‘I Wanted to Go Against the Grain,’ 6 ABC Icon Jim Gardner Completes His 45-year Tenure
6 ABC news veteran Jim Gardner is from New York, but he has made it a point to live in the Philadelphia area. Gardner told Main Line Today, “I wanted to go against the grain by staying in one place for life, raising my kids here, and calling one place home.”
Gardner, who was born James Goldman, will retire at the end of the month. He will be 72 years old. He has been on the air in Philadelphia longer than anyone else.
He did not always work in TV, though. He started in radio in New York City before becoming a news reporter at WKBW in Buffalo. Six months later, he was moved up to the weekend anchor and given his news show at lunchtime.
He met Larry Pollock at WPVI-TV, where they were both general managers. In 1976, Gardner quickly joined the station in Philadelphia. He became an anchor six days before he turned 29.
“Imagine someone who started watching me when they were 15 and is still watching me now that they are 60,” he says. “I guess you could say I was part of their journey through life,” he said.
Now, 45 years after his big break, Gardner lives in Villanova with his wife, Amy Goldman. He has two kids with Amy and two kids from his first marriage.
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