A copyboy's major job in those days was to tear stories from the wire service transmitting machines and rush them to the wire editor. Joe would read the stories on the way to the copydesk. "I also taught myself how to type and practiced writing stories," he said. "And I liked it!"

Finally, his chance came. He wrote and submitted a story about a power blackout in "Skunk City," the Syracuse neighborhood where he was born and had grown up. Chryst rewarded him with a new job - chasing down photos to illustrate stories. When nine firefighters perished in the 1939 Collins Block fire, Joe was assigned the job of getting their pictures, which were mostly in family albums.

Joe was soon assigned as an obituary writer; then to a series of other reporting jobs covering various "beats" until he was assigned to cover City Hall. Combining government and politics, it was one of the most important reporting jobs on the newspaper!

Joe covered City Hall for more than 13 years; his byline "Joseph V. Ganley" becoming a symbol of solid reporting and writing. He became an authority on Syracuse government; someone who always knew what was going on, and who was involved.

In 1967, Joe was named city editor, but he chafed at the constraints of a desk job. So in 1969, he jumped at the chance to go to Washington, D.C., as Syracuse correspondent at the Newhouse News Bureau.

In the seven years Joe was in Washington, he learned national government, just as he had city government. Then he came home to write the column on city doings that A. Brohmann Roth had just left.

Joe used his own style and knowledge of Syracuse and its people to make the column one of the most popular in the Syracuse newspapers.