Dwight Lauderdale
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| Dwight Lauderdale | |
| Born | April 24, 1951 [1] Columbus, Ohio[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | 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]
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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]
[edit] 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 has been appointed Laurie Jennings' new partner.[5]
[edit] 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]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Dwight Lauderdale Signing Off After 32 Years". http://www.justnews.com/station/15982514/detail.html. Retrieved on 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. http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/editionid/13739/articleid/179032/Default.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-12-05.
- ^ "Miami Herald (Archived) (fee-based article retrieval)
- ^ a b c d "Interview with Dwight Lauderdale". Miami Night Out. http://www.miaminightout.com/spotlight/interviews/012002/index.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-12-05.
- ^ a b c Tom Jicha (25 February 2008). "Channel 10's Dwight Lauderdale to retire in May". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/sfl-0225-lauderdale-retirement,0,6020554.story. Retrieved on 05 December 2008.
- ^ "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. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/sfl-dwight-lauderdale,0,6093032.story. Retrieved on 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. http://www.webcitation.org/5cqZOHNNU. Retrieved on 2008-12-05.
