After 22 years of working for WJZ, Baltimore’s local CBS affiliate, sports director Mark Viviano announced his retirement Monday morning on X.
“It is with great gratitude to this city and the people who watched my reports that I depart,” Viviano said. “I just want people to know how grateful I am.”
His final broadcast will be July 18.
Viviano, who recently turned 60, decided to step away from sports broadcasting to spend more time with his wife and two sons and increase his involvement in his charity work.
He is incredibly appreciative of the response he’s gotten from the community during his time covering Baltimore sports and said the support he’s received “means more than anything.”
After holding several jobs in the Midwest, the St. Louis native first landed in Baltimore in 1994 as a sports reporter for local NBC affiliate WBAL-TV, a job he held for five years.
One of his most notable accomplishments was breaking the news of the Cleveland Browns’ move to Baltimore in 1995. Viviano was still new to the city and said his coverage of the event helped establish his trustworthiness.
Following a two-year stop at CNN-Sports Illustrated in Atlanta, Viviano returned to Baltimore in 2002 to become the sports director at WJZ. The Baltimore Banner and WJZ are media partners.
Over his two stints in Baltimore, he covered memorable moments such as Cal Ripken Jr.’s record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game and the 2012 Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl victory.
But rather than focus on any individual game or story, Viviano said he is most grateful that he got to spend four decades in the profession living out a childhood dream he had since he was 7 years old and his parents bought him a tape recorder.
And he still remembers the hard work his dad put in to get him there. Viviano’s father drove a produce truck to be able to eventually send him to the University of Missouri. Now, when he sees produce trucks around Baltimore as he leaves the station for the night, he thinks of his dad.
“I never took the job for granted or took any day for granted,” he said.
Viviano said he’s done so much in his time as a reporter that it feels as though he’s fit 50 years of experience into the 40 he spent in the field..
“I’ve filled the bucket and I want someone to come in with new enthusiasm and do a job that I did with enthusiasm for a long time,” he said.
Now, he’ll coach his sons’ baseball, basketball and soccer teams and continue volunteering at his children’s school, as well as numerous charities including the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and the Casey Cares Foundation.
While he doesn’t know who his successor will be, Viviano said he will be available to help guide them as they step into the job.
With both the Orioles and the Ravens contending for titles in the near future, Viviano believes that retiring will allow him to enjoy the moment more.
“Now I’ll actually be able to sit back and enjoy the outcomes, because I know it’s going to make people happy and I can just be someone on the sidelines who can take it in differently without having to hit a deadline,” he said.
