James Goldman (born May 17, 1948), known professionally as Jim Gardner, is an American retired

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

Early life and education

Gardner was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and grew up on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

in a

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous searc ...

household. His father was Joseph Goldman, a professor and chairman of the ear, nose and throat department of

Mount Sinai Medical Center Mount Sinai Hospital, formerly at times known as Mount Sinai Medical Center, is a 319-bed major urban hospital in Chicago, Illinois, with its main campus located adjacent to Douglass Park at 15th Street and California Avenue on the city's West Si ...

. Through his father, he is the step-grandson of noted Jewish rabbi

Mordecai Kaplan Mordecai Menahem Kaplan (born Mottel Kaplan; June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist ...

. He attended

Ethical Culture Fieldston School Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also referred to as Fieldston, is a private independent school in New York City. The school is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The school serves approximately 1,700 students with 480 facult ...

. In 1970, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from Columbia University. As a student, he was a

play-by-play announcer In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio wa ...

for football and basketball, and reported on the

Columbia University protests of 1968 In 1968, a series of protests at Columbia University in New York City were one among the various student demonstrations that occurred around the globe in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students disc ...

for the university's radio station,

WKCR-FM WKCR-FM (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to New York City, New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the s ...

Career

In 1970, Gardner became a desk assistant, writer, and producer for 1010 WINS in New York City. In 1972, Gardner became a reporter for WFAS radio in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

, and soon became news director. While not finding work in television, he considered re-enrolling for a graduate program at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Two years later, he began his television broadcast career at

WKBW-TV WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. He took the stage name Gardner because of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

in the Buffalo community, and the thought that there were too many Jewish names on staff. Gardner worked for WPVI in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

from June 1, 1976 to December 21, 2022. He started as a reporter and noon anchor, before anchoring the 5:30 PM news by November 1976. He had solo anchored the 6:00 PM weekday newscasts since May 11, 1977, replacing

Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia owned and operated television stations ...

; he also solo anchored the 11:00 PM weekday newscast between May 11, 1977 and January 11, 2022. He covered every Democratic and Republican presidential convention from 1980 on, and has interviewed every president and major presidential candidate from 1976 on. Gardner has also traveled to the scene of breaking news across the world. On November 10, 2021, Gardner announced his intentions to retire from broadcasting at the end of 2022. Prior to his retirement, Gardner left his position as anchorman on Action News at 11:00 PM on January 11, 2022, and remained on the 6:00 PM broadcast until his retirement and final broadcast at 6:00 PM on December 21, 2022. Gardner is the second-longest serving news anchor in United States television history, after Dave Ward at sister station

KTRK-TV KTRK-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Bissonnet Street ...

who retired in 2017 after 49 years of anchoring the evening news.

Awards and honors

Since 1987, Temple University awards The Jim Gardner Journalism Prize. Gardner funds a scholarship at Temple for one student at the school's college of media and communication. The City of Philadelphia honored Jim Gardner on June 22, 2017 "for his hard work and dedication in the City of Philadelphia over the past 41 years." Jim Gardner Way, the 4100 block of Monument Road outside the WPVI studios, was dedicated in 2022 in his honor. Additionally the studio from which all Action News broadcasts emanate from is now officially known as the Jim Gardner Studio. * 1996 - Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Person of the Year * 2003 - Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame * 2022 - John Cardinal Foley Award for Excellence in Communication *2022 -

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

honored Gardner with their

Mousecar The Mousecar is an in-house award given by The Walt Disney Company for a variety of reasons, including service to the company as well as to the community as a whole. The award was first presented by Disney founder Walt Disney to his brother R ...

award for his long service to that company, which owns WPVI-TV.

Personal

Gardner is married to former WPVI-TV sales executive Amy Goldman, who serves as chair of the

Radnor Township School District Radnor Township School District is a school district that serves Radnor Township, Pennsylvania and has 3 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Due to the mostly affluent demographic of the Main Line that the Radnor Townshi ...

board, and has two children with her, and two other children from a previous marriage. They live in Villanova.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
Profile at 6abc.comBroadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Jim 1948 births Living people American television journalists Television anchors from Philadelphia Philadelphia television reporters American male journalists Journalists from Pennsylvania Columbia College (New York) alumni Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni People from the Upper East Side