Milton Edwin "Ed" Godfrey Jr. (February 4, 1931 – June 18, 2019) was an American television journalist, an innovative, award-winning, multi-market television news producer and news director who also served as a director-at-large and president of the Radio Television News Director Association. Godfrey's achievements included pioneering Evening in 1975, the nation's first broadcast early evening news magazine show. He also lead the broadcast news industry's successful effort to abolish the Fairness Doctrine that hampered the broadcast media.
Biography Godfrey was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1931, the second of Col. (US) Milton Edwin Godfrey Sr. and Grace (née Wilson) Godfrey's three children. He had moved with his military family nearly 20 times by the time he graduated from high school. Godfrey married Regina Suzanne "Sue" Pocalka in 1957 while attending college in Baltimore, Maryland. He began his career in broadcasting in 1959, joining Miami, Florida's WTVJ television station as a photographer. Godfrey continued moving up in broadcast news, becoming an award-winning, innovative broadcast news producer and news director in multiple markets. He was elected president of the RTNDA, an industry advocacy group founded to set standards for broadcast journalism and to defend the First Amendment in instances where broadcast media was being threatened. Godfrey testified in that capacity before the United States Congress on three separate occasions. After suffering a debilitating fall, Godfrey died on June 18, 2019, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Education Godfrey graduated from Harrisburg High School, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Initially attending Pennsylvania State University, Godfrey was called to duty during the Korean War, and served for 2 years as an office administrator stationed in Japan. Returning after the war, Godfrey earned degrees in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1958.
Broadcast news career Godfrey's 41-year journalism career saw him steadily rise through the ranks, starting as a film news photographer, then becoming a news producer, and finally a news director. He maintained a lifelong commitment to integrity in journalism. A staunch defender of the First Amendment, he also showed compassion for victims experiencing tragic loss and pain. Godfrey discouraged reporters from seeking quick sound bites from victims.
WTVJ, Miami, Florida Ralph Renick hired Godfrey in 1959 as a news film photographer at Miami, Florida's WTVJ "Channel 4" television station. The station was known for its groundbreaking, award-winning documentaries and other long-form news coverage at a time when only national broadcast networks were producing such fare. Godfrey said in 1982 "Ralph Renick set the standard for local TV news nationally".
On June 29, 1961, WTVJ aired A Cry in the Dark, a documentary that explored aspects of mental illness on WTVJ's FYI evening newscast. Godfrey was one of two photographers who filmed documentary segments in the mental care wards of Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee and the Hollywood Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. The segments included an open brain operation, therapists and psychologists at work with their patients as well as interviews of patients being admitted, patients being readied for release and an interview of a Cape Canaveral housewife "who tried to sell religion to NASA on the day they fired Alan Shepard into space". This was the first time news cameras had been allowed inside Florida mental hospitals, having been granted permission by then Governor Farris Bryant.
Godfrey became the executive producer of WTVJ's Newsnight, a daily, half-hour 7:00 pm news show. He resigned from the station in July, 1965.
KHOU, Houston, Texas Godfrey joined KHOU as Assistant News Director in August, 1965. He was promoted to News Director two years later. Station manager James Richdale said of Godfrey "From the day he came to work, he has proven himself to be a capable administrator, completely involved in the News Department and Station, and has time and again demonstrated the keenest judgement on vital news matters".
30 Minutes news magazine show Godfrey created the 30 Minutes news magazine show at KHOU and served as the show's producer. The emphasis was on news, not infotainment.
In 1969, the fifth episode was an in-depth look at the financial difficulties that had forced the Houston Independent School District to end kindergarten classes. The episode also featured a look at the "Moon Lab" at the University of Houston which had been set up to study lunar samples from the Moon's surface that were scheduled to arrive later that July.
The seventh episode featured film footage of the 1900 Galveston hurricane produced by Thomas Edison and suggested the 8,000 dead (at that time the worst natural disaster in America) might be overshadowed by the then current drought in Houston. The episode asked if drought would become a recurrent problem for Houston residents.
An end-of-the-year episode which aired on December 23, 1969, featured 30 Minutes host Ron Stone showcasing "the most meaningful events" in Houston's history, then "the US south's largest city". The episode featured an interview with CBS News' Walter Cronkite who pointed out what he felt "was the most significant single happening during the 'Sixties". According to Godfrey, "a great amount of archive Channel 11 (KHOU) film will be used in... this decade-ending program". Other episodes addressed topical issues of the day, including Houston's then current teen drug abuse and Houston's substandard housing.
Houston news documentaries Among the documentaries Godfrey produced at KHOU, he managed the six-month long creation of A Right To Life, a two-part, three hour documentary that investigated the efficacy of drugs that had not been cleared by the FDA for the treatment of conditions such as cancer, diabetic retinopathy, allergies and others.
One drug examined was Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) along with its promoter Dr. Stanley Jacob. KHOU's documentary predated CBS News' 60 Minutes investigation of DMSO by ten years.
The documentary, written by reporter Ron Stone earned a 52 share of the evening Houston television viewing audience and praise from local media. The Houston Chronicle said the program was "made by and for Houstonians, but its appeal should be national... I guarantee you'll be fascinated". The Houston Post said "A hard-hitting piece of video journalism. A big-time, professional look". US Senator Ralph Yarborough subsequently appeared on KHOU's news programs, praised the producers and promised his US Senate Subcommittee on Health would hold hearings to probe drug licensing procedures.
KGW, Portland, Oregon In 1971 Godfrey was hired as News Manager of KGW, then King Broadcasting's Portland, Oregon television station.
Evening news magazine show In 1975, Godfrey managed the creation and introduction of KGW's Evening, the nation's first broadcast news magazine show. Evening, broadcast Monday through Friday at 7:00 pm, premiered September 1, 1975, a year before Westinghouse Broadcasting's KPIX premiered their Evening Magazine and six years before the similar Entertainment Tonight news program. Godfrey's team included show producer Michael Sullivan. Sullivan said he had been encouraged to move up from his position of "lowly floor director at the CBS affiliate... I quickly apprenticed myself to the best news photographer in the shop, recording sound for his documentaries, assisting him through the all night edit sessions, soaking up the craft".
KGW's Evening episodes were broadcast every weekday on all four King Broadcasting Company stations. Godfrey's Evening magazine news show concept was copied a year later and successfully syndicated across America by Westinghouse Broadcasting".
WSB, Atlanta, Georgia Godfrey left KGW in 1977 and was hired as News Director at WSB in Atlanta, the fourth news director hired by the station in three years. Staff morale was low. A WSB spokesperson reported Godfrey was "being brought here to end the 'happy talk'" between news anchors during WSB's news programs. Godfrey quickly announced changes in the structure and pace of the station's newscast, saying "The newscasts will have a little different look, but as far as changes in faces, there will be none".
Godfrey's first task was to redesign the station's aging newsroom. At the time, most WSB reporters had to share desks and typewriters. Godfrey also pressed to upgrade the news gathering equipment. The station had yet to replace aging, first-generation ENG cameras and editing equipment. Godfrey also immediately had his office renovated in his singular glass-walled style, the design symbolizing his philosophy of open management, saying "...I'm not close-minded".
By 1979, Godfrey had realigned WSB newscasts to feature Atlanta area "neighborhood news". "My major emphasis is covering the community... I'm trying to get away from the institutional news that I think is predominant, not just in this market, but in a lot of the markets in the country". Godfrey said "We're covering the news better, we're covering it differently, and we're covering more of it". WSB had regained its solid footing in news viewership ratings.
In 1979, When the Atlanta Constitution asked it's readers for their opinions on local television, many complained about the then ubiquitous hour-long local evening newscasts in Atlanta. Godfrey's answer: "When you have to look around to fill up that hour, sometimes you come up with very worthwhile things".
Fired in a "house cleaning" Godfrey was fired from WSB on June 27, 1980, part of a "house cleaning" that included the firing of the station's general manager, general sales manager, promotion director and production manager. Commenting on Godfrey's firing, WSB newsroom staff members said "...everyone had come to respect Ed as a News Director" and "This is a rotten way to pay off somebody who has accomplished what Ed has accomplished".
Won "Television News Excellence" Emmy award The next evening after having been fired, Godfrey was awarded a regional Emmy Award for "Television News Excellence", one of twelve Emmy awards won that year by the WSB newsroom operation he had headed. At the awards ceremony, WSB reporters, producers and news anchors "all made a point of thanking Godfrey, a man who would never say anything on his own behalf". Accepting his award, Godfrey sad nothing about his departure, instead he "thanked his engineers".
WAVE, Louisville, Kentucky Godfrey was hired as news director at WAVE TV in Louisville in 1980 and remained at that station until his retirement in 2000. When the station renovated its news department, Godfrey once again had a glass-walled office installed for his use within the newsroom.
At the 1982 Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi annual convention, Godfrey predicted "greater localization of newscasts in the future" and complained about the additional costs of then new satellite uplink dishes, saying he was using his "because he's been told to, but he thinks the cost should be charged to programming instead of news, because it's mostly used as a programming tool".
While WAVE news director, Godfrey was elected and served as RTNDA president in 1983 and 1984.
FirstNews In 1990, Godfrey developed FirstNews, then the earliest afternoon newscast in Louisville. Premiering in May, the half-hour show aired at 5:00 pm and featured WAVE news anchor Jackie Hays. Hays had recently joined WAVE TV, returning to the Louisville market from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's KYW-TV. Hays had been a popular news anchor at Louisville's WHAS TV in the 1970s.