RICHMOND, Va. -- As WTVR celebrates its 70th Anniversary, two of the television station's most familiar faces -- Cheryl Miller and Lane Casadonte -- sat down to share stories about their time at WTVR. Miller started anchoring CBS 6 News in 1984. Sports Director Casadonte started at WTVR as a photojournalist in 1994.
Watch their conversation in the video box above, or read the highlights below:
On how much television technology has changed over the years
Lane: Cheryl and I can remember big tube cameras and don’t put it into the lights and, you know, big tapes that are about this size equipment that was very heavy, equipment at was, oh my God, it was twice the size that it is now and now we can send files across the country or around the world with a click and they’re there maybe inside of two minutes.
Cheryl: I can remember when we got our first microwave truck, which was amazing, we had the one and we had to share it with everybody and then when we went to our 7:00 newscast – Richmond After 6 – which was a magazine show, and I was out on the road every night covering an event or doing something in the community which really taught me what Richmond was all about.
On the most famous person she’s met while working at WTVR
Cheryl: Oh, Douglas Fairbank Jr. He was in town coming for an event with the movie network that he did, but he came by the station for an interview and he was the most gracious man I think I’ve ever met, he came in and shook hands with everybody, took pictures with everybody, I did the interview with him and then he invited everybody to come to the gala that night.
Lane: But, I know you have a picture of you with Sting.
Cheryl: I mean, I loved meeting Sting though, that was when we went to the CMA’s in Nashville, and he happened to have a country music song that year.
On a very important lesson the late Dale Earnhardt taught Lane about interviewing people, after Earnhardt lost a Daytona 500
Lane: My first or second year here, we had him, it was one year when had he lost the Daytona 500 again, it was before he won, and he, once again, he lost at the very end of the race, a race that he thought he was going to win, and when you interview NASCAR drivers they will be at their car quickly and then they take off if they haven’t won, and we see him walking among the big trucks down in Daytona, I said let's go get him.
So my photographer and I, we go after him, he never broke stride, but I caught up to him, and we tried to do that walk and talk interview, and I asked him some really stupid, cutesy question, and he just looked at me out of the corner of his eye, never broke stride, just kind of grinned and said “race is over, man” and I realized I was blowing it, I was wasting my time, I was wasting his time, and that’s when I asked him the question I really wanted to ask him and he gave me a great answer and it just taught me that: don’t waste anyone’s time, your time is important, their time is important, if you want a good answer you have to ask a good question.
