Her voice is a honeyed blend of old-Florida southern charm and steely sportswoman grit. It’s in a lower register and slightly raspy – her childhood nickname was “Froggy” – and for nearly four decades, it reverberated through Tampa Bay living rooms like a friend who came to visit, and tell you what was what, virtually every day of the week.
If any TV news personality could claim the title of “the voice of the bay” it would be Gayle Sierens, the two-time Emmy winning “hometown girl” who started out as a sports-loving tomboy and ended her broadcasting career as half of the highest-rated news anchor team in local history.
Sierens, who retired in 2015, spent all 38 years with WFLA-Channel 8, which is in itself something of a record. Tampa mayor Pam Iorio proclaimed Jan. 10, 2007 – her 30th anniversary with the station – as “Gayle Sierens Day.”
Nationally, she’s known as the first woman to do play-by-play for an NFL game (in 1987, for NBC)…