What’s a fitting tribute to give a retiring TV newsman who’s served viewers well for going on 40 years? A trip down memory lane. In an RV. A farewell tour he can pilot himself. And the best part? Everybody else rides shotgun. Bill Griffith is retiring from KGTV, the Scripps-owned ABC affiliate in San Diego, […]
What’s a fitting tribute to give a retiring TV newsman who’s served viewers well for going on 40 years?
A trip down memory lane. In an RV. A farewell tour he can pilot himself.
And the best part? Everybody else rides shotgun.
Bill Griffith is retiring from KGTV, the Scripps-owned ABC affiliate in San Diego, where’s he’s worked for almost 40 years. But he has 20 stops to make before that.
Griffith and the new KGTV morning and noon news anchor, Jason Martinez, are tooling all over town in the 36’ RV christened, Bill’s Excellent Adventure, to revisit Griffith’s twenty most memorable stories.
“It’s a great idea to do something like this,” says Griffith.
“This way, viewers understand that I’m leaving on my own terms.”
We often read in the trades about reporters, news anchors and weather personalities who’ve been an on-air presence in one location for years. Some get a proper send-off, a video tribute, a heart-felt goodbye.
Some careers end quietly. One day, they’re there and the next, not; their bios scrubbed from the station’s web site.
“Viewers become attached,” explains Griffith, saying that he can’t go anywhere now before someone comes up to tell him how sad they are to see him go.
Tomorrow, an Olympic legend surprises Griffith on his tour and more examples from the road.
Comments (0)
Reader Interactions