By Hannah Osborne
Teresa Whitaker has known her dream was to become a broadcaster since she was 13-years old. As a self-proclaimed “army brat,” Whitaker spent her days at Fort Gordon (now designated as Fort Eisenhower) in Augusta playing basketball. Although, when 6 o’clock rolled around, Whitaker ran inside to watch Lou Green anchor the news on WRDW.
“I never wanted to be on the anchor desk,” says Whitaker. “I saw myself as the person Lou Green tossed to in the field. That’s what I wanted to do, because I loved to write, I loved words and we’ve lost so much of that in the industry today.”
Following high school graduation, Whitaker first attended Chattahoochee Valley Community College just outside of Columbus.
“I stayed home and started at a junior college, just to figure out, ‘How am I going to make this dream come true?’” says Whitaker.
The first steps towards making her dreams a reality came from a neighbor who suggested Whitaker apply at the University of West Georgia (then West Georgia College).
“I applied to West Georgia and I was on my way,” says Whitaker.
Despite the more than 35 years Whitaker has poured into television news, during her college days she found herself spending more hours with the radio station.
“I love both, I love the news and I love radio. I decided, now it’s time to try television, and I knew that’s where I was going to be,” says Whitaker. “I LOVED going out and shooting my stories, interviewing, writing my story, editing it. I loved it. I knew that was where I was born to be.”
Like many broadcasters, Whitaker’s talents are only part of the reason she has found success in her career. To achieve what she has achieved requires hard work, patience and determination. Her first gig after graduating from West Georgia was not as a reporter or an anchor, but as a production assistant at WRBL Columbus.
“I had the presence of mind to take my VHS tape that had three stories that I did in college [to the interview],” says Whitaker. “When it was wrapping up the general manager asked me about the tape.”
Whitaker’s talent and potential were evident, but there were simply no openings on the reporting staff at that time.
“He told me, ‘If you will accept a full-time position as a production assistant, I promise you, as soon as there is a reporter opening the job is yours,’” says Whitaker. “And he kept his word, six months later I was in news.”
Over the course of eight years, Whitaker had gone from production assistant to reporter to anchor, but in 1995, her time at WRBL almost came to an end.
In its nature, the business of broadcasting comes with a frequent changing of hands, as a station is sold, new faces rotate through the doors. At the time, Whitaker had been anchoring the 6 and 11 o’clock news, when a new manager walked in wanting to “go in another direction.”
“He took me off the anchor desk and told me I would never anchor again,” says Whitaker. “His exact words were, ‘Make no mistake Ms. Whitaker, you will never anchor again.’”
Whitaker’s world had been turned upside down, but she had been raised to never leave a job without having another opportunity lined up.
Despite the new manager assigning Whitaker to turning live shots on the morning show, the news director refused. “She had said, ‘She is a veteran in this market and you’re not going to bury her on the morning show,’” says Whitaker. “I was able to be the senior reporter, and turn live shots, everyday.”
Unable to be deterred from her dreams, Whitaker “wore out the carpet at Fedex” sending tapes to other stations, but unfortunately the rejection letters started rolling in.
“That was very depressing,” says Whitaker.
At this point the sales manager had taken the position of general manager and was hopeful to put Whitaker back on the anchor desk, but there was simply nothing available. Discouraged by the point she was at in her career, Whitaker turned towards her faith for guidance.
“I had just started in a new church and things were looking up,” Whitaker says. “I said, ‘Okay God, I’m trying to handle this on my own, but it’s not working so I’m going to put this into your hands. As soon as I did that, I could hear Him speak, and I heard two words very clearly. ‘Noon show.’”
WRBL did not have a noon show, so when the news director called Whitaker into her office and told her that the new general manager wanted to start one, she already knew that she would be filling that role.
“That is why I am still here, because God would not let me leave,” says Whitaker.
Whitaker was soon back on the anchor desk, anchoring the noon show, then to 5 o’clock before finally returning to the place where she had always belonged, the 6 and 11 o’clock newscasts.
All these years later, Whitaker is still doing that job each and every day.
With a career spanning 37 years, the fundamental role that her job plays in her community has never been one that has been lost on her.
“Being a broadcaster is such a great responsibility,” says Whitaker. “People need to know what’s going on in their community. I’m a big proponent of the truth. Sometimes you have to hold the powerful accountable, and get the truth out there no matter what.”
Whitaker continues to anchor the 6 and 11 o’clock newscasts in tandem with reporting. For 20 years she acted as the health watch reporter leading up to the 2020 pandemic when it became difficult to continue the program with social distancing. Now, Whitaker works on special projects, completing segments on gang violence and mental health, among others.
“We see and hear and experience a lot,” says Whitaker. “I think what matters is that people know that you are also human, that you have empathy. Just because you have a camera and a microphone doesn’t mean that you’re not human. It’s okay to feel.”
The driving force that brought Whitaker to broadcasting was a love of words, and she carries that love with pride in her work.
Whitaker’s best advice to broadcasters entering the industry is to have the same affinity for words that she does. “Everything we do, we write, you’ve got to be able to tell stories. You’ve got to have a love for words,” says Whitaker.
Whitaker’s hardwork and dedication has spanned the entirety of her career. She has previously been recognized by the Associated Press, the NAACP, Sisters Inc. which honored her with the Rosa Parks Award of Courage in Communication, ToastMasters International, The Courier-Eco Latino Newspaper, her alma mater West Georgia College and many other organizations.
In March of 2024, Whitaker’s remarkable career will be memorialized when Whitaker is inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters (GAB) Hall of Fame.
“Being inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame is the cap of my career,” says Whitaker. “It’s like a brass ring. It’s that thing that has eluded me, but now I have it.”
Whitaker expresses the honor she feels to be joining the Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Monica (Kaufman) Pearson, who had acted as an inspiration when Whitaker was still in college. She is especially excited that her mother will be present for the ceremony and is witness to Whitaker’s countless accomplishments in broadcasting.
“I’m absolutely humbled beyond measure, beyond words,” says Whitaker.
The GAB Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at the Emory Conference Center Hotel on March 22, 2024.
