Gary Papa (September 2, 1954 – June 19, 2009) was a sportscaster with

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

from April 1981 to June 2009 and was the 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. sportcaster. He joined the station as a weekend sportscaster in 1981 and was promoted to the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. newscasts in 1991, and was named sports director one year prior. In June 2003, he added the 5:30 p.m. newscast to his duties on an interim basis. Prior to working at WPVI, Papa worked at WGR-TV (1978-1981) in his hometown of

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

and WSTV-TV in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Ohio River 33 miles west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from Fort Steuben, a 1 ...

(1976-1978). Papa's brother,

Greg Greg is a masculine given name, and often a shortened form of the given name Gregory. Greg (more commonly spelled " Gregg") is also a surname. People with the name *Greg Abbott (disambiguation), multiple people *Greg Abel (born 1961/1962), Canadi ...

, was the longtime radio voice of the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

(now the radio voice of the San Francisco 49ers). Papa co-hosted the Saturday evening public affairs show ''Primetime Weekend'' with

Cecily Tynan Cecily Joan Tynan (born March 19, 1969) is an American television meteorologist who has been with WPVI-TV since 1995. , she is the 5, 6, and 11 pm weathercaster and chief meteorologist at WPVI. She formerly hosted the Saturday evening public affa ...

. He had hosted the program since December 3, 1983, when he took over after the death of

Jim O'Brien Jim O'Brien may refer to: Sports Basketball *Jim O'Brien (basketball, born 1950), American coach for Emerson College, Ohio State and Boston College *Jim O'Brien (basketball, born 1951), American player for the New York Nets and Memphis Sounds *Jim ...

. On April 20, 2004, he revealed to viewers that he had been receiving treatment for

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

and lost his hair as a result. He continued to work while receiving

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. Three years later in July 2007, during the 6:00PM ''Action News'' broadcast, Papa along with

Jim Gardner James or Jim Gardner may refer to: * James Gardner (surveyor), British engineer * James Gardner (designer) (1907–1995), British industrial designer * James Gardner (musician) (born 1962), British musician and composer * James A. Gardner (1943–1 ...

announced that he once again was going through chemotherapy. Papa died on June 19, 2009, at 2:57 p.m. at the

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is the flagship hospital of Penn Medicine and is located in the University City section of West Philadelphia. It is consistently ranked as one of the top hospitals in the United States. Histor ...

, at the age of 54; his final WPVI-TV Action News Sportscast was on May 13 of that year. He was survived by his father, insurance adjuster Frank Papa (1926–2019); his wife, Kathleen; and his two sons, Nathaniel and Tucker. Papa was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame on November 14, 2007.

References

1954 births 2009 deaths Cornell University alumni Deaths from prostate cancer Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania American television journalists Television anchors from Philadelphia Philadelphia television reporters Television personalities from Buffalo, New York American male journalists Journalists from New York (state) 20th-century American journalists {{US-journalist-1950s-stub