With a charming approach, Joe Birch anchors one of the most watched local evening news programs in town, and has been doing so for the past 32 years.

Growing up in Teaneck, N.J., Birch, 59, acquired a strong love for television at an early age and was inspired by reporters like Geraldo Rivera and Memphis’s own former local news reporter Frank Gardner.

Birch sat down on Feb. 27, 2015 in the WMC TV Action News 5 conference room to discuss his career and his passion for the special needs community. This included a recent story he reported that had a profound impact on him.

The story was about a special needs student at Rosa Fort High School who was reportedly sexually assaulted by two other students.

“That really got to me…I mean that really broke my heart,” he said.

Birch’s passion for the special needs community comes from a personal place in his life.

“I have a nephew who is special needs. Also, long before he was born, I just felt a calling to assist this community. An affair of the heart,” he said.

Birch first walked in to the WMC TV Action News 5 station on Jan. 28, 1978 right after graduating from Christian Brothers College, and said that he wanted to be a reporter. After first gaining an internship there as a gopher, where he had to carry heavy recording equipment, he landed his big break later that year after reporting several stories about a series of strikes around Memphis. This got the attention of former mayor Wyeth Chandler and further drove his passion for news.

After officially becoming a full-time anchor for the 10 p.m. weeknight news in 1983, he stayed in this position, and since then has also engaged himself in numerous Memphis-based organizations. A few organizations where he holds leadership roles and has largely supported are St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Ave Maria Nursing Home, Christian Brothers University, which is his alma mater, and other organizations such as St. Peter Villa, Diversity Memphis, and the Alzheimer’s Association.

When he is not working, Birch enjoys a list of activities. This list includes: serving as the vice chairman of the board of trustees of his alma mater Christian Brothers University, organizing local field races, playing golf, and reading books.

Exercise is also very important to him, as he loves the benefits of it. “It feels good to feel good,” he said.

He sat down to discuss the story that was first reported last November. Since the story first aired, the gang rape suspects have been under investigation, and the assistant principal and a teacher were removed from the school.

“When I hear that someone has been abused, especially someone vulnerable like that, it just makes all of the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I want to expose whatever is the vulnerability in the system that allows that to happen,” he said.

Birch, a father of two sons named Joseph III and Matthew, understands the stress of putting your child in the care of another individual.

“The parents are sending their kids there with every expectation that their child is safe,” he said, voicing his concern for the students at Rosa Fort High School.

Birch is also no stranger to the special needs community. This further sparked his interest in this story.

“I‘ve just had a special outreach in the special needs community that is significantly large in a way that people aren’t really aware of. I’ve really gotten to know the special needs community, so that has been a very important part of my career,” he said.

One of his outreaches in the special needs community include him recently participating in a charity event called “Dancing for Our Stars.” This event was hosted by Memphis Rotary, benefiting the Baddour Center, a residential facility for adults with learning disabilities. The event brought local important figures together to dance for charity, and ended up raising $23,000 for the center.

He concluded his discussion about the story by sharing his passion for justice for the victim. “We’re going to investigate and get to the bottom of ‘how did this happen?’ How was a child,

who is special needs, placed in a position like that, and shouldn’t there be aids provided so that they would be chaperoned and cared for and not harmed in any way? So that was one story that really got to me,” he said.