Baldridge was raised in
Lima, Ohio. He attended
Shawnee High School, and is a graduate of
Wright State University and
Sinclair Community College. Baldridge began covering news at
WCIT radio in Lima, Ohio, in 1964 as a senior in high school. He worked for several stations in the Dayton-Springfield area
(including WIZE under the pseudonym "Gregg Baldwin") and served in the Army with the
United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in the Pacific. Baldridge joined WHIO-TV in 1972 as a general assignment reporter. In 1977 Baldridge began anchoring with Dayton broadcast legend Don Wayne, whom he had grown up watching. He later worked alongside Cheryl McHenry and Letitia Perry. During his years at WHIO Jim Baldridge traveled the world to cover stories important to the Dayton area. Special assignments took him to China, Vietnam, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Japan, Colombia, and throughout Europe, including covering the
Fall of the Berlin Wall. He also covered major stories in the US, such as the
1989 San Francisco earthquake and the
Oklahoma City bombing, as well as many political events. Baldridge retired in the fall of 2009 after a career as one of the most durable local news anchors on any station in the United States. ==Dayton Air Show affiliation==