Long named WTAE News Director; Cook retiring

With Jim Parsons set to retire later this month, WTAE-TV (4; DT 27) has called Baylor Long back from Hearst sister station WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama where he currently serves in the same role. Prior to WVTM, Long served as the Assistant News Director at WTAE for four years where he oversaw projects including Project CommUNITY Town Hall: From Parkland to Pittsburgh bringing together survivors of the Tree of Life shooting and those of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. As is often the case, Long’s return is essentially a return home. His first posistion was at WTAJ-TV in Altoona after earning a Bachelor’s in Broadcast Journalism at Penn State.

Ron Cook has announced his retirement from both radio at The Fan (93.7 KDKA-FM) and newspaper columns at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. As a writer, Cook started with the Beaver County Times before moving on to the Post-Gazette. Prior to becoming one of the charter airstaff members of the station known as “The Fan” in 2010, he hosted “Sports Saturday” on KDKA-AM between 1993 and 2002. Cook will move to Ft. Myers, Florida – a place with which he fell in love covering Pirates spring training when he was a senior in high school.