KTRK Houston's Dave Ward, who holds the world record for logging more years at a single station than any other TV anchor, this week hits 50 years at the ABC O&O.
Ward nabbed a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records in June when he clocked in 49 years and 218 days after joining KTRK as a reporter and photographer. Ward started anchoring the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news roughly two years later, in 1968, when he coined his trademark opener, “Good evening friends." He has used the greeting in every newscast since.
Over the last five decades, Ward has covered topics from space walks and the Vietnam Peace Talks to natural disasters and politics. He landed a one-to-one interview with President Obama and has been awarded a Lone Star Emmy for lifetime achievement.
Ward's world record topped the one set by late KTLA Los Angeles anchorman Hal Fishman. Fishman had been on the air continuously from 1960 to his death at age 75 in 2007, just a week after being diagnosed with colon cancer.
