Elaine Effort, an award-winning pioneer of Pittsburgh journalism and a longtime broadcaster on news station KQV Radio, unexpectedly died Wednesday, according to the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, of which she was a founding member.
“Mrs. Effort was always willing to listen to new ideas and roll up her sleeve to make them work for PBMF,” Ervin Dyer, current treasurer and a former president of PBMF, said in a statement released by the organization. “She was supportive, and her range of community connections were a positive for the organization,”
A cause of death and funeral arrangements have not yet been released.
Effort, of Highland Park, was born in Detroit, Mich. She had an older brother, who was an attorney, and a younger sister. Her grandparents were very active in her life.
“I spent the summer with them in a little place called Shrewsbury, Ontario, Canada. And, they were very, very influential in my life as well. My grandfather taught me how to hunt and fire a rifle. And my grandmother taught me how to fish and to smell the wind and know when a storm was brewing on Lake Erie,” she said in a 2013 Pittsburgh Urban Heroes interview.
She attended the University of Michigan, where she earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. During high school and college, she worked for student radio stations “just for fun.”
She spoke in a Pittsburgh Urban Heroes interview about how she was planning to go to law school and was studying political science until a college guidance counselor heard her on the radio and convinced her to switch gears in her senior year.
She met her husband — Edmund, who survives her — while she was at the University of Michigan and he was in dental school.
She moved to Pittsburgh to work for KQV. She was also a founding member of the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, which she joined in 1973. The organization — which continues its work today — strives to improve media coverage of the Black community and bring more Black voices to local news outlets.
After she and Edmund got married, they moved to England so that her husband could serve in the Air Force. It was during their six years there that they started a family. The couple had two children, April and Edmundson, who survive.
She spent 38 years at the broadcast station before her retirement — and the radio station’s sale — at the end of 2017. Throughout her tenure at KQV, she focused on news reporting, as well as weekly program “Pittsburgh Profiles.” The show shone a light on often overlooked local figures.
As a journalist, Effort covered a wide variety of stories, from goings-on with local government to murders and fires to celebrations and events. Her political science and pre-law education often came out in her reporting.
“You know, I love the politics. I love the legal side, covering the federal courthouse and the things that are going on. And even when it’s corrupt, even covering the corruption and the wrongdoing; that is so important to let the light shine on that as well,” she said in the Urban Heroes interview.
While Effort’s first love was radio, she did work in television as well. She hosted a weekly program on WPGH called “In Focus” and served as a substitute for Chris Moore on WQED’s “Black Horizon.”
As a pioneering Black woman in the media industry, she also took opportunities to uplift and promote the Black community in Pittsburgh and beyond.
She was also passionate about building up communities. For more than three decades, she volunteered as a mentor and instructor with PBMF’s annual Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop for teenagers.
Current PBMF president Deborah Todd was a high school student when she met Effort. She said in a statement, ““She was incredible with young people. She was patient and kind, but she was also strict and held us accountable to doing our best and preparing us to be capable journalists. I admired and respected her.”
The Pittsburgh City Council honored the “godmother of journalism in Western Pennsylvania” at the time of her retirement. Dec. 28, 2017, was declared “Elaine Effort Day” in the City of Pittsburgh.
“I have 38 years of stories,” she said at the ceremony. “I’ve seen the best, I’ve seen the worst of people, and I think the best story is how Pittsburgh has recovered and is recovering and reinventing itself. I remember seeing the steel mills, these monoliths to manufacturing and steelmaking, on both sides of the river for as far as you can see and the proximity to Downtown. Then I watched the decline of that industry. Now what do you see when you go atop Mt. Washington? You have new office buildings where meds and eds and technology, tissue engineering, all of these wonderful things are happening.”
After her retirement from KQV, Effort spent more time with her family but also continued her media work. She worked as a freelance contributor for 90.5 WESA.
She was an active member of Calvary Episcopal Church in East Liberty.
Speaking on how she tried to impact the community through journalism, she said, “Number one, for everything that I do, I try to find the truth. Just speak the truth. You don’t have to color it or couch it. None of that. Just speak the truth.”
She also said that she tried to tell the overlooked stories in the community.
According to the Pittsburgh Courier, Effort would often tell her editors, “I stand by my story. Are there other versions? I’m not surprised. But this is my version, and I stand by it.”