By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Bruce Rader has never been the most polished TV sportscaster. He's a blue-collar guy who did not go to broadcast school and doesn't even have a college degree, and in many ways, that was his strength.
Hampton Roads is a community that builds and sails ships and fills them with cargo and coal. We have one of the largest natural harbors in the world and the Navy is our major employer.
Most people in Hampton Roads work hard for a living.
That in part explains why Rader was a fixture on local TV for the last 45 years, and why his retirement earlier this week attracted so much attention.
In a sense, he was our Everyman. We could identify with him. He had boundless energy and a zest for life that came across on your TV every evening.
And he had a basic understanding of what people in Hampton Roads care about.
He focused on local sports, on Old Dominion and Norfolk State and high school football and basketball.
He was the first broadcast journalist in the area to begin covering historically black institutions and the first to go to Daytona and Richmond to cover NASCAR and to Super Bowls and the Olympics to cover local athletes such as Bruce Smith.
We love football in Hampton Roads, and he was the first local TV sportscaster to regularly cover the Washington Redskins before they were the Commanders.
When ODU football began, he pitched a weekly TV show to both WAVY and the University, found the sponsors and hosted then coach Bobby Wilder's show for 11 seasons.
It would only be an exaggeration to say I grew up watching Bruce – I'm older than he is. But when you invite the same person into your living room for 45 years, he, in essence, becomes a member of your family.
So, in a way, I felt a sense of loss when Bruce recently announced his retirement. He signed off on WAVY for the last time on Thursday night.
Count ODU Athletic Director Wood Selig among those who will miss Rader. Selig was raised in Norfolk and grew up watching Rader. He also admires what Rader did for local sports.
"Bruce Rader has done as much for Hampton Roads sports as any individual has ever done in this community," Selig said. "For 45 years, he has been the voice for not only local teams and sports, but our national connection to those local teams and local individuals."
Rader will be a guest for tonight's home men's basketball game with FIU, a key game the Monarchs need to win to assure a first-round bye in the Conference USA basketball Tournament.
Rader will be introduced on the court during the first timeout in the first half.
I hope ODU fans give him a standing ovation.
Bruce Rader interviews Anne Donovan
Rader overcame a ton of odds to make it in broadcasting. While he's a good-looking guy, he looks far younger than his age. And his high-pitched voice isn't the classic baritone you expect to hear on the air.
Rader met Maury Povich, the longtime daytime TV host, when he was 18 and was advised to "try going into radio. You'll never get on TV. You're 18 and you look 15."
Undaunted, he hustled his way onto the radio as a teenager by fibbing to a local radio executive that he worked for the Washington Post (he was a part-time correspondent) and then to a radio sponsor by saying he worked for the radio station (he didn't yet have a contract).
When he returned to the WINX-radio studio with a signed contract with a sponsor, he began doing a local high school sports show. Eventually, he began doing local TV sports in the Washington area.
Rader turned up in Hampton Roads 45 years ago as a news reporter at WVEC and served as sports editor of the Virginia Beach Sun and Chesapeake Post to make ends week. When he came to WAVY as a sports reporter, it was the fourth-rated sports station in the region.
He focused on high school football. He was the first to do Friday Night Flights, in which a WAVY helicopter ferried him to half a dozen football games.
He quickly turned WAVY into the No. 1 sports show in the area and was rarely knocked off that perch.
Rader always hustled as if a pink slip was around the corner, because that's what people do who did not grow up with a silver spoon.
"I always feared getting fired," Rader said. "Because of that, I never let up. I said, 'Let's do more high school football, let's bring in the helicopter, let's do ODU football, let's do things to create more revenue.' "
And while sports reporters often work to move to bigger markets, he was smart enough, and had enough humility, to know a market the size of Hampton Roads was where he belonged. Sure, he dreamed of going back to home to Washington.
But he knew, this kind of market was where his place on the Darwinian world of journalism.
Hampton Roads became his home, and where, at a very late age, he began a family.
Rader was divorced from his first wife when he met Virginia Waff at a party 24 years ago. Virginia, who works for Norfolk Sheriff Joe Baron, was taken with how genuine and down to earth he was.
"He was so nice and funny and so personable," she said.
They were married on June 15, 2002 and Rader was 52 years old when Virginia had twin boys, Reed and Alex. On July 23, 2018, Virginia had a second set of twins, Bryce and Haley.
Family is the reason why Rader is stepping down. He wants to spend more time with his children.
"As any parent knows, your kids are your priority in life," he said.
Good for him.
Bruce Rader with Bruce Smith
Rader had a retirement party of sorts this week at Chartway Arena sponsored by WAVY. Summarizing the two-hour event would be impossible, but suffice it to say there were jokes, tears and many highlights of his career.
Long-time sportscasters Brian Parsons (an ODU graduate) and Nathan Epstein paid homage to him. Esptein lost his composure when he told of the story of how Rader hiring him allowed him to be on the air while his grandparents were still alive.
"That meant the world to me," he said.
ESPN sportscaster Stan Verrett, via video, spoke about how helpful Rader was to those just starting out.
Verrett was doing a morning radio show when Rader invited him to come on set and begin to learn TV, including doing some mock broadcasts. "It was you who convinced the camera crew to stick around after the 6 o'clock news" to rehearse, he said.
Eventually, Rader convinced WAVY officials to put Verrett on the air on the weekends over the Christmas holidays.
"Because of you, Bruce, I began a career that has allowed me to do and see so many incredible things and have so many amazing experiences," Verrett said.
"And it all happened because of your kindness, your generosity and the tutelage you gave me when I was just starting out."
Rader, for his part, paid homage to Peter G. Decker Jr., the deceased Norfolk attorney and businessman who graduated from ODU and was a generous donor to the university's athletic program. Decker was known around town as "Uncle Pete."
For those who knew Uncle Pete, Rader's story sounded familiar.
"I was sitting in his office, and I said 'Uncle Pete, I'm in a jam. I don't have a mentor,'" Rader said. "'I need you. Tell me what to do.'
"He did, but I said I need you forever. I just need to know you're there."
"He looked at me and said 'Bruce, I will be there for you your entire life. You can call me 24 hours a day and I will answer the phone and l will be there for you. But you have to do something for me.'"
What's that, Rader asked.
Bruce and Virginia Rader with sons Reed and Alex.
"'Honestly, I don't think you're going to make it, especially in this business. But if you do, the only thing I ask is that you use your celebrity to give back to the community, that you give back to charity.'"
Rader kept his word. He began a golf tournament that benefited St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which treats children with cancer free of charge. When the tournament finally ended in 2016, it had raised more than $1 million.
He has hosted numerous charity events and worked with Dennis Ellmer, chairman and CEO of Priority Automotive, on raising money for children's charities through the Charity Bowl football game, an event held at ODU.
Peter G. Decker III, Uncle Pete's son and a member of the ODU Board of Visitors, attended Rader's farewell event with his wife, Dana, and mother, Bess.
"I would not be standing here if it wasn't for Uncle Pete and the Decker family," Rader said.
Bess teared up as Rader spoke.
Rader is a glass is half full kind of guy. He would report tough stories if he had to but didn't like it. He preferred to be upbeat.
He's broken his fair share of news. And that's because everyone knows Bruce. If you're someone in the local sports community, you're in his rolodex.
"Bruce could report on ODU without having to call our media relations department because he knows our history, he knows so many people on our campus, he knows so much about us," Selig said.
"Think of all the places he went and brought Hampton Roads stories of local people, whether it was the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Redskins, or covering ODU women's basketball.
"He brought it all to our living rooms.
"Sometimes, I know media members, including Bruce, walk a fine line. They don't want to be a homer. He always helped ODU further its message. I don't think we would have the following we enjoy today had it not been for the consistent, positive coverage that we received from Bruce throughout his tenure at WAVY.
"You're never going to find another Bruce Rader, not only in this community, but across the country. They're not making Bruce Raders anymore.
"As commonplace as it is to hopscotch around every the country every two or three years, Bruce Raders are something of the past."
Rader indeed was one of a kind. And he will be sorely missed.
Minium: ODU Will Honor WAVY's Bruce Rader Tonight for his 45 Years as a TV Sportscaster
