WASHINGTON, D.C. — After spending 48 years as an anchor at WRC-TV’s news desk, Jim Vance has died, the station announced this morning.
“For more than 45 years, Jim Vance was not only the soul of NBC4 but of the entire Washington area,” the station’s president and general manager Jackie Bradford said in a statement. “To everyone in the Washington area who is heartbroken today, please know we grieve right along with you.”
In 1972, he became NBC4’s main co-anchor, one of the first African Americans to serve in that role at a television station. He announced that he was undergoing treatment for cancer in May of this year.
Journalists, colleagues, and DC fixtures including the City Council have expressed their sadness at the loss, saying they considered Vance a local legend. His face was added to the Ben’s Chili Bowl mural in June.
Vance was 75. He was the region’s longest serving television anchor.
