Ed Hammond, 1470 & 100.3 WMBD’s News Director, has announced that he will be retiring from Midwest360 and full-time work at the end of July.
Ed has been a staple in the Peoria radio market for 45 years, most of which involved covering and anchoring news.
He started his career at Gospel-Christian station WPEO, and includes being a part of WIRL when it was a Top 40 station, and he also worked for WXCL before it was The Wolf.
For the past 17, he’s also been the play-by-play voice of Bradley Women’s Basketball, which he plans to continue doing.
Ed’s history in sports also includes play-by-play with the Peoria Rivermen and the Peoria Pirates Indoor Football League team as well as high school games.
He was also the PA announcer for the Peoria Chiefs for several years.
Mike Wild, Market Manager of Midwest360, says “if you talk to him about his career, he’ll tell you about the industry “legends” he worked with, and indeed many of those names are legendary, but what he leaves out is his own impact, which spans a time period that exceeds those others.”
“Legend” defined is, “remarkable enough to be famous; very well known,” and while that definitely fits Ed, I’m not sure it gives sufficient credit to the impact he’s had on the market and the listeners.”
Wild also added, “You’ve made a difference, Eddie, and what you’ve accomplished really matters to people. And you will be missed around here!”
In the up and coming days of retirement, Ed Hammond can be found on Sunday’s pulling for his KC Chiefs, WWE Raw, but most important, spending more time with his grandson JJ.