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Jim Gardner honored, emcee Dave Roberts skips due to knee injury

Dave Roberts was supposed to emcee yesterday's Philadelphia Public Relations Association's ceremony honoring "Action News" anchor Jim Gardner, but the weatherman, who retired Friday, injured his knee running in the studio during his final broadcast.

Roberts, 73, was scheduled to have an MRI yesterday afternoon. So 6ABC meteorologist Cecily Tynan stepped in as emcee at the Ritz-Carlton reception at which PPRA President Bill Cowen presented Gardner with the Gold Medal award. Tynan and Gardner's longtime colleagues Lisa Thomas-Laury and Vernon Odom shared stories and laughs that they had had with Gardner, with Odom using the best word of the day - "horsepuckey" - while comparing cable news to "Action News."

Gardner thanked his wife, Amy, whom he introduced as Amy Goldman, (Goldman is Gardner's real last name) for helping him loosen up, as Thomas-Laury said he was "tightly wound" when she first met him in the '70s. Gardner, who started at WPVI in 1976, said that he would consider the PPRA award as being given to all 138 employees of "Action News," but as he had a particular place on his bookcase, the 137 other staffers would have to come over to look at it.

6ABC boss Bernie Prazenica, news director Carla Carpenter and sports reporter Jamie Apody were there to support Gardner, as were his former colleagues Marc Howard and Scott Palmer, who's now with the Phillies.

To read the rest of today's column, click here.