 Bill GallagherI am a FOX 2 Problem Solver, and my work includes a wide variety of assignments aimed at helping identify the source of the problem and what can be done to remedy the situation. I came to FOX 2 in 1985, and I've covered a number of significant stories in Michigan, across the nation and around the world. Detroit is one of the most interesting and exciting news towns any where and as competitive a news market as you can find. You can never rest on your laurels. You must keep on top of issues, and be ready to work long, hard hours to do well and beat the competition. I enjoy my reporting work a great deal, and FOX 2 has the best TV news operation in Michigan. I came to Detroit from KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, where I worked for three years. My first job in television was at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I was a reporter and associate producer on a documentary detailing organized crime activities between Scranton and New Jersey. That was a fascinating and demanding introduction into TV news. Before going into TV, I worked as a corporate communications executive in my home town of Niagara Falls, New York, and also in New York City and Washington, D.C. I was also active in politics and was the youngest person ever elected to the Niagara Falls City Council. For two years I was the acting mayor, and lead a 1,100 person workforce with an 80 million-dollar budget. My reporting work has received several honors. I achieved the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting for my reports on abuses of children in Oklahoma State institutions for the mentally disabled. In the summer of 1999, the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation selected me as one of 18 American broadcast journalists to participate in an exchange program in Germany. For three weeks we studied German and European politics and economics, and we were actually at NATO headquarters in Brussels when the conflict in Kosovo concluded. I've won Emmy awards for investigative and feature reporting along with statewide recognition for political and medical reporting. I have a B.A. degree in political science from Niagara University, Lewiston, New York. I have taken writing courses at New York University and the American Management Association. Away from work I enjoy tennis, cooking, reading and music. I live in Farmington Hills, Michigan with my wife, Elizabeth. Our daughter, Rachel, is studying massage therapy and works at a restaurant. Our daughter, Amy, is a doctoral student at McGill University in Montreal. I spring from generations of dairy farmers in the west of Ireland. My cousins still run the farm my grandfather owned in Clunlara, County Clare. |