WTAE reporter Bob Mayo said he is retiring on December 31.

TribLive points out that this is the “third significant on-air retirement from Pittsburgh TV stations this quarter, following the departures of KDKA-TV’s Jon Delano and WPXI’s David Johnson.”

“I’m grateful for my years at WTAE, a station I’ve watched since I was a kid growing up in Carrick. I remember staying up to watch what was then called ‘4 Star News,’ ” Mayo wrote on social media.

“It’s like jumping off a moving train: You have to decide at some point to do it,” Mayo told TribLive.

He started his career in his teens, as a volunteer on the WQED show The Place. He was a radio news reporter/coordinator for WWSW-AM/FM before joining WTAE-AM. He started working at WTAE TV in 1994.

Mayo also reflected on the move away from beat reporting in local TV.

“While I was general assignment, I’ve always been the person that will most often wind up covering government and political stories,” Mayo said. “We used to have specialists, like medical editor Marilyn Brooks. We don’t have that now. I hope that other reporters, not just here in television but generally, get the opportunity to hone those special areas of expertise and skills. I think the viewers are served well by it and the experience of reporting is better for it.”