John Tisdale Harding (born c. 1945) is a long-time on-air personality and

News Director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ph ...

for WRVA.

Radio history

Harding's career began at WEVA in

Emporia, Virginia Emporia is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, surrounded by Greensville County, United States. Emporia and a predecessor town have been the county seat of Greensville County since 1791. As of the 2020 census, the populatio ...

, when he was 14. He worked after school and on Weekends from 1959 through 1964. In 1967, he returned to WEVA to step up and run the station's first local news department. John graduated from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

in 1968. He served as Program Director for the School's AM station WAMU. He was an Intern/Trainee at

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

while at AU. In 1968 he joined WRVA in Richmond as a

Staff Reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He was named State Capitol Reporter in 1969,

News Editor Copy editing (also known as copyediting and manuscript editing) is the process of revising written material (copy) to improve readability and fitness, as well as ensuring that text is free of grammatical and factual errors. ''The Chicago Manual of ...

in 1970 and began anchoring the WRVA Morning News at 8 in 1972, an assignment he kept for the subsequent 21 years. He was named News Director at WRVA in 1977 and Operations Manager in 1987, positions he held until 1994 when he moved back to mornings to join Tim Timberlake upon the death of

Alden Aaroe Alden Peterson Aaroe (May 5, 1918 – July 7, 1993) was a broadcast journalist and announcer for WRVA, a radio station in Richmond, Virginia. Career Before coming to WRVA, Aaroe was a newscaster at WCHV in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1939–1941. ...

. Harding was the chief editorial writer for WRVA from 1981 through 1996. He was also the creator and voice of the fictional character

Millard the Mallard Millard the Mallard was a fictional mallard duck who was used as a character and mascot of WRVA radio in Richmond, Virginia. It was featured on Alden Aaroe's morning show for 30 years. History Millard the Mallard first appeared in September 1972 ...

, a mainstay of the Alden Aaroe Morning Program for close to 30 years. He left WRVA in 2001. In February 2005, Harding said, ''"I retired from WRVA in April 2001. I help the family run its wholesale cut flower business, read a lot, build model ships, and am a model railroader."''

Awards

*He was named to the Richmond Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2000 *Awarded the Virginia Association of Broadcasters George W. Bowles Award in 1992

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, John Tisdale People from Richmond, Virginia Mass media in Richmond, Virginia Living people Year of birth missing (living people)