 In 1989, Murphy succeeded Rick Azar as WKBW-TV's 6 PM sports anchor, joining Irv Weinstein and Tom Jolls in Western New York's most popular (at the time) newscast.Murphy was named Sports Director in 1992, one year after the departure of Sports Director Bob Koshinski.He held the position for eighteen years, until September 2007, when Murphy balked at taking a twenty-percent pay cut, as other employees had done because of Granite Broadcasting's financial problems.