May 21: Salute to a Pro

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Just wanted to give a tip of the cap to Dwight Lauderdale, who retires tonight.

Dwight has worked at WPLG-Channel 10 in Miami for 32 years as an anchor and reporter. Having worked with him for 13 of those years, I know he is a professional in every sense of the word.

As a reporter, he has covered the earth-shaking (the 1980 McDuffie Riots), the useful (his "Getting Out Alive" stories of the late 1980s) and the moving, including a late-1990s trip to Cuba that included a report about the island's Jewish community and an interview with my grandfather (He and producer Todd Templin did not know at the time that the man was my grandfather, until the story ran and I told them.).

Dwight sat in the anchor chair for such stories as Hurricane Andrew and the Elian Gonzalez custody battle. And he worked with some of the best, including Connie Hicks, with whom he co-anchored South Florida television's first 5:30 p.m. newscast, and the late, great Ann Bishop, with whom he worked at 6 p.m.

One ad campaign said "It's not a good night without Ann and Dwight." Plenty of South Floridians agreed.

Thanks again, Dwight. Good luck.