JOHN MCBREEN DEAD AT 69
Officials for Millennium Media announced the death of John McBreen March 19, its news reporter for more than 25 years. McBreen passed away at his home the weekend prior. He was 69.
“I was heartbroken when I heard the news,” said Mary Ann Armijo, general manager for the iHeartRadio stations here in Gallup.
McBreen spent almost his entire adult life in Gallup, reporting everything from city council meetings to what he heard on the streets, as he ran down the rumors and the events that would become part of the city’s history.
“I loved taking to him about the past because there was no one more knowledgeable about it,” Armijo said.
Over the years, McBreen formed close relationships with the people who have led Gallup and the state since the 1970s. He interviewed every major state politician and local federal officials, as well as young Gallupians who had won the annual spelling bee.
Sammy Chioda, general manager of Mellennium Media, was McBreen’s boss as well as his friend of the past two decades.
“John will be missed by all of us,” Chioda said. “There was no one who worked harder.”
As other metropolitan radio stations moved away from local reporting, McBreen remained a fixture at Millennium Media, reporting the daily news of Gallup and the region on several radio stations – even well past retirement.
“He truly leaves a legacy that will keep him in our memories in the coming years,” Chioda said. “He’s going to be missed.”
HISTORY AND HONORS
McBreen was born in Philadelphia and moved to Gallup in 1973, after seeing an ad put out by the New Mexico Broadcasters Association saying New Mexico was “an exciting place to live.” At the time, Jack Chapman, the owner of KGAK radio, was looking for someone to cover both the news for Gallup and the Navajo Nation. McBreen won the job, and was on the air 50 weeks out of the year for nearly 40 years following.
For the first 22 years he worked under Chapman, until Champman sold the radio station in 1997.
Over the years he was here, said Chioda, McBreen was one of the top stringers for the Associated Press, which gave him numerous awards not only for calling in the most stories of any reporter in the state but for covering some of the biggest stories in the area.
When Larry Casuse and Robert Nakaidine kidnapped the mayor of Gallup, Emmett Garcia, and kept him hostage at a local sporting goods store downtown, McBreen was there to cover every second of it. He won numerous wards from AP and the New Mexico Press Association for that coverage.
A decade later, when members of the Navajo Tribal Council held a meeting late into the night to suspend then chairman Peter MacDonald, McBreen was also there, overcoming attempts by some members of the council to get him to stop broadcasting.
That also earned him a few awards – and for the rest of his life, McBreen kept tapes of both events on hand to remind him of those days.
One of his favorite stories was about an interview with Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who was in Gallup for a retreat. The archbishop had turned down a couple of other requests for an interview so McBreen just showed up to where he was eating, flopped down his microphone and asked for an interview.
When dissidents took over a semi-conductor plant in Shiprock, McBreen was the only reporter allowed in and he spent several hours interviewing various members of the American Indian Movement. His interviews were aired nationwide.
In 1986, McBreen traveled to Washington D.C. to accept a coveted Associated Press award for producing the most top weekend stories of the year.
McBreen was on hand every time there was an election, either in Gallup or Window Rock, broadcasting the results and interviewing anyone who showed up at the county courthouse, the city council chambers or the Window Rock Sports Center.
Over the past few years, people had wondered what would happen when he retired because there seemed to be no one equipped to replace him.
Chioda has not decided whether he will continue the news programs.
“I’m reaching out to our listeners and asking them if we should continue,” he said. “I should know in a short while.”
But no matter what the decision is, he added, the station will continue to broadcast its public affairs programs.
McBreen was preceded in death by his parents, Don and Marianne McBreen, whom both are buried in Colorado.
Services will be held at Sacred Heart 415 E. Green Ave., with a rosary at 6 pm Sunday and an 11 am Monday memorial mass.
By Babette Herrmann
and Staff
