Gerry Wardwell

Gerry Wardwell is Assistant News Director at WCVB Channel 5, Boston’s award-winning, ABC affiliate station. He has been at the Hearst-owned station since 1998 when he was hired as Executive Producer before being promoted to Managing Editor and then Assistant News Director.

During his time at WCVB, Gerry has led coverage on major events like the Boston Marathon Bombings, the capture of Whitey Bulger, the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the deaths of Senator Edward Kennedy and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, numerous elections and the political unrest and riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. For its coverage of events like these, the legacy station has earned hundreds of major awards, including multiple National and Regional Murrows, Associated Press Station of the Year honors, National Headliners Awards, and multiple regional Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Boston/New England Chapter.

Before joining WCVB, Gerry was Managing Editor and Executive Producer at Boston’s WHDH-TV Channel 7, originally arriving in Boston from WHDH’s sister station WSVN in Miami, Florida where he worked as Executive Producer and newscast line producer. He covered major stories including Hurricane Andrew which devastated much of South Florida and the U.S. capture of Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega who was flown to Miami to stand trial on international drug charges.

Gerry had also worked in Providence, Rhode Island as a producer at WJAR-TV, and in Manchester, New Hampshire at WMUR as a reporter and photographer. At WMUR he interviewed presidential candidates John Glenn, Gary Hart and Ernest Hollings during the 1984 New Hampshire Primary. He also interviewed future teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, who lost her life in the NASA space shuttle Challenger explosion.

Prior to that, Gerry worked as a reporter/photographer in Kearney, Nebraska and Macon, Georgia, and worked as a Video Journalist at the then nascent Cable News Network (CNN) in Atlanta. Gerry started his career in local radio on Massachusetts-South Shore before making the move to television.

Gerry graduated Magna Cum Laude from Emerson College in Boston where he holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism with a minor in political science.

Emerson awarded Gerry the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. In 2016, Emerson’s Journalism Department also named an award in Gerry’s honor. The “Gerry Wardwell Journalism Management Award” is given annually to a graduating senior aspiring for a management career in journalism.