Slideshow: Images from NewsChannel 9's 50th anniversary celebrationSyracuse (WSYR-TV) – Generations of NewsChannel 9 personalities and journalists celebrated the station’s 50th anniversary Thursday night at the SRC Arena on the Onondaga Community College campus.
Some of the celebrated NewsChannel 9 personalities who attended the event included Mike Price, Phil Markert, and Dave Eichorn, along with current figures like Carrie Lazarus, Rod Wood, Dan Cummings, and Christie Casciano.
Along with the personalities, the event was a celebration of the many people who worked to make NewsChannel 9 Central New York’s number one station.
Joe DiNatale remembers the early days of the station when he opened a barbershop near the old newsroom in ShoppingTown Mall. Markert and other newscasters became regular visitors.
"I introduced myself as the new owner and he said 'Would you like to come over on my show and give me a shave and haircut?'. I sure did....right on the air,” DiNatale said.
It was that personal connection that created a life-long partnership between the audience and newscasters.
"I took my son to Baron Daemon for a birthday party. We brought six kids out. We just seemed very attached to that one channel,” said Syracuse native Mary Triggs.
"I was 10 years old when they opened it up out there in ShoppingTown Mall. I remember that well," said Marvin Triggs. "You grow up with it. It is part of you."
“They were born and raised here, went to school here. They work here and when they get a call to go out to do something, they know the community, they know the people, they know the neighborhoods,” said another Central New Yorker, Dick Woodworth.
People who grew up watching news about their community, their families and children, they became part of the production – celebrating side by side with people who planted those roots.
