News Operation
Channel 10's on-air staff during its early years included Dick Crippen, who originally presented weather and then sports; Marshall Cleaver, Al Stockmeyer, Art Johnson, who provided news; and Karol Kelly (weather). Cleaver was the original news anchor for much of the 1960s and early 1970s, when the program was called NewsNight. Crippen also hosted a children's show, Space Station 10. In 1975, former WFLA-TV anchor Arch Deal became the news director and co-anchor with Marshall Cleaver for Eyewitness News. Cleaver was removed in 1977, and Deal continued to anchor until Action NewsCenter, a format similar to Indianapolis station WTHR's newscasts at the time, debuted with former WTVT anchors Rod Challenger and Gary Rebstock along with Rick Moore. WLCY broadcast the first 5:30 newscast in the Tampa Bay area during the late 1970s up until September 15, 1980, when the newscast was moved to 6 p.m. Beginning in 1979, Don Harrison (previously from KMSP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul), Wally Kinnan and Dick Crippen were the new anchors of the Channel 10 evening newscasts. Ratings surged, making the Tampa Bay market more competitive. In June 1979, Channel 10 acquired the original sunset logo (which was later duplicated by its sister station KTSP in Phoenix, Arizona) along with the "Action News" format. In April 1979, the station built a taller transmission tower, improving the station's broadcasting capabilities.
In late 1982, news anchor Don Harrison left WTSP to become an anchor at upstart cable channel CNN2, now HLN. John Wilson and Liz Ayers replaced Harrison as anchor. On January 9, 1983, Sheryl Browne, from WKYC-TV in Cleveland, Ohio joined Wilson at the anchor desk on "Action News," rounding out the station's main anchor team. Longtime WTSP chief meteorologist Dick Fletcher joined the station in March 1980 and became famous for his forecasting during Hurricane Elena in 1985. Award-winning reporter Mike Deeson, legendary sports anchor Ken Broo and feature reporter Bill Campbell, famous for his "Campbell's Corner" spots, bolstered the station in the 1980s. WTSP was the second television station in the Bay Area to launch an hour long 6 p.m. newscast in 1986. Rival WTVT had been the first to do so many years earlier and WTSP attempted it in an effort to pass WTVT to the top of the local news ratings. The effort only lasted until 1987, however.
On June 4, 1989, "Action News" became "NewsCenter 10" and a 5 p.m. newscast was launched. In January 1998, Reginald Roundtree replaced Pat Minarcin as the lead male anchor of "10 News". Minarcin later sued the station for age discrimination. On October 14, 2002, the station launched a new news format and image. A new, state-of-the-art digital newsroom was also constructed for WTSP's news staff. In September 2008, Chris Suchan replaced morning meteorologist Anna Allen, who had been at the station since 2004. Soon after, Tammie Souza was named chief meteorologist, taking long-time chief meteorologist Dick Fletcher's place after he died from a stroke in February. In 2005, the station debuted "Vortex", a powerful new forecasting tool.
On October 9, 2008, WTSP rebranded itself yet again, from "Tampa Bay's 10" to "10 Connects", with "10 Connects Network" used alternatively. Along with the new name came a new music and graphics package, which is also used by other Gannett stations. The station's "10 Connects" logo was similar to the previous one minus the wave, along with a small notch in the oval portion of the logo for the "Connects" text. This logo was nicknamed "Pacman" for its resemblance to the video game character. WTSP made big gains at 11 p.m. in the May 2009 sweeps, edging out WFLA for first place. In August 2010, veteran former WFLA-TV anchor Bill Ratliff joined the station as a political analyst.
In June 2009, WTSP joined in on a news service, a joint venture between Fox, Gannett, and E.W. Scripps broadcasting companies. This will allow stations from all three entities to combine news-gathering resources at general media events then distribute the video to participating stations within the market to use in their own reports. This means that some news-gathering resources of WTSP, WTVT (Fox 13), and WFTS (ABC Action News) will be combined. All other news operations at the three stations will remain unchanged. As part of this new arrangement, WTSP officially grounded Sky 10 on August 1, 2009 . This will require WTVT, WFTS, and WTSP to utilize only one helicopter (Action Air One) to cover news events. .
On July 26, 2010, the station reverted their branding back to "10 News"; their previous logo was also resurrected. The about-face was due to the fact that WTSP was reverting to a more-traditional news formula, and the fact that the "10 Connects" moniker was not understood by many viewers.
In February 2011, talk show host Bubba the Love Sponge began a nightly editorial segment, Bring it on Bubba, for 10 News at 11. On September 12, 2011, WTSP added a mid-morning newscast. The half-hour program at 9 a.m. is an extension of the station's existing weekday morning newscast, using the anchors and meteorologist of 5-7 a.m. newscast.
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
“There’s a long story, my friend. I never did like the idea of sitting on newspapers. I did it once and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level, it actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news off the seat of my pants.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)