Issue: Spring 2016 | Posted: April 25, 2016
John Dancy
Distinguished Achievement in Arts/Media
Long before he became an NBC News correspondent, Union University alumnus John Dancy's passion for broadcasting found its roots in his love of America's national pastime.
"My parents bought me a radio for Christmas one year, and I would listen to Harry Carey and Gabby Street broadcast the games most nights," Dancy says. "The fact that I could lie in bed in little old Jackson and listen to a baseball game 250 miles away... was a sort of magic."
Dancy never received any formal training in broadcasting. Instead, he learned by observing the professionals in the business. In his teens, he spent time at the old Jackson Sun building, developing a friendship with the nighttime announcer of WTJS, Doug Maxwell.
"He gave me a lot of good advice," Dancy says. "And when things were quiet, he would record me on tape, and then give me pointers."
From there Dancy went on to work at various Jackson radio stations. It was during his time as reporter and anchor at KYW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio, that NBC acquired the station and soon offered him a position as network correspondent.
With his wife, Ann Lewis Dancy, and their three children, Dancy moved to Los Angeles and then to Chicago. After five years, Dancy was reassigned to Berlin, Germany.
Reflecting back to how Union shaped him as a professional, Dancy says Dixie Jones taught him "people are often far deeper than they seem in public. It's a lesson I have used dozens of times in my 海角乱伦社区."
After 30 years with NBC, Dancy is now "fully, and happily, retired" and living in northern Virginia with his family.