Jim Axel viewed his job as a TV newsman in clear-cut terms.
Tell the story. Report facts. Let viewers make of it what they may.
His career spanned the late 1950s into the mid-1990s. He acknowledged the bulk of his journalistic work took place in a different broadcasting era. He once called the early days the "era of quality."
As for the new journalism that he said started in the 1970s, he had a term for it.
"Infomercials," said his son, Jeff Axel of Decatur.
"He'd ask, ‘Why are they trying to tell people what to think?' " his son said. "His big thing was to get it right and get it right the first time, and let the people make the decision of what to think. Don't make it for them."
It's a creed that served the veteran WAGA-TV anchor for decades. He didn't jump ship to another station. He didn't rely on some agent to negotiate his contracts. He did it himself. He appeared in the homes of metro Atlantans for 34 years.
Mark Shavin, WAGA's senior executive producer, worked alongside Mr. Axel for eight years. Mr. Axel, he said, was a "true journalist."
"He toiled in the fields with all of us," Mr. Shavin said. "He had a true dedication to his craft. He didn't want anyone to just put words in his mouth."
In Dec. 1996, Mr. Axel retired from broadcasting. He and Millie, his wife of 54 years, moved to Venice, Fla. On his 71st birthday, he found out he had lung cancer.
In June, Mr. Shavin of WAGA traveled to Venice, Fla., to write a story about Mr. Axel's illness. He wasn't shy about discussing it. The story, "Catching Up with Old Friend Jim Axel," resonated with Atlantans, many of whom grew up watching the newsman on TV.
"The story was embraced by so many because he was in the market so long," Mr. Shavin said. "People felt like he was family. He was in their homes every night. They trusted him and believed him."
James Frederick Axel died on Saturday at Tidwell Hospice and Palliative Care in Venice from complications of lung cancer. Arrangements for a memorial service are pending. Cremation Society of the South in Venice is handling arrangements.
Here, according to his son and a bio on the WAGA-TV Web site, is his story.
Mr. Axel was born in Grand Haven, Mich., but raised in Osseo, Minn. At 17, he enlisted in the Navy. After an honorable discharge, a friend told him he had a voice for radio. So Mr. Axel studied at the Brown Institute of Broadcasting and Electronics in Minnesota.
In 1956, his broadcast career started at KANO radio in Anoka, Minn. It wasn't a glamorous life. Mr. Axel scrubbed floors before he became an announcer. His next stop was in Canton, Ga., as an announcer and engineer at WCHK radio.
In 1959, WSB radio hired him as night news editor. But Mr. Axel had an itch for TV.
"He figured he'd try television because it was pictures and words," his son said. "He was interviewed as a weather person, but they kept him in the news."
In 1962, Mr. Axel went to WAGA-TV. The anchor retired in December 1996. In an interview earlier this year, he said the transition to television was easy.
"It's like doing newscasts and having a camera watching," he said at the time. "They always told me I was a natural for it, anyhow. I was a born ham. . . . I was being paid for a job that I loved."
Additional survivors include two other sons, Bob Axel of Snellville and Jason Axel of Sarasota, and three grandchildren.
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