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4 Big Names In Local TV Leave Us, But Not Without Plenty Of Memories

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Updated: 12/18/2007 06:55 pm

It has been a strange, sort of melancholy year, marked by eulogies for people I knew and farewells to people I know.
John Winter and Hugh Smith passed away. Bob Hite retired. Bill Murphy is almost out the door.

People come and go all the time in the media biz. But these television personalities stuck around the Tampa area long enough to make an impact on us.

They came into our homes for a time and became a minor part of our daily routines. They will be missed for a while before they become distant memories.

Winter's death in April was the most shocking. Taking his own life seemed so out of character for a seemingly laid-back, self-deprecating 39-year-old meteorologist.

On those years that he was on the News Channel 8 morning reports, he appeared to be the happy jokester. Few people knew his cheerful demeanor covered a severe depression.

This one was personally upsetting. I saw Winter just about every weekday, and we often exchanged jokes in the hallways and elevators in the Media General News Center, which houses WFLA-TV and the Tribune.

Hite's retirement in November also turned out to be an emotional experience for everyone in the WFLA newsroom. Oddly enough, I got choked up, too, during his final on-air goodbye.

Hite joined Channel 8 at the same time I joined the Tribune, and over the years I have criticized and praised his work.

My early assessment was that he was something like Ted Baxter, the fictional empty-headed anchor on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."

I was wrong. Hite is more complex. He can be goofy at times, but that's Bob. He's not the least bit pretentious. He cares about the environment and the waters of Tampa Bay and our men and women in uniform. He cares about his craft and photography. He was blessed with a deep voice and seemingly indestructible hair.

His co-anchor, Gayle Sierens, brought out the best in him, and over the years they achieved an on-air comfort level that made them easy to watch.

Hite turned 60 this year and wanted to leave the daily grind for his own production company. Murphy turned 62 this year and also wants to do his own thing.

I've written about the ups and downs in his career ever since he came to the Bay area in 1985 to work at WTSP, Channel 10, where he had his own morning show. I still have one of the original "Murphy in the Morning" coffee cups in my kitchen cabinet.

Currently a weekend anchor at WTVT, Channel 13, the Murphster signs off Jan. 4.

He genuinely is a nice guy and deserves whatever good things are in store for him.

Writing about Smith's death this week brought back a lot of memories, good and bad. He was already a legend in the area when I became the Tribune's television critic. As anchor of WTVT's newscasts in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, he ruled the ratings.

He was a bit intimidating, and I always thought of him as the great stone face, a rock of journalism, Tampa's version of Walter Cronkite. He was thorough, demanding, tough but fair and, above all else, dedicated to his craft.

My early impression of him was that he seemed to lack the warmth and personality that made Hite popular. It wasn't until years later that I learned Smith was an extremely private and introverted individual who had a dry sense of humor.

Because he had given his life to perfecting his craft, his fall from grace must have been more painful than most could imagine.

WINTER REMEMBERED: Legacy.com, which hosts online memorial guest books for more than 500 newspapers (including the Tribune), reports that Winter is the second most-eulogized person on the Web site this year.

Nearly 15,000 entries have been logged in his guest book.

Winter's guest book is second to the one for the 32 victims of April's Virginia Tech massacre, which had received 43,000 condolences and remembrances through Dec. 11.

Winter has received more postings than Anna Nicole Smith, televangelist Jerry Falwell and former first lady "Lady Bird" Johnson, all of whom died this year.

Considered the granddaddy of online obituary sites, Legacy.com reportedly hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 60 percent of the people who die in the United States and attracts more than 10 million unique visitors each month.

Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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