Former Eagle and longtime NBC 10 sports and news anchor Vai Sikahema is retiring in November.

Jeff Blumenthal has more details at The Philadelphia Business Journal:

“Vai has been a staple at our station for over a quarter of a century,” an NBC10 spokeswoman said. “Vai started as a weekend sports anchor, then moved to news anchor and host of Wednesday’s Child. We will miss his presence on the anchor desk and in the newsroom. We congratulate Vai for his many years of service to our team and his commitment to our community. We look forward to celebrating Vai and his many accomplishments with our NBC10 family.”

Sikahema will be departing in November, but not before he receives a grand sendoff complete with clip packages looking back at his career with the station. His coworkers were told Wednesday and a source said Sikahema has been thinking about retirement for quite some time, as he is quite active with his church in South Jersey and the Vai Sikahema Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the support of adoption and other youth-related charitable causes.

Good for Vai. He’s had a great media career since leaving the NFL in 1994.

That’s when his broadcasting run began, right after his short stint with the Eagles in 1992 and 1993. He actually started with WCAU when it was CBS-owned, and then continued through the NBC swap and remained with the station for 26 years.

Vai also did some radio with 97.5 the Fanatic. I’m old enough to remember the Vai and Gonzo show, which started, I believe, in 2010. They did a split midday time slot, hosting together from 10 a.m. to noon, then Bruno and Mayes did noon to 2 p.m., leading into Mike Missanelli’s show.

Blumenthal goes on to write that Sikahema was the longest-tenured station personality, which is crazy. I thought Glenn Schwartz had been there longer, but Jeff says Hurricane and Bill Henley both began in 1995, with Tracy Davidson joining in 1996.

Congrats to Vai on a great TV run. He won a couple of Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards and was inducted into the Philly Broadcast Pioneers’ Hall of Fame in 2013.