The Big Story Tonight | Scene Through the Lens
Jim Gardner anchors final newscast after 46 years
The Action News theme song wasn’t the soundtrack of my childhood, but it was wife’s, so I heard about Philadelphia’s Peter Jennings/Dan Rather/Tom Brokaw long before I moved here. And when I started at the Inquirer I tuned in every night after work to hear Jim Gardner recount the day’s big stories.
Actually I often also listened to his 6 p.m. newscast while I was working. In the days before digital television (the transition took place in 2009) the audio portion of 6ABC’s analog broadcast signal was close enough to a frequency at the very bottom of the FM dial - 87.7 - that you could pick it up on a car radio.
The local broadcast icon anchored his final 6 p.m. newscast last week, and a devoted fan arranged a tailgate party in the parking lot ot the Target store across the street from the station to watch.
Prior to his final broadcast Gardner surprised the small but dedicated crowd by walking over to greet the tailgaters.
Other local broadcasters who retired during 2022 include WHYY radio host Marty Moss-Coane, NBC10 meteorologist Hurricane Schwartz, and 94.1 WIP sports talkers Ray Didinger and Angelo Cataldi. They brought me and other listeners and viewers the news and information every day for decades,
Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column