When veteran news anchor Mike Ahern began his broadcast career at WISH-TV, the world – and the industry – was much different.

For starters, he wondered how they were going to “fill” 30 minutes of air time during the evening news. The staff numbered slightly more than a half dozen. There were no “live” shots as everything had to be filmed in the field and brought back to the studio for processing. At least the competition was slim – only four television stations were on the Indianapolis airwaves in 1967. During the course of 37 years, Mike Ahern became the friendly face that delivered history as it was made and provided the lead in to “Uncle Walter” (aka CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite) during some of the most poignant moments of the 20^th Century.

When he retired in December 2004, it was with a happy and fulfilled heart … and a definite goal of resuming a normal schedule. When one’s work spans mid-afternoon to the dinner hour through bedtime, it makes “normal” a challenge. “I really enjoyed it,” he says. “It was just nice to be able to travel and even go out to dinner like a normal person.”

But once a reporter always a reporter; it wasn’t long before Ahern felt the tug to his journalistic roots. Earlier this year, at the behest of WISH-TV’s Jeff White, he launched “One on One” on WNDY, an in-depth, 30-minute interview program. Inspired by his memorable interview series with IU Coach Bobby Knight, to date guests have been as varied as Governor Mitch Daniels, TV talk show host Anderson Cooper, businessman Forest Lucas and Indy’s favorite foodie, Reid Duffy.

“I have really enjoyed the long-form interviewing without the frantic pace of the newsroom,” he says candidly. “I can relax a little bit and really focus on the topic.”

Most recently, Ahern was tapped by the Indiana Historical Society as a senior community affairs advisor. A long-time supporter of the IHS, his new responsibilities include public speaking engagements, IHS events and media relations activities. “Mike Ahern has dedicated his professional life to delivering news to the people of Indiana with honesty and integrity. That commitment, coupled with his deep appreciation for Indiana’s heritage, makes Mike a perfect fit with the IHS,” says the non-profit’s President John Herbst.

For Ahern, it provides an opportunity to weave his objective vantage point from the news desk into the mission of the Historical Society as Indiana’s storyteller. And fortunately, he likes chatting about those life-changing moments of which he was a part.

Like the night Bobby Kennedy urged peace among an angry Indianapolis crowd following the news of Martin Luther King’s assassination. “We were the only ones who happened to have a camera man down there,” he recalls. “And the network reporter literally missed it and was in our newsroom bemoaning the fact he was going to lose his job. When our guy walked in waving this film can and said, ‘Who wants this Bobby Kennedy stuff?’ I’ve never seen anyone so happy.”

Likewise, he was among the local reporters on the front line of the Tony Kiritsis story. For three days, the disgruntled Indianapolis man held banker William Hall captive with a wire around his neck affixed to a shotgun and promising to kill him. And that is the “clean version.” His tirades were laden with obscenities never uttered on the airwaves … and they were on the airwaves live because that was Kiritsis’ demand.

“That story changed everything. We had never covered a life or death situation,” recalls Ahern. “In retrospect we should have never gone live like we did. But Kiritsis played us like a violin. And I think we all realized how both powerful and vulnerable television news was.”

And then there was the Blizzard of 1978. “We had never been on-air around the clock before,” he says. “We didn’t have the Doppler radar or anything like that. We were really sort of holding hands with folks who were all marooned until they got dug out. We just sort of made it up as we went along.”

And now he’s doing a little of that in his post at the Indiana Historical Society – a newly created position for one of Indiana’s best-known storytellers.  “Everything old is new again,” he quips. But one things for sure, most of us will never tire of that familiar voice and face telling us a good story.

Visit the Indy Creative Aging channel (click here) to see more about Mike Ahern and the Indiana Historical Society.