Beloved but befallen former Atlanta TV anchor Amanda Davis visited V-103 to promote her CBS46 three-part series about her alcohol addiction and depression that wrecked a hall-of-fame caliber career.
Wanda Smith, V-103’s morning co-host with Ryan Cameron, went in pretty hard on Davis pretty about her repeated DUI arrests and fall from grace.
“I was one of those people who was very, very, very upset with you,” she said to Davis. Smith said she and Cameron were delighted that someone of Davis’ caliber would return to TV last year but later became distraught when she learned of Davis’ third DUI.
“I was really mad with you because I felt that you had chance after chance after chance and I’m thinking to myself, ‘This is a very smart lady. Very smart lady.’ And I didn’t understand the part that you didn’t go and get the help but you let us on that you were going back to work and everything was fine. But that just wasn’t the case.”
Davis countered that she thought that she could manage her alcohol intake. But “that’s not the case. And until your risks outweigh the benefits of drinking, you may not ever realize it.” She noted that genetics and mental illness contribute to alcoholism. “Drinking is a symptom of another problem. I came to find out I was depressed.”
Smith hits a nerve when she recalled Davis June 2015 visit to V-103 to celebrate her return on air at CBS46 last June, but Smith said she seemed like she had been drinking even then.
“But remember the morning you sat in here… When you left here, I looked at Ryan, I said, ‘I think Amanda was a little toasty this morning.’ In my heart, I looked in your eyes. You were happy but I felt like you were drinking that morning. That’s when I got angry, I got upset. They keep giving her chance after chance.”
Davis vehemently denied that she visited the radio station tipsy or even had a drink so early in the morning.
“I have never been on the air or made a public appearance after drinking,” Davis said. “That’s not the drinker I am. I care too much about my job to jeopardize it in that way. This job is hard enough and stressful enough to be under the influence trying to pull that off. So I don’t know how you got that impression.”
“Secondly, you said I got chance after chance,” Davis said. “Umm… no, I didn’t. I got one chance after the first DUI in the 1990s. And then I retired in 2013 and Channel 46 called me in 2015. So I didn’t get chance after chance. As I mentioned, I wasn’t aware I had a problem or to acknowledge or ask for help. It wasn’t until the third DUI and those lights came on and it clicked in my head I had a problem.”
Check out the interview in full.
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Source: V-103 YouTube
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