TCNEWS.COM EDITOR AND WSTU AM NEWS DIRECTOR TOM TETER
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I love the news & I love history. News is histories first draft, and
Journalists better get it right for history's sake let alone our own reputation.
We all know often we don't.
Broadcast Journalism is an important calling. Listeners depend on
accurate, fair and balanced news to make many decisions in life. I can
honestly say I was practicing "fair and balanced" many years before Fox came up
with the slogan. I must also honestly admit I wish I had $1 for every
mistake I've made on the air over the years. I'd have a nice, if tainted
pot of money.
I started out in radio at my hometown AM & FM stations, WLOI in La Porte,
Indiana while in high school in 1969. I did a little bit of
everything...disc jockey, board operator, even news. I left radio in 1971
when I went off to college.
After graduating from Ball State University with a BS degree in Political
Science in 1975, I worked for the State Highway
Commission in Indiana helping build I-94 for a year (During summers during my
college years I helped survey the I-94 centerline thru woods, across streams,
and farmland, cross sectioned barrow pits, inspected asphalt mixtures and
measured every inch of right-of-way fence along a 13 mile stretch. I have
seen bridges built from the first pilings to the finishing lane striping)
I got back into radio
working again at my hometown station part time. I got into the Insurance
business in 1976.
I moved to Florida's Treasure Coast in 1979. The smartest move I ever
made.
I continued as a life & health insurance agent and worked at WSTU part-time
beginning in 1980. In December 1981 we put a brand new FM station on the
air, the original WHLG. (there is a WHLG FM in town now, but it's not the
original. It was a smart marketing move for them to take the call letters
to cash in on success our original station had.)
After going broke in the insurance profession (a persistent theme in my life), I worked for the construction
company that built South Fork High School. I started out as laborer, then
moved into the office a field clerk for SigmaCon Construction (which built most
of the nation's Red Lobsters) because I make
good coffee. I have seen SFHS go from red-iron steel skeleton to the
finished product opening in 1982. I was there when the Masons laid the
corner stone.
In 1982 I was promoted to a full-time staff announcer at WSTU & WHLG.
I have covered and reported local news in Martin & St Lucie Counties since
the November elections in 1982 (I was one of the few staffers that could
pronounce the names Dale Trefelner & Maggie Hurchalla).
I was the afternoon News Anchor for WSTU and WHLG from 1983 to 1985, when I was
named News Director, heading a three person news staff (4 with our summer
interns).
WSTU & WHLG were the top rated AM-FM combo in the Treasure Coast Arbitron market
area for more than ten years. We were the ONLY radio stations doing local
news for most of those years as other stations eliminated their newscasts.
We were the first Treasure Coast radio stations to do regularly scheduled
traffic reports beginning in 1985.
During those years we won 13 United Press International and Associated Press
awards including Best Newscast in Florida (twice), Best Overall News Coverage
(twice) and Best On-The-Spot reporting (a half dozen times).
I was also the voice of Treasure Coast high school sports, being the
play-by-play sportscaster for the Martin County High & South Fork High football
and basketball games for 18 years. I won the Best High School Play-By-Play
award from the Florida Sportscasters Association in 1986. (I still do a
few games each year, but gave it up a few years back. Got tired of hauling
40 lbs of broadcast equipment up and down 43 stadium steps. I'm 53 years
old now, and the legs don't work like they once did)
In 1996 the Glascock family sold the radio stations (Great people to work for).
The company that bought them moved our FM station to West Palm Beach and sold
WSTU to a Boca broadcaster. Martin County had no local radio for a year.
I went to Stuart's low-power tv station WTCN to produce a weeknight half-hour
news & interview program. I returned to WSTU after my close friend Barry
Grant bought the station. In 2003 WPSL owners Gregg & Carroll Wyatt (who have a strong
belief in local radio) took over, and I remain News Director to this day.
I also do a nightly 6 PM newscast on our sister station WPSL.
WSTU has been on the air for 50 years. I have been on WSTU for 24 of those
50 years.
I grew up in La Porte, Indiana, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree
in Political Science in 1975 from Ball State University in Muncie Indiana.
TV's David Letterman, actress Cindy Williams & Garfield cartoonist Jon Davis are
all graduates of Ball State. I have taken graduate courses at Notre
Dame and Valparaiso University.
I live in one of the nation's fastest-growing cities, Port St Lucie, where the
New York Mets spring train. (This is tough since I am a life-long Chicago
Cubs fan, and have never forgiven the 1969 Miracle Mets for catching and passing
my Cubs and going on to win the World Series). I live with an old hound dog
that has no name she'll answer to (which I sort of inherited from a friend during the
hurricanes of 2004) and a 13 year old fat cat named Damn It. (damn it, get
out of there, damn it get down from there ect) I have two cats that were
good buddies buried in the back yard. The dog and Damn It will end up
there too.
My parents, Tom and Donna have a winter home in the area. My dad was named
the SBA Small Businessman of the Year in Indiana in 1996. He owns a tool &
die plant in La Porte.
That's it. I haven't talked this much about myself in years.
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