Dwight Lauderdale - Career

Career

At age 17, after winning an oratorical contest, Lauderdale received a job offer from the news director at WTVN-TV (ABC) in Columbus. He accepted the job and started work in November 1968, part-time at night, processing film. (Some sources claim it was WSYX-TV). He did not have to drop school to accept the job. He did everything from processing film, to writing news copy, to producing, and for on-air talent. He completed his education at Ohio University, majoring in Communications and graduating cum laude in 1973.

In 1974, Lauderdale moved to South Florida for a reporting opportunity at Channel 7 (WCKT-TV, at the time). Two years later, WPLG offered him a three-year contract as a reporter/weekend anchor, and he accepted the job. He quickly established himself as a prolific street reporter, working half a dozen stories per day, including the Mariel Boatlift. He also managed to score the first one-on-one interview of Bill Clinton's presidency. More than anything, he remembers the rigid ground rules: " Seven minutes only, and they were standing there with a stopwatch". He was bumped up to the weeknight anchor desk in June 1985 on an interim basis, which was made permanent the following January. His first anchor partner was Ann Bishop and later shared anchoring duties with Diane Magnum, Kristi Krueger and Laurie Jennings.