ROANOKE, Va. – The 10 News family is remembering one of our own after a lifetime of service to the community.
Dody Matze died Thursday surrounded by family. She was 89-years-old.
She worked in broadcasting for more than 30 years, many of them right here at WSLS. Matze provided entertainment and community-driven news and was known for her work on the show “Insight” airing on Channel 10 daily.
Heralded as a pioneer as a female broadcaster, she was also a musician, performer and small business owner. Her daughter said she was proud to have worked and raised her family in Roanoke.
“She loved people, she loved the Lord, and she loved being able to be involved in the community and give the people of Roanoke a platform to speak,” Debbie Matze Williams said.
One of the ways Matze helped the community was with a series of live broadcasts in downtown Roanoke as seen in the image below. The city was repaving downtown streets and removing old tram lines through a project called “Operation Big Shovel.” Downtown businesses were concerned their businesses would suffer, or possibly even close if people could not drive downtown.
Andy Peterson, who was an on-air personality and the station’s first production manager, had the idea to do live, remote broadcasts from different places downtown as a way of saying YES, they’re still open! It became a big deal, with even some NBC personalities and world-renowned entertainers getting involved and putting in appearances. The live broadcasts help keep downtown businesses booming.