Honestly, there are not a lot of things on which you can rely, especially when it comes to the news serving the truth and the public’s trust. Without getting too corny, 6ABC’s Jim Gardner – Philly’s longest serving anchorman – was among those people upon which you could rely to offer news in a reasonably fair and balanced fashion, without panic or the selling of the news as a warning in which to drive ratings.
“I’m going to miss you,” said 6ABC’s Jim Gardner when he delivered his final Action News broadcast, his closing “big story tonight” upon his retirement from the news desk.
To go with the public’s trust, there was (and is, he only left yesterday) love. What other newscaster could draw a crowd across the street from WPVI studios on City Line Avenue, tailgating as if it was an Eagles game and selling sweatshirts of an old-school Jim Gardner?
And that is a love that this city has had for Gardner even since Gardner joined 6ABC as its noon report anchor and on-the-street man in 1976. Think of every huge story reported for and to Philly – World Series and Super Bowls, MOVE and the Popes, Mayors from Rizzo to Kenney. The 6 and 11 p.m. nightly newscasts were his and he was the best.
Passing the 11 p.m. spot to Rick Williams (as Jim did in January 2022) and 6 pm to Brian Taff: local news and every big story won’t have the same gravitas or gentility without Jim Gardner.
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