RIP: The most beloved man in Nashville...

...and he didn't even play guitar.

Dan Miller was without a doubt the most popular man in Nashville (sorry, Jeff Fisher, who now assumes the role..). Miller was the anchor for what was the No. 1 newscast for about 30 years...about 15 years into that stint, he was called up to the big leagues and became No. 1 anchor at KCBS in LA -- when he left, Nashville mourned. When he joined his former Nashville weatherman, Pat Sajak, as a sidekick on the latter's late-night talk show, Nashville cringed. When he returned from LA about 12 or so years ago, Nashville welcomed him with open arms.

He was a native of Augusta and he died after spending the day at the Par 3 contest and then conducting a walking tour of his hometown, with his good friend Rudy Kalis, himself a Nashville TV legend. Shortly before he died suddenly, Dan told Rudy that "this was one of the best days of my life."

http://www.wsmv.com/news/19135962/detail.html

 

Figured this was about Ralph Emery. Man - Miller was the best thing about the Sajak show - seemed to be a really decent guy. Says a lot about an anchor when he'd quit his gig to appear as a sidekick to a guy who used to be the weatherman on his news show. Don't know how many anchors I could see doing that, but I guess it says a lot about Miller and Sajak's friendship.

 

I remember Dan from my undergrad days at Western Ky. back in the day.

RIP Mr. Miller.

 

Another piece of childhood gone for me now. I happened to click on the Tennessean right before lunch and was just dumbstruck at the news.

For those not familiar, Nashville is that rare TV market where all the main personalities stayed in place virtually forever. Miller and Demetria Kalodimos on the anchor desk, with Bill Hall on weather and Kailis on sports, was more reliable than Tinkers to Evers to Chance on Channel 4. But you also had Chris Clark at Channel 5 putting in his own 40-plus years as the anchor. Even Bob Mueller (and his porn mustache) and Anne Holt have decades of experience together at perpetual ratings chump Channel 2. There has always been something deeply comforting about being able to go back to my parents' house in my 30s, flip on the news, and see all the same folks I saw when we moved to the market during my 5th grade year.

It's slipping away fast now.

 

It was weird to go back to home to Indianapolis recently and see Bob Gregory -- who was on the air forever as a weatherman and host of the "Brain Game" on the local NBC affiliate -- pitching for the assisted-living facility where he resides.

 

I thought this thread was going to be about Jack Clement.

 

The Poynter guy had a nice tribute up yesterday.
Had a funny line about Miller being named the best dressed man in Nashville, even though he mostly shopped at Target.
My dad was a TV news anchor when I was very young, then got out of the TV business as kids started piling up. It was always strange how people, even 8, 9 years later, would recognize him and come up and say hello.