"If your momma tells you she loves you, double check it. I'll never forget that," says retiring Erie News Now reporter Paul Wagner. "And that, in a microcosm, is accuracy. You have to be accurate. You have to double check your facts."

That accuracy -- that attention to detail -- has defined Paul Wagner for more than four decades. It's made him an icon in northwest Pennsylvania -- not for who he is -- but for how he works.

"I'm not a superstar," says Paul. "I'm a reporter trying to tell people's stories. But the story is the story. The story is the people that we're doing the story on, not the reporter. Sometimes you get involved. I'm playing with a yo-yo or banging on drums for a fun story, but mainly, the focus is on the person you're talking to, making them comfortable and getting their story."

He says that's his best advice for anyone entering the field. Be accurate -- tell the story well -- and realize you're never off the clock.

"You go to the hockey game, someone has a story for you," Paul says. "Just last week, I went out the door, and there was a guy waiting for me in the parking lot because he didn't have his cell phone and had a story idea. You just have to accept that you're eating your spaghetti and someone is looking at you across the restaurant."

He says reporters are never off the clock -- but the clock never stops ticking.

Now -- reporters need speed with accuracy, something that caught even one of the best by surprise.

"This is your enemy," Paul says. "You're always against that deadline, and everything has to be done fairly and accurately, but very very fast. I think I was caught off guard at first by how fast everything was, the speed you have to do it, and that's only gotten faster and faster with more deadlines."

Yet, despite the stress and despite the demands -- despite the never-ending work, Paul says he'll miss the job and any young reporter is in for the education of a lifetime.

"You never stop learning," says Paul. "You learn every single day, every minute you're out there, you learn something new. That's the beauty of the job."