing this. What’s going on here?’

“I quickly moved into husband/dad place. Because Alzheimer’s really affects the family most. As a dad and a husband, I said, ‘I gotta deal with this. This is my family. And that’s what I’m really worried about.’”

Before his tenure with WABC, Ritter worked in local television throughout California and also for the Los Angeles Times.

Despite his retirement and diagnosis, Ritter won’t be leaving ABC New York entirely. He’s going to contribute to the station by covering Alzheimer’s disease in a special role. Ritter told the station’s website that his coverage of the disease will report on “the rising tide of Alzheimer’s, and other similar diseases, including how it’s affecting patients and their families, how the price of treatment and the price of caring for patients is simply unaffordable and how this country might begin to change that.”

Ritter also shared that he plans to spend more time with his family.