Dwight Lauderdale
Dwight Lauderdale | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 24, 1951[1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | News anchor Commentator |
Dwight Lauderdale (born April 24, 1951 in Columbus, Ohio)[1] is a former TV news anchor. He was the first African American news anchor in South Florida and became one of the state's most watched and longest running anchors.[3]
Career
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At age 17, after winning an oratorical contest, Lauderdale received a job offer from the news director at WTVN-TV (ABC) in Columbus.[2][4] He accepted the job and started work in November, 1968, part-time at night, processing film.[4] (Some sources claim it was WSYX-TV).[4] He did not have to drop school to accept the job.[5]. 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.[2]
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".[6] He was bumped up to the weeknight anchor desk in June 1985 on an interim basis, which was made permanent the following January.[5] His first anchor partner was Ann Bishop and has since shared anchor duties with Diane Magnum, Kristi Krueger and Laurie Jennings.
Lasik
In July 2004, Lauderdale had his Lasik surgery televised. Lauderdale, who was farsighted, learned that he might be a candidate for corrective eye surgery after viewing a news story about this surgery on his own station. Lauderdale sought a consultation when he realized just how critical the surgery was to his job performance. He never had a problem reading the teleprompter, which was 20 feet away from him, but did have a problem one time when he had to read from a script without his glasses. Lauderdale was treated by monovision and modified monovision (two strategies to treat each eye, one for reading and one for distance).[7]
Retirement
On February 25, 2008, Dwight Lauderdale announced that he would be retiring in May of that year.[2] WPLG's final broadcast with Lauderdale as an anchor was on May 22, 2008.[8] Charles Perez was appointed Laurie Jennings' new partner.[5]
Awards
Dwight Lauderdale has been awarded the N.A.T.A.S Silver Circle Award, The Ohio State Award, and two Florida Emmy's, as well as a Sun-Sentinel reader's award in 1998 as the number one Anchor in the market. South Florida Magazine named him best news anchor in 1990.[4]. Additionally, Dwight Lauderdale has a scholarship in his name (The Dwight Lauderdale Scholarship) at Barry University which is awarded to students in broadcast communications each seminar.[9]
References
- ^ a b c "Dwight Lauderdale Signing Off After 32 Years". Retrieved 2009-01-13.
- ^ a b c d Angelique Gayle (2007-11-09). "Dwight Lauderdale: The roads that led to Success: Part of the Famous person Interview class project". The Harbinger. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
- ^ "Miami Herald (Archived) (fee-based article retrieval)
- ^ a b c d "Interview with Dwight Lauderdale". Miami Night Out. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
- ^ a b c Tom Jicha (25 February 2008). "Channel 10's Dwight Lauderdale to retire in May". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 05 December 2008.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Miami Herald"
- ^ "Millenium Laser Eye Center"
- ^ Tom Jicha (14 May 2008). "How Channel 10 anchor Dwight Lauderdale will spend his retirement". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
- ^ "Barry Scholarship Named In Honor Of Dwight Lauderdale". Local 10 News. Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. 2008-05-09. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2008-12-05.