After more than 50 years, legendary broadcast journalist Chuck Scarborough stepped down from his day-to-day duties as anchor of NBC 4 New York news.

His last day as anchor of the 6 p.m. news on WNBC was Thursday, December 12th.

Chuck will continue to be part of the WNBC family, providing special reports and contributions to special station projects and programs.

To celebrate his retirement after 50 years at NBC New York, Campbell Brett and Grace Brett had a special and loving message for their grandfather, Chuck Scarborough.

Here is his message to viewers as he ended his final broadcast:

This is my final show as anchor of the evening news on NBC 4 New York.

First of all, I am deeply grateful for your trust. Without that, I would not have survived in this job for more than half a century and would not have been able to occupy this front row seat in the history of our fascinating metropolis and the world behind it for so long.

Four months after my arrival in 1974, President Nixon, who had won a landslide election just two years earlier, resigned. The first presidential resignation in the country’s history.

In 1975, New York City collapsed into virtual bankruptcy and the Vietnam War ended in chaos.

The pace of breaking news has been relentless ever since. Together we have experienced power outages, riots, crime waves, hurricanes, blizzards, economic crises, corruption (public and private), 9/11, wars and a pandemic.

But just as important were the stories of human achievement in the arts and sciences, of forgiveness, kindness, recovery and resilience.

If there is one overarching lesson I have learned, it is that we are more resilient than we realize – individually and as a city and nation. We get knocked down and come back stronger.

I will be forever grateful for the privilege of working with so many dedicated, brilliant and talented broadcast journalists on both sides of the camera, some of whom risk their lives in dangerous places to bring you the news.

In an age of algorithms and cable channels that drive citizens into like-minded AI silos, and of social media fictions that stifle the truth, it has never been more important to do what they do so well: the basic principles of Accuracy, objectivity and security to ensure fairness.

I want to leave you with a final thought that I shared with my NBC colleagues earlier this year as they gathered in the Rainbow Room to celebrate my 50th anniversary at the National Broadcasting Company – itself a quintessentially American success story, founded by a Russian immigrant named David Sarnoff, who began selling newspapers at the age of 15 to support his family in need.

I challenged my colleagues to do something I am still doing to restore perspective, appreciation, and a sense of mission.

Walk out on Fifth Avenue and look back in awe through the Channel Gardens, across the skating rink, across that statue, at that towering building and say, “I work here. I work here and that’s important. What I do is important. I work for the National Broadcasting Company, the oldest and largest television network in this country with a storied history.”

Feel the weight of this story. The burden of responsibility we all carry to get it right, to do it well, and to make it interesting. It is an honor to work with you.

This message addressed our work here, the tough challenges of daily news gathering. But it applies just as well to our city, to our country, and to all of you – all of us.

We all need to, from time to time, lift our eyes from the political fever and social inadequacies of the day and appreciate what we have, how far we have come, and the opportunity we have been given to continue our journey toward a more perfect union.

Thank you very much and goodnight.

For more than 50 years, Chuck Scarborough brought the news to NBC New York viewers. When he retired, they had the opportunity to tell him how much of an impact he had on their lives while watching his broadcasts.