DAYTON — The situation in Iran is bringing back memories of one of WHIO Radio’s historic moments.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, the station played a key role in the early days of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979.
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Rick Bernard is a former WHIO Radio Anchor and Assistant News Director.
He reported on some of the legendary names from WHIO’s storied past.
“I worked with, in the newsroom, Don Wayne, Jim Baldrige, Cheryl McHenry. In radio, Winston Hoehner was the news director,” Bernard said. “Yes, Lou Emm.”
Bernard was WHIO’s Assistant News Director in 1979 when the Iranian Hostage Crisis started.
“After we saw that the hostages had been taken, that the embassy had been taken by the terrorists, we had hired a new reporter by the name of Bill Royster,” Bernard said.
Royster called the US Embassy in Iran, and one of the terrorists who had taken American diplomats and citizens hostage answered.
“Bill was recording all of these conversations, playing them back for Winston and the radio and TV news folks. And then, of course, pretty quickly, Winston notified the State Department,” Bernard said.
At that point, Bernard said the State Department had not yet made contact with the embassy.
“It was just WHIO radio in Dayton, Ohio. So we had two or three folks from the State Department that were in our newsroom for about three days,” he said.
Royster kept the lines open as agents from the State Department took over the production room at WHIO to handle negotiations during the early days of the standoff.
Never anchored to the desk, Channel 7’s Don Wayne flew to West Germany in 1981 and waited on a cold tarmac for 52 hostages to arrive from Iran after 444 days in captivity.
Among them was Daytonian Steve Lauterbach.
This week’s conflict in Iran has Bernard recalling the start of the hostage crisis there in a professional moment he’ll never forget.
“What an experience. We actually opened a door. Bill opened a door to start talking with the State Department,” Bernard said.
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