Jim Reader, a veteran broadcast journalist and public relations professional, has died at age 81.
Reader’s obituary says he died this past week after a two-year battle with lymphoma.
Reader was best known in West Virginia for his work at three major local stations in the Charleston-Huntington corridor.
He was an anchor, reporter and Charleston bureau chief for WSAZ television. He also served as news director/anchor at WCHS television. And he was new director, anchor and reporter at WOWK television.
He was inducted into the West Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2012.
Sheila Gray, a former anchor for WSAZ, spoke in 2023 about Reader’s influence on her career.
“I had many who gave me advice, but the best would be Jim Reader of WSAZ Channel 3 in Huntington. He saw something in me I didn’t know that I had,” said Gray, who is now a television anchor in the Cincinnati area.
“He saw me as a ‘storyteller’ and told me that I had a way of finding out what the good stories really were and that I would find stories where many reporters would not go.”
Following his news career, he spent 22 years as vice-president of Charles Ryan Associates, and served as president of Ryan Reader Communication and vice-president of Gallagher, Goodwin-Gregg Public Relations.
In a social media post, Charles Ryan Associates described Reader’s multifaceted contributions to communications in West Virginia.
“Off camera, he was a sweet and gentle figure who dearly loved his wife, Kay,” said Charles Ryan, founder of the public relations company. “I will always treasure Jim as a friend, business partner and exemplary in every way.”
Reader was born in Mount Lebanon, Pa., and moved to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1955. After graduating from Portsmouth High School, he became a reporter at WPAY in the same town.
He earned a journalism degree from Ohio University while serving as the student news director, radio anchor, television reporter and nightly anchor on WOUB educational television.
Following his college graduation, Reader was the city-county beat and special projects reporter for the Athens Messenger in Athens, Ohio, and a reporter/anchor at WTVN Radio Columbus, Ohio; at KWGN-TV in Denver, Colo.; and at WINZ Radio Miami, Fla.
In the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, Reader’s primary duty station was in Seoul, South Korea, where he was a radio anchor, 6 p.m. television news anchor ad a spokesman and ambassador for the United Nations in that country.
Reader was active as a board member and supporter of the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association and a dedicated supporter and participant of the Charleston Public Courts Tennis program.
Reader was preceded in death by his wife of 41 years, Kay Michael Reader, a longtime reporter for The Charleston Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail who died in 2014.