For veteran reporter Micheal (yes, it's spelled that way) Mahoney, it all began at the age of 14 in his hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa, when he was interviewed on air by the station manager of local Channel 5.
Later, as a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Missouri, Mahoney worked in North Carolina and back home in Iowa before landing a feature reporter job at KMBC in 1980.
In a conversation with Up To Date, Mahoney tells of his adoption from an orphanage in Ireland, having been fired only once in his career and what inspired him to choose to be a politics reporter.
And when it comes to stories of covering politics, Mahoney shared a few. He explained how he came to be on a first-name basis with George W. Bush, how it was he who extolled Kansas City's St. Patrick's Day parade to then-candidate Joe Biden and, in one of his final assignments, what it meant to report from the funeral and memorial services for Sen. Bob Dole, whom Mahoney had covered for years.
As for the cliché that it's not the job one misses but the people, Mahoney says, "I'm going to miss the job, too."
- Mike Mahoney, award-winning reporter, KMBC 9 News
