A pair of beloved local anchors with extraordinary runs at their stations are finally stepping down. Tom Wills signs off at WJXT Jacksonville May 31, 49 years after he began there, while Don Alhart marks a stunning 58 years at WHAM Rochester when he steps down June 6.
“I don’t want to keep working until they have to wheel me in there,” said Alhart, who is 80. “When I feel good, when the ratings are still good, why push it?”
Raised on Radio
A Pittsburgh native, Wills got a journalism degree at American University in Washington and went to work at WTOP, the D.C. radio station offering news and talk that at that time was owned by The Washington Post Co. The Post Co. also owned a TV station in D.C., and Wills got a little on-air experience. He was asked to switch to another Post Co. station, WJXT, and came on board as a weekend anchor in 1975.
“My wife and I fell in love with Jacksonville, but I really fell in love with the television station,” Wills said.
In D.C., he said, The Washington Post owned the big stories and other media outlets were mostly “irrelevant.” In Jacksonville, WJXT (part of Graham Media Group, renamed when the Graham family sold the Post to Jeff Bezos) broke more than its share of the big scoops. “It’s a heady feeling that this television station is so dominant in the community,” he said.
Wills said he had a “brief flirtation” with a move to WPLG Miami, also owned by The Post Co. Stations in other markets, including Kansas City and Baltimore, also reached out to gauge his interest in a move.
“I’d already worked in Washington, D.C., so I knew about big markets,” he said. “Big markets did not hold any allure to me.”
Wills’s children were born in Jacksonville, and he was part of a long-running anchor team, including Deborah Gianoulis, at WJXT from 1979 to 2003, with Sam Kouvaris doing sports (he spent 37 years there) and George Winterling handling weather (Winterling, who died last year, was WJXT chief meteorologist for 47 years). Wills said the team’s extraordinary tenure made him “one of the most spoiled men in America, maybe the Western Hemisphere.”
On Campus, Then On-Air
Alhart worked as a reporter for WHAM as an Ithaca College student in the summer of 1965, joining the station full-time a year later — 6/6/66, in fact. “I graduated college June 4, came home Sunday and went to work Monday,” he said. “I never looked back.”
Like Wills, and most any anchor, Alhart considered opportunities in larger markets, including Washington and Philadelphia. After a hiring manager in Philly viewed his tape, he was told the station was looking for an anchor “who exudes more warmth,” he said, perhaps a reflection of Alhart’s heart still being in Rochester.
He’s particularly proud of the long-running segment “Bright Spot” at the end of the 6 p.m. news, which focuses on someone who’s doing something positive in the community. Alhart said the idea came up at a Rotary Club meeting, when a man complained that the news was too depressing.
“Bright Spot” was born. “Every day, even 9/11, we have found a bright spot,” Alhart said.
Asked about stories he covered that stick out today, Wills, who did not share his age, mentioned covering the 1977 plane crash in Mississippi that killed members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. “We went into the woods and found the wreckage,” he said, describing “broken suitcases, a teddy bear on the ground.”
Words of Wisdom
In terms of advice for a young reporter, Wills advised to learn how local government operates, and remember to have a conversation with the viewer, as opposed to reading something “lifted out of Associated Press.”
Alhart too stressed speaking with people, not at them. “Go to the shopping mall,” he said. “Sit in a chair for 15 or 20 minutes, look at people, and remember those are the people you’re talking to when you write a story, deliver a story, anchor a newscast.”
Wills said his retirement plans are “up in the air,” and mentioned his three grandchildren “will get a lot more Grandma and Grandpa.”
Alhart will consider a new venture, perhaps a podcast, that allows him to continue focusing on positive stories in Rochester.
“I’ll take a month or two, maybe travel, but I won’t plan anything,” he said. “And see what happens.”
