October 4, 1976, was a crisp autumn day in New York City, but more would change that day than the leaves on the trees in Central Park. On that evening, Melanie Waters broke new ground for women in journalism, becoming the first female to cohost the nightly news on a major network. When she took her spot on the ABC Evening News next to longtime host Marcus Radner, she also broke a different barrier - she was now the highest-paid journalist of either gender, earning a million dollars a year. Waters would only stay on the ABC Evening News for a year and a half, as Radner never accepted the arrangement and made his unhappiness clear. By that point, however, Waters had broken through a brick wall that had kept females out of the newsroom since the beginning of television.