Dwight Lauderdale, who started out as South Florida's first black TV news anchor and wound up as one of its longest-running and most-watched anchors, period, announced his retirement Monday night after 34 years on the local airwaves.
''We love South Florida. My wife and I have turned down offers to leave,'' Lauderdale told co-anchor Laurie Jennings during WPLG-ABC 10's 11 p.m. newscast after revealing that the May 21 show will be his last. ``Most nights, I'm going to be at home, sipping a little pinot, maybe a cab, and enjoying you and this team.''
His replacement will be South Florida native Charles Perez, who has served as WPLG's weekend anchor the past 18 months after returning from stints in Los Angeles and New York.
Lauderdale, 56, goes out the same way he came in: on top. His 11 p.m. newscast has led the local ratings for the past year and is expected to win the latest Nielsen ratings sweeps that end this week. In Lauderdale's early days as the 11 p.m. co-anchor with Ann Bishop in the late 1980s and early 1990s, WPLG often had as many viewers as its top two competitors combined.
But Lauderdale said the ratings resurgence didn't affect his decision one way or another. ''My contract expires at the end of May, and when I signed it three years ago, I knew it was the last one,'' he told The Miami Herald.
'I told everybody that all along, but nobody believed me. A few months back, [WPLG general manager] Dave Boylan even showed me the plans for the new building the station will move into next year, and pointed out where my office will be. `I'll be sure to give it a look when I visit,' I told him.' ''
Boylan still seemed mildly disbelieving on Monday. ''He is the gold standard of local television anchors,'' he said of Lauderdale, ``and we will miss him.''
So will countless South Florida viewers. In a volatile television market increasingly ruled by advertisers' quest for young viewers -- and the belief that they're only attracted by young anchors -- it's unlikely that any current anchor will ever match Lauderdale's 22 years co-hosting the 11 p.m. news.
A MAJOR FIRST
Even before taking over that job, Lauderdale was a landmark on the local television landscape.
When he took over WPLG's weekend news in 1980, he became the market's first black anchor. There were hardly any black faces on television news in any capacity, Lauderdale recalls.
''When I got here in 1974 [to work at Channel 7, then known as WCKT], there was usually one black reporter at each station,'' he said.
``Then it grew to one man and one woman. I'll never forget the day at WPLG when I looked up and we had five black reporters. I thought to myself, things were changing, we were hiring on ability as opposed to quotas.''
Lauderdale quickly established himself as a prolific street reporter, working half a dozen stories per day, including everything from the Miami River cops case to the Mariel boatlift. He also scored the first one-on-one interview of Bill Clinton's presidency, though Lauderdale remembers it more for the rigid ground rules (''Seven minutes only, and they were standing there with a stopwatch'') than any news it broke.
IMPECCABLE
Lauderdale's sleek suits and tonsorial splendor didn't hurt his on-air presence.
A producer, once asked for footage of a messily attired Lauderdale for a blooper reel, replied icily: ``There's no such thing. That would be like the sun rising in the West.''
His hair (''a full '70s Afro and bushy mustache,'' recalls former WPLG producer Steve Wasserman) became less imposing over the years, with the mustache finally going about a decade ago.
''I got tired of having to have it dyed,'' Lauderdale confessed. 'The station's consultants always told us, `A little bit of gray on your head looks OK, but under your nose, it looks like snot.' ''
Lauderdale said he plans to stay in South Florida after retirement, doing some leisurely voice-over work and training films. Mostly, he wants to relax after working on TV newscasts every day since he was a junior in high school back in Ohio.
''Since I was 17 years old, I've punched the time clock of TV news,'' he said.
``I want to have some choices. I'll work at my own pace, and you better believe it won't be at night. Forty years of working nights takes a toll on your body.''
