If you’ve watched Dallas TV at any time since the 1970’s, you’ve probably seen Jerry Cadigan’s work. He worked at WFAA in its Production Department for 51 of its first 75 years, becoming the longest-tenured employee in the history of the station.
Jerry Cadigan said watching live coverage of the Kennedy assassination, he saw the network remote trucks and got hooked. After interning at WFAA in 1973 while studying at SMU, Cadigan formally joined the station’s staff on June 4 of that year. He’d never work full-time for another employer again.
Cadigan has held virtually every production position available at WFAA. It’s doubtful there was a major Dallas news story or large-scale WFAA production of the last five decades that Cadigan didn’t somehow touch.
He pushed for new technologies, including the film-to-tape conversion of the 1970s, editors and newsroom computers in the 1980s, the migration to digital equipment in the 1990s and high definition television in 2000s. Through Cadigan’s relentless efforts, WFAA became the first station in the United States to broadcast in high definition on a VHF signal.
Throughout Cadigan’s career, he worked closely with high school and college students, bringing them to WFAA for a bird’s eye view of production, news and more. He crossed department lines inside WFAA helping others, and even station lines helping colleagues at other Belo, then TEGNA, stations across Texas over the years.
During his tenure, Cadigan has been honored for his contributions in news, programming and individual craft with national and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, PROMAX and BDA recognitions, Heartland and Lone Star Chapter Emmys. He was recognized with his final Lone Star EMMY Award for his work on the Texas Rangers’ World Series parade in August 2024.
Jerry Cadigan worked at WFAA right up until the end, when he died unexpectedly in July 2024. A Dallas institution, he is sorely missed by colleagues who call him the “Soul of the Station.” But as much as Jerry loved WFAA, his greatest loves are his wife Caton, late son Trevor, daughter Kathleen and his grandsons who knew him simply as their beloved “Jer-Bear.”