Former WFLA news director Joe Mannion has died after a long battle with renal cancer, according to The Tampa Tribune. He was 79.
Mannion joined the Tampa NBC affiliate as a reporter in the mid 1960s and was named news director in 1979. He left the station in 1983 and became a lobbyist for Pasco County, a position he held until he retired in 2009.
“Joe was ultimate newsman,” longtime friend Joe Davis told the Tampa Tribune. “He trained in Washington along with the Huntleys and the Brinkleys and the others that the younger guys these days don’t know.” [h/t TVNewsCheck]
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