[3] In November 1984, Stan Barron, the longtime sports director at WBEN, died from thyroid cancer, shortly after calling the Bills' last preseason game of the year.
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.
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.
Murphy remained off television until his non-compete contract clause expired, after which he joined WIVB-TV, WKBW's crosstown rival, in March 2008, to become that station's sports director.
Murphy formerly served as the play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Bills radio network, a position he held since the retirement of Van Miller following the 2003 season.
Chris Brown, a Bills beat reporter and former play-by-play announcer of the Buffalo Destroyers, has filled in for Murphy since the stroke.