From Hite's WFLA bio:
Bob Hite has been with News Channel 8 since the summer of 1977. He and his longtime partner Gayle Sierens co-anchor the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Bob also co-anchors the 5:30 p.m. newscast with anchor Stacie Schaible. Over 28 years at News Channel 8's anchor desk have made Bob the Bay area's senior anchor.
Bob was "born to the business." His great grandfather was a London newspaper publisher, his grandfather a journalist and author, his mother had her own radio show and his father was an anchor for the CBS radio and TV news.
Bob launched his career in the Marines in 1967, when he joined the Corps as a photojournalist. After his discharge in '69, he worked in radio and industrial films. In 1975 he joined the staff of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.
A life-long sailor, Bob couldn't resist the opportunity to come to Florida when WFLA offered him a job. He literally "cast off" from Philadelphia, sailing his classic wooden ketch to Tampa Bay.
Bob gets involved in his news coverage as much as he can. Not only does he develop all of his stories, he shoots and edits virtually all of them, both above and under water.
Since the beginning the War on Terror Bob has traveled twice to Afghanistan and Iraq to embed with our troops, particularly those from the Tampa Bay area. On his most recent trip, the Humvee he was riding in hit an IED (improvised explosive device) and was blown off the road. Neither Bob nor the 3 soldiers with him were seriously injured.
Bob is a Coast Guard licensed captain, a pilot, diver, and an accomplished horseman and marksman. He is a life member of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association, the Broadcast Pilots Association and the International Documentary Association.
Bob has won seven Emmy awards for cinematography, videography, writing and editing, the "News Story of the Year" award, the Directors award and has been recognized as the foremost environmental reporter in the state by the Florida Coastal Management Conference. In fact, during his 28 years as a reporter in the Bay area, his environmental reporting has had an impact in excess of 20 billion dollars.
Andy Earles? You MUST do a little investigative reporting on this guy.
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In his thirty year stint anchoring at WFLA, Channel 8 Tampa, Bob Hite not only had a tremendous impact on the communities in his viewing area, with his focus on the people who contribute all the little things that build a community, but also throughout the state of Florida his investigative reports brought real change that has eliminated many sources of pollution not only to the coastline of Florida, but probably the enire country. The story that comes best to mind, because it was so inexcusable to imagine, is when he dove with his underwater camera on all the channel markers in Tampa Bay to discover that the coastguard had been dropping the old batteries from the marker-lights right into the water below them! One location after another, all these automobile-sized batteries were found in various stages of decay. It is one of the reasons folks won't be eating shellfish from the Bay for a very very long time. It started out as a local story and ended up going statewide when these acid-leaking batteries were found everywhere there were markers! Thank you, Bob Hite, for your service to our country as a Marine during the Vietnam War era, and for all you did for our environment once you came home. There'll never be another anchorman with your abilites or talent and so many of us look forward to seeing what story you'll do next. No retirement for you!
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