News 12 celebrates 70 years with an original crew member

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - In case you haven’t heard, News 12 is celebrating 70 years on the air, and there are so many memories.

As we got ready to mark this anniversary, our Richard Rogers caught up with Daniel Ward, who was an original WRDW employee.

He’s 87 years old now and living in Arizona.

“When I saw that picture I thought, wonder if they know who those people are & if they’re still alive?” asked Ward.

Ward can still name almost every one of the guys in the picture.

He was just 17 years old when he started working for the station.

“Lee Sheradon was the sports director and Jim Davis was the news guy at the time. They would give me a story and a camera I would go and get them film by 10 o’clock,” he said.

Shooting old news films like this isn’t the only thing he did at WRDW-TV.

“Every six months, I changed jobs in the TV station because I wanted to know it all,” said Ward. “So, I worked in film, I worked in the promotion department, I ran audio, I ran the camera. I just did it all.”

His first job was to bring animals for a show called “Peach Blossom Special” — a show that put the spotlight on Brenda Mae Tarpley, better known as Brenda Lee.

“Wasn’t more than three feet tall at the time. She was sweet as could be,” said Ward. “I think at one point I had to go pick her up for a program, but most of the time her mother would drive her over and she would get there like 10 minutes before showtime.”

These were the days of live TV in black and white.

A talk show in the morning, music at 4, and news after that with fashion shows and wrestling matches mixed in.

Ward re the night they convinced him to let a wrestler put him to sleep just to prove it wasn’t fake.

“I sat down and at the last second was afraid of what he was doing, and I started to struggle, and boy he snapped my neck, and I was gone. But it took him a couple of minutes to get me back to sanity,” he said.

He worked the Masters, too. Back in the day, they would have parades downtown to help sell tickets.

Ward made an appearance or two on a show called “Shock Theater”. He re convincing the station to rent a horse-drawn hearse.

“One of the funeral homes had one and they agreed if we insured it, they would rent it to us. And we put the coffin in the back, got dressed up in our costumes, and rose that thing up and down Broad Street and Green Street,” said Ward.

Speaking of coffins, Ward says when he had to sign the station off at night and sign it on again the next morning, he slept in it.

“I left a note on the engineer’s monitor and said ‘I’m in the studio. Come wake me up.’ He came down and couldn’t find me. The coffin was set up in its usual spot and he came over and opened the coffin and it scared him to death. He slammed the coffin down and ran,” said Ward.

He also has some pretty cool cufflinks — shaped like a TV camera with our call letters on them.

The perfect way to celebrate 70 years.

“It’s been a fun ride. And I’m still here. Thank goodness,” he said.

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