Longtime WFLA anchor Gayle Sierens has announced her retirement.
Sierens told viewers during last night’s 6:00 p.m. show she plans to step down from the Tampa NBC affiliate’s anchor desk in stages. At the end of this year, she will stop anchoring the 11:00 p.m. news and on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 she will anchor her last shows at 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.
“I am so grateful to live out my career in the town where I grew up. Who gets to do that?” Sierens said in a statement. “I am truly excited for this next phase of my life. I have worked the night shift for more than three decades.”
The station posted a retrospective mash up of Sierens work, see the video above.
Sierens started at WFLA in 1977 as weekend sports anchor and reporter. In 1983 she became the weekday sports anchor. She made the move from sports to news two years later.
In 1987, she made TV sports history when she became the first woman to do play-by-play for an NFL game, calling the the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Seattle Seahawks.