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Memorial Service Set For WFLA Radio Newsman Richards

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 27, 2008

TAMPA - A public memorial service for longtime radio newsman Don Richards will begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Good Samaritan Lutheran Church at 6085 Park Blvd. in Pinellas Park.

Richards, who was news director of radio station WFLA, 970 AM, died of cancer June 6. He was 65.

Richards spent more than 40 years in radio and the past 20 years at WFLA. He had not been on the air since November because of his battle with lung cancer.

Richards was raised in Connecticut. His broadcasting career began while he was in the Army and worked as a radio and TV news anchor for Armed Forces Korea Network in the mid-1960s.

After his military service, he worked at WTAG radio in Worcester, Mass., for 13 years before coming to the Tampa area in 1980.

Richards worked at WPLP, the first talk radio station in the Tampa Bay area, until 1988, when he joined WFLA.

He was best known for a 1998 on-air interview with fugitive Hank Earl Carr, who was holding a hostage at gunpoint in a Hernando County gas station after killing his girlfriend's son and three law enforcement officers.

News critics lambasted Richards, saying he had crossed the line of journalism ethics. But station management said Richards got caught in a situation he couldn't get out of when he unknowingly dialed the business where Carr was holed up.

Gabe Hobbs, operations manager at WFLA, called him "the consummate professional."

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

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