WURD host Charles Ellison is stepping away from ‘Reality Check’ after an epilepsy diagnosis
“That’s it for Reality Check for me as the executive producer and as the host of Reality Check," said in a broadcast on April 4.
Charles Ellison has stepped away from his hosting role at WURD 96.1 FM/900 AM’s Reality Check following an epilepsy diagnosis that came after a seizure during a live broadcast of the show last month.
Ellison announced his departure from the show in an episode on April 4. Before that, he last appeared on the program on March 6, when he had a seizure on the air that later evolved into “a series of five seizures,” Ellison said.
“And I found the very, very hard way that I have epilepsy,” Ellison said on the April 4 broadcast. “That’s it for Reality Check for me as the executive producer and as the host of Reality Check.”
Ellison acknowledged that the on-air seizure may have been traumatic for some listeners who were tuned in, and said that he apologized to anyone who may have been disturbed. He also credited his wife and youngest daughter for saving his life.
“By the fourth or fifth one, I got very violent, and my wife and my daughter, who happened to be right near me at that time, hopped into action and literally saved my life,” Ellison said. “Because those seizures were dangerous. They were life-threatening.”
While he will step away as executive producer and host, Ellison said in a statement last week that he would remain at WURD in a “limited capacity.” As part of that role, Ellison, a Philly native who is based in Washington, D.C., said he will be the station’s national public affairs correspondent and also run the weekly ecoWURD Magazine program.
The decision to step away from Reality Check was difficult, Ellison said. He said he had been preparing to cover the remainder of the 2023 election season in Philadelphia, as well as the 2024 presidential election. But he ultimately realized that he had to “put my body and mind first.”
“I feel that I’ve made the right decision. It’s definitely what I needed, but it’s what my family needed, too,” Ellison said.
A longtime commentator and political strategist, Ellison joined WURD to host Reality Check in early 2017. The program began as a daily public affairs show that year, helping to “put WURD on Philly’s busy media map as the only news outlet in the city with a bureau in the nation’s Capitol,” Ellison said. Launched in 2002, WURD is Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned and operated talk radio station.
The future of Reality Check wasn’t immediately clear Monday afternoon. A station representative did not immediately respond to request for comment. On Monday’s episode, Black Women’s Leadership Council co-founder and radio host Joann Bell led the program, which featured an interview with former City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez, who suspended her campaign for mayor on Sunday.
“Everyone, I’ll miss you, and I want everyone to stay sharp,” Ellison said in his final Reality Check broadcast. “Stay smart. You know, just more importantly, be safe.”