Update 9:40 a.m. Monday Dec 8: After 18 years on television, finally Bret Buganski’s his family can watch him reporting the news.
The Chicago native and former WCPO-TV weekend has returned to his hometown to work at Chicago’s WFLD-TV, Fox 32.
“It’s been a long journey and I have an opportunity to grow and do things I’ve never done before. It just so happens it’s in Chicago, market #3,” Buganski tells me. We exchanged messages after he posted his news on Facebook.
“People may take for granted when they get to their hometown. Not me. It took me 18 years to get here,” says Buganski, who grew up in the city (not the suburbs) and graduated from Chicago’s Columbia College in 2007.
Buganski has worked for TV stations in Quincy and Champaign, Ill.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; Tucson, Ariz.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Wichita, Kan.; and the past three years in Cincinnati.
His anchored his final Channel 9 newscast on Sunday night Nov. 30.
“I’m finally the hometown kid. It’s something I don’t take lightly, and I’m so happy my family gets to see me on their local television news,” he says.
Original post 12:32 p.m. Monday Dec. 1: WCPO-TV weekend anchor Bret Buganski jokes that his 18-year TV news career “sounds like a Johnny Cash song: Quincy, Illinois; Champaign, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Tucson, Arizona; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Wichita, Kansas; and Cincinnati, Ohio.”
And now the Chicago native is hitting the road again.
On Sunday, Buganski announced to viewers and on social media that it was his last day at Channel 9.
“Three years, four months have gone by like that,” he said while snapping his fingers.
“It is just amazing. And I want to thank everybody here at WCPO Cincinnati, and all across the Tri-State, you took this guy who’s been in eight cities in 18 years.
“Cincinnati being that second home away from home, so this is a place that’s always been close to my heart. I will never forget you guys, so thank you for being so kind to me,” he said.
Where is he heading?
“I’ll have an announcement soon,” he told me after his final newscast Sunday.
Buganski grew up in Chicago — not one of its suburbs — as a fan of the Chicago White Sox, Bears and Bulls. He graduated from Chicago’s Columbia College in 2007.
Channel 9 hired him as a weekend evening anchor and reporter in August 2022 from KSNW-TV in Wichita, Kansas, where he was morning anchor and investigative reporter. He won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award in 2021 for investigative reporting while in Wichita.
On his Facebook profile he calls himself a “journalist, runner, rocker and everything in between.” His departure comes three weeks after he performed with his band Sixteen Candles on stage at Bogart’s.
In his WCPO-TV bio, Buganski talked about his love for living in the city of Cincinnati.
“For those who’ve never met me, I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, the actual city, not the suburbs. Living in a city is in my blood. It’s something that makes me tick, and it’s who I am. Cincinnati reminds me so much of where I grew up. It’s the culture, professional sports, the atmosphere, the food, and most importantly, it’s the people. I feel like we get one another. The feeling that I get here is something I haven’t felt in a long time. It can be difficult to describe. You just have to be here to understand it.”
WCPO-TV has played musical chairs with its male anchors since June, when Craig McKee left for Scripps’ sister station in Phoenix. Adrian Whitsett moved from mornings to evenings, and former WXIX-TV meteorologist Frank Marzullo was hired in August to co-anchor Good Morning Cincinnati with Kristen Skovira.
Channel 9 also last week hired meteorologist Mark Stitz, a Canton native and 2008 Ohio State University graduate. He was chief meteorologist at KMTV-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, for almost eight years. Stitz also was a weekend meteorologist and reporter for three years (2012-15) at WTVQ-TV in Lexington, Kentucky.
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