News

Actions

Carol Williams made us look good, John Popovich says

WCPO anchor is retiring after three decades
Posted at 5:29 PM, Mar 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-01 18:49:13-05

Carol Williams is retiring after three decades on the anchor desk at WCPO. We are honoring her this week with videos and special tributes on air and online. You can see those throughout our 6 p.m. newscasts. Carol's farewell newscast is 6 p.m. Friday.

READ Carol's message to the Tri-State.

CINCINNATI – Tonight we tag along with Carol Williams. Why not? It's our last chance to show her working and, while we do, think about her 30 years here.

Six presidents, seven mayors, eight news directors, 13 Reds managers, five Duke national titles ... and countless hairdos. They all looked good, didn't they?

Carol glides effortlessly from studio to newsroom. You'll hear a lot of gushing about her this week. She's professional, thoughtful, smart, classy, nice to kids and kind to puppies.

Carol, John Popovich, Dennis Janson at the Super Bowl in 1989.

I'm here to tell you all those things are true. But here's something more meaningful to consider.

If you take a gander on the walls in our newsroom where history is painted, it shows that it was a far different time when she first walked into the newsroom in 1986.

We were banging out scripts on typewriters.

Tearing off stories from a teletype.

Holding our breath every time we edited a tape.

And it was a business dominated by men.

The movie “Anchorman” was over the top, but there was an ounce of truth in its manly message.

WATCH: Carol made a difference in our community.

I'm sure Carol had to weather that gender storm and she did it seamlessly because she had the personality and the smarts.

Some might call her a pioneer. I prefer to call her the right person in the right place at the right time  - well read, well informed. When she walked into the studio,  Carol could talk politics, world events, local sports with just the right tone. She never embarrassed herself or one of us.

You see, really good anchors have to be unselfish, and each night when Carol sat in that anchor chair, she was great. But what she did exceedingly well was make the rest of us look good.

Thanks, Carol.

WATCH: Political leaders say farewell to Carol.

Leave a farewell message for Carol in the box below: