Gayle Sierens Signing Off WFLA-TV Tampa

Gayle Sierens

Counting down the days until she leaves, WFLA-TV news anchor Gayle Sierens says she is trying not to have a plan for retirement, according to The Tampa Tribune.

“Isn’t that what retirement is all about — not having a plan every day?” says Sierens, who exits the News Channel 8 anchor desk on Wednesday after 38 years and five months at the NBC affiliate.

After nearly four decades of living by deadlines, she’ll be off the clock.

She says that for the next year she may come back on air at WFLA for some special reports. “The details haven’t been worked out, and I don’t know what my title would be or how it will work, but for at least a year I will be available,” she says.

Sierens young

“I’ve been lucky to be along for a great ride, and I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to have had this kind of career, all in the same place,” says Sierens, who was 22 when she joined WFLA in 1977 fresh out of Florida State University.

Sierens, who turns 61 in June, is the hometown kid next door who made good.

Popular with viewers almost from Day One, Sierens spent nine years covering sports and just over 29 years anchoring the station’s key newscasts at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m. She worked with three different male co-anchors, including the late Bill Ratliff, the retired Bob Hite and current co-anchor Keith Cate.

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