Tom Wills, among the broadcast giants in Jacksonville local television news for nearly 50 years, announced Thursday night on WJXT-Channel 4 of his intentions to retire.
His final broadcast as co-anchor of the 6 p.m. news with Joy Purdy will air on May 31. Anchor Kent Justice will assume Wills' role alongside Purdy.
Wills, who came to the Jacksonville station in 1975 after a stint with WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., is one of several WJXT employees who have accepted buyout offers from parent company Graham Media.
The 77-year-old Wills acknowledged in an exclusive interview with the Times-Union that, buyout option aside, it was the right time for him to step away from a 55-year career in broadcast journalism.
“I’m at peace with this, it’s time,” Wills said in a Monday interview. “Gina [his wife] and I will be married 50 years in September. A husband doesn’t stay married that long without learning to pick up cues from she who must be obeyed. For the last few years, when I would wind up on a stay-cation, she’d say to me, ‘you know, if you retired, it would be like this all the time.’
“Look, we knew it was time to get married in 1974. We knew it was time in 1978 to start having children. You just know when it’s time to retire. I’m at peace with it, she’s at peace.”
In announcing his retirement on the air to WJXT viewers Wills said “After thoughtful and prayerful consideration with my wife, Gina, of many factors in our lives right now, I’ve decided the time has come for me to retire after almost a half century of being invited into your homes to bring you the news.
“Words are inadequate to express my profound gratitude for your loyalty to this television station all through the years. Let me say personally that my colleagues and I, both past and present, those you see on the air and those behind the scenes, devote all our energy each day to earning your trust, your confidence in our journalism. That will not change when I leave.
“Thank you for the opportunity to be your newsman.”
Gianoulis: Wills is 'The Walter Cronkite of local news'
Wills has been a consistent presence on various WJXT evening news broadcasts (5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.) at Jacksonville’s highest-rated television station since Channel 4 hired him to be a reporter/anchor in 1975, eventually replacing Lee Denny as weekend anchor.
He and Deborah Gianoulis served as co-anchors from 1979 until 2003, though she remained another year to do documentaries. For that 24-year period, Wills, Gianoulis, weatherman George Winterling and sports anchor Sam Kouvaris were the longest-running, four-person news team in the country.
“Tom came to work every day delighted to be there,” Gianoulis said via text. “His enthusiasm was infectious and he established the culture of the newsroom. We were the first computerized local newsroom in the country – the guinea pigs! Tom kept us even-tempered through our frustrations.
“Also, like George [Winterling], Tom always put the viewer first. Tom took his profession seriously, but not himself seriously. He is the Walter Cronkite of local news.”
From 1992 until last year, Wills also had a 31-year run with co-anchor Mary Baer until he she decided to retire. Wills’ departure makes him the last journalist from that record-setting group to leave television.
“Tom and I were both so fortunate that we got to choose when we were going to go out,” said Baer. “What an honor and more than a treat it was to be with Tom for an incredible ride. He’s like your confidante, your mentor, your best friend, your big brother.
“We just had an amazing relationship. You have to be able to trust the person you’re sitting next to [as a co-anchor]. Having Tom, he’s the best seller for the company. He made me so confident when I was learning the ropes.”
Wills cut his teeth in radio
Wills, a native of Pittsburgh, got his first full-time broadcasting job in radio in northern Virginia for WEAM-1390, starting before his graduation from American University in 1968. One of his earliest assignments was relaying the news to his audience about the D.C. riots following the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
“I was told that I couldn’t report on the riots, just the [National Guard] troop movements in downtown D.C.,” Willis said. “That was a little awkward.”
After moving to WTOP radio, which also had its own TV station, Wills got his first big break while attending the last Washington Senators game on September 30, 1971. It ended with rowdy, souvenir-pilfering fans entering the field in the ninth inning and forcing the Senators to forfeit the game to the New York Yankees.
“That changed my life,” said Wills. “The news director, Jim Snyder, had me write a script of Senators’ fans rushing on to the field. It was the first time I read a script off a monitor, matching the words and pictures going together to tell a story.
“I have never forgotten that and I’ve been living on it ever since.”
It was Snyder who encouraged Wills to take the TV gig at Channel 4, though Wills admitted at the time that “I had never heard of Jacksonville in my life.”
From Skynyrd to landing NFL team
Over his time in Jacksonville television, Wills interviewed five sitting U.S. presidents -- Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
He chuckles about the Obama 2012 interview in the Cabinet room of the White House because Wills relayed to the 44th president how he had been at a Pittsburgh Pirates game two days earlier.
When Obama asked him who the Pirates played, Wills admitted to the leader of the free world he forgot the opponent, only remembering a few minutes after Obama left it was the Kansas City Royals.
As a dedicated newsman, Wills’ most memorable television moments were far more serious.
He and a Channel 4 photographer went to the airplane crash site in Gillsburg, Mississippi in October 1977, the day after members of the legendary Jacksonville band Lynyrd Skynyrd – lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt and guitarist Steve Gaines -- and four others died after their out-of-fuel plane went down in a wooded area on its way to Baton Rouge, La.
Wills took pride in emotionally pleading with Channel 4 viewers, after receiving an NOAA warning on his phone in 2016, to evacuate as Hurricane Matthew was descending on Northeast Florida.
It was Wills and Kouvaris who were the first to report on-air the birth of the Jaguars from the Chicago O’Hare Hilton airport on Nov. 30, 1993, moments after then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Jacksonville was getting an expansion team.
“What a privileged career I’ve had,” said Wills. “I’ve been with the same company [Graham Media] for 55 years and with the same station for 49 years.
“The memories I have, you don’t have enough newsprint to cover it all.”
Looking forward to next mysterious chapter
Though Wills is happy to go down memory lane about his professional career, he remains a little more secretive over what the future might hold for him and Gina.
“I have some personal pursuits and am going to take more time and energy for that without saying exactly what that is,” said Wills.
Some of that time will no doubt be delighting in seeing his three grandchildren – Adele (12), Jack (10) and Wesley (8) -- who live in California or near St. Louis more often.
Otherwise, Wills, who says he will return to work for one day as a “journalist emeritus” for Election Night coverage of the November presidential race, is content to just let life evolve into whatever might happen for the remainder of his golden years.
“I’m eager to see what this new chapter in my life will be for me and Gina,” said Wills. “It’s a mystery. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just looking forward to it.”
Baer thinks the void left by Wills’ departure will be felt in greater depth once he’s no longer at the station.
“He was a force in the newsroom,” said Baer. “He was first in and last out, a very hard-working man. He’d go the extra mile. It’s nothing phony. He would stay late to help us write stories better. I remember him waiting until I was off the air [after the 11 p.m. news] to help.
“Tom always steers the young people to be the best we can be for the viewer. There’s no fake news with Tom. He totally strives to be straight with a story.
“You knew with Tom you were getting all the perspective in the best way possible. He’s the gold standard.”
