Cancer treatment will have KDKA’s Marty Griffin off air for ‘a couple’ weeks
KDKA Radio host Marty Griffin said he is “actually getting a lot better” after blacking out and falling recently in what might have been a reaction to his treatment for throat cancer. Via a Facebook Live post Sunday evening from his Mt. Lebanon home, he added he will likely be off the air for “a couple” more weeks.
He was hospitalized after the Oct. 3 event with a high fever, unstable blood pressure and pulse and a rash. Mr. Griffin was admitted to the ICU at the time and spent a few days in the hospital before returning home.
The radio host is entering his sixth of eight weeks of treatment, which includes radiation and chemotherapy, in addition to an experimental immunotherapy, at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center in Shadyside.
Although he had been on the air earlier, a series of replacement hosts have filled in for his 9 a.m.noon show, among them, Lynne Hayes-Freeland, Stoney Richards and Wendy Bell.
Broadcasting the Facebook Live video as his family ate pasta at the kitchen table, Mr. Griffin pointed the camera at his liquid meal: a bottle of chocolate high-protein meal replacement Boost.
“Nobody ever said it would be a breeze,” he said in the Facebook Live post. His tumor, located along the jawline, is about half the size it was before he began the treatment protocol: “Short-term pain, long-term gain.”
Chris Moore receives lifetime achievement honor
Chris Moore was inducted into the Silver Circle Society Saturday at the annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Awards sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in Philadelphia. The chapter’s award is given for lifetime achievement, and it honored his work as a host and producer at WQED, as well as hosting on KDKA Radio.
Overall, WQED Multimedia took home 11 additional prizes and tied Philadelphia’s NBC10/Telemundo for top honors. Locally, KDKA-TV and WTAE-TV each won four Emmys, the latter scoring an award for outstanding
morning newscast for an entry titled “Snowy Morning.”
Among WQED-TV’s winning entries were the documentary “Lost & Found: The Elizabeth Black Murals,” one of its musical “Sweater Sessions” in the spirit of Fred Rogers and a community service category entry on women and the opioid crisis.
Filmmaker Rick Sebak, currently doing rehab after knee surgery at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, won in absentia for his “Meat Pittsburgh” documentary.
The complete lists of professional and college winners can be found at www.natasmid-atlantic.org.