WPVI-TV anchors

This is a list of television news anchors from the ABC owned WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Anchors
Sarah Bloomquist
Sarah Bloomquist has been with WPVI since 2002 and is currently the noon co-anchor/reporter. She joined WPVI as a general assignment reporter. She was promoted to the anchor position in 2005, but would return to the field as a reporter later that year. In September 2005, she filed reports on Hurricane Rita from Texas.
She came to Philadelphia and WPVI-TV's Action News in August 2002. Since then, she's covered many major stories for Channel 6, including reporting live from Maryland during the sniper scare, and following the Philadelphia Eagles and their faithful fans during the 2002-2003 run for the Super Bowl.
Sarah came to Channel 6 from WTVG, the ABC-owned station in Toledo, Ohio, where she was a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter. In 2002, Sarah was awarded First Place in the Spot News Category from the Associated Press of Ohio for her coverage from New York of the September 11 attacks.

Tamala Edwards
Tamala Edwards joined WPVI in 2005 and is currently the morning co-anchor. She joined WPVI from ABC News where she served as anchor of ABC World News Now. She had also served as a White House Correspondent for World News Tonight.

Jim Gardner
Jim Gardner (born May 17, 1948). On June 1 1976 he became a reporter and noon anchor of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, joining the station from WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York. In November 1976, he became the anchor of the 5:30 p.m. broadcast. On May 11, 1977, Gardner assumed his current position of anchorman of Action News at 6pm and 11pm Monday-Friday taking over the daily newscasts anchored previously by Larry Kane.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia selected Gardner as "Person of the Year" in 1996 and inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2003.

Rob Jennings
Rob Jennings has been with WPVI for over 25 years, serving mainly as anchor of the weekend 6 & 11pm newscasts. For sixteen years, Rob was the producer-reporter for Crimefighters series that aired on Action News. For portions of the late 1980s and early 1990s, he also did weather forecasts for the station.

Lisa Thomas-Laury
Lisa Thomas-Laury started at Action News on February 20, 1978 as noon co-anchor and reporter. She was promoted to the 5 p.m. newscast in 1983. While she was at the station, she frequently substituted for Jim Gardner. She also has done the monthly Fast Forward, series, now hosted by Rick Williams, a show geared for teenagers. In 2002, she began to experience health problems. Her first symptoms were tingling in her feet in which she assumed was from too much power walking. Her problem was initially misdiagnosed. She eventually learned that she was suffering from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a rare nervous disorder accompanied with neuropathy (very uncommon in non-diabetics), which coincidentally was the same disorder later suffered by retired Philadelphia 76ers forward Todd MacCulloch. She went on medical leave from Action News for almost a year and returned to work on September 11,2003. She was scheduled to return to hosting the annual Thanksgiving Day parade, which she had missed hosting the previous year. Unfortunately her health problems returned, causing her to miss the parade and return to medical leave. In May 2004, Jim Gardner announced on the air that Lisa Thomas-Laury would be permanently leaving her anchor duties (but not leaving WPVI itself, as Gardner said that the door would be open for her to return when her health permitted) in order to have more time to focus on her recovery. As of today, her health has returned to normal and she made a special guest appearance at the 2005 Thanksgiving Day parade. Lisa Thomas-Laury, an African-American, is one of the first minority women to anchor in a major metropolitan market, a group that currently includes Beverly Williams, fellow WPVI anchor Tamala Edwards, WCAU-TV anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah and KYW-TV anchor Alycia Lane.

It was announced on the November 22, 2006 11 p.m. news broadcast that Lisa will be returning to the air waves. Lisa was shown in a special Christmas segment and told the viewers that she is now back and joked that she would have to learn the new technology introduced since her departure. She returned to Action News on January 2, 2007 with a report on the opening of Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa.

Currently, Lisa now does special reports for Action News at 5 & 11 and fills in on the evening newscasts when one of the anchors are absent.

Monica Malpass
Monica Malpass has been with WPVI since 1988 and is currently the 5 p.m. Action News co-anchor. She joined the station as the anchor of their Good Morning America local cut-ins. Then she began anchoring the station's new half hour broadcast preceding Good Morning America. She was the first anchor of WPVI's morning newscast. She was morning and noon anchor for over a decade. In 2003, Malpass and Rick Williams were named permanent replacements on the 5 p.m. newscast for longtime anchors Marc Howard (who left to become the new 4 p.m. anchor for KYW-TV's Eyewitness News) and Lisa Thomas-Laury (who left due to health problems). In 2003, the Philadelphia Daily News reported, in a 5-page special report, on the bitter divorce between Malpass and ex-husband David Cutler, a multi-millionare real estate developer. The divorce proceedings alleged that their child was conceived when was Malpass had a tryst with another man from South Carolina, a story Malpass denied, even stating that she has DNA evidence stating that Cutler was the child's father. Malpass was subsequently engaged to Stephen Thorne after dating for 4 months. Thorne bought Malpass a 5.06 carat (1.01 g) solitaire engagement ring. Thorne broke off the engagement after 21 days. Apparently Malpass wanted more children, and he did not. Malpass refused to return the ring, worth $100,000, and is being sued by Thorne for its return.

Matt O'Donnell
Matt O'Donnell (born May 31, 1972) joined WPVI in 1996 as a General Assignment Reporter. In 2004, he was promoted to the morning anchor position with Sarah Bloomquist and now currently anchors the morning newscast with Tamala Edwards, who joined the news team in 2005

Walter Perez
Walter Perez is the weekend morning co-anchor and a weekday reporter for the Lehigh Valley Bureau. Walter joined WPVI in September 2003 from WNBC.

Rick Williams
Rick Williams has been with WPVI since 1988 and is currently the Noon and 5 p.m. co-anchor. He was originally a reporter with the station. He was promoted to morning anchor in 1991 when the morning news was expanded to an hour. He also added the noon newscast to his duties in 1994. He spent over a decade anchoring the morning news. In 2003, Rick Williams and Monica Malpass were named permanent replacements for Marc Howard and Lisa Thomas-Laury on the 5 p.m. news. Williams is well-known in the Philadelphia area for making bad puns on-air.

Williams also reports for the "Crime Fighters" series about unsolved crimes taking over the position from Rob Jennings.

Weather
Erica Grow
Erica Grow is weekend morning meteorologist for Action News and the Sunday edition of Action News at Noon. Grow joined Channel 6 in January 2007 from WHP-TV.

Adam Joseph
Adam Joseph came to WPVI in April 2005. Adam is currently the weekend evening meteorologist. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from Lyndon State College in 2000. He also holds the American Meteorological Society seal of approval. In addition to his forecasting duties he contributes "Science Notebook" reports on Action News and "Adam's Adventures", which mainly consist of outdoor activities at the New Jersey seashore.

David Murphy
David Murphy has been with WPVI since 1990 and is currently part of "Double team AccuWeather" along with Karen Rogers and is the noon meteorologist. He holds American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association seals of approval. He began as a general assignment reporter, and then eventually moved to weather.

Dave Roberts
Dave Roberts is the stage name of David Thomas Boreanaz (born February 14 1936). Since 1983 he has been the weatherman for WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the father of actor David Patrick Boreanaz.

In 1978 Roberts joined WPVI-TV in Philadelphia as a co-host for the morning television show AM/Philadelphia. To avoid possible confusion with Lisa Thomas-Laury, he changed his stage name from David Thomas to Dave Roberts. After the death of Jim O'Brien in 1983, began reporting the weather for WPVI's Action News, a position he still maintains as of 2007. In 1993 Roberts became a recipient of the National Weather Association's "Weathercaster Seal of Approval". In 2000, he was inducted into the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneer's Hall of Fame as well as selected Person of the Year by the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers Association. The following year he was inducted into the Buffalo New York Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.

Karen Rogers
Karen Rogers has been with WPVI since 1996 and is currently the morning traffic reporter and part of the "Double Team AccuWeather" with David Murphy. She joined the station as a reporter for AM Philadelphia. When it was cancelled, she served in the same capacity for Philly After Midnight. After that was cancelled, she became the weekend morning weatherperson. In 2005, she received her current assignment, having temporarily also provided traffic reports for the 5 p.m. broadcast in addition to the morning. Karen also provides reports for the ABC 6 Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Sunoco Welcome America Festivities on the 4th of July. Karen co-hosts Philly on Wheels with Cecily Tynan and also co hosts the Philadelphia Flower Show with the rest of 6ABC Accuweather Team.

Cecily Tynan
Cecily Tynan has been with WPVI since 1995 and is currently the 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. meteorologist and co-hosts with Gary Papa the Saturday evening public affairs program Primetime Weekend. She holds American Meteorological Society television seal number 1099 . She started out as a weekend meteorologist and general assignment reporter. Then she became the weekday morning meteorologist. When Dave Roberts cut back his duties in 2003, she assumed her current position. After a divorce from her first husband, she remarried and gave birth to a baby boy named Luke on January 20, 2006. She gave birth to her second child, daughter Emma Grace, on September 17, 2007. Tynan is also an accomplished long-distance runner and frequently runs marathons. Tynan is also a co-host of several locally produced specials, including: the ABC 6 Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the 4th of July Parade, Philly on Wheels, and the Flower Show.

Sports
Jamie Apody
Jamie Apody (born April 7, 1978) joined WPVI on January 17, 2006 as a sports reporter/anchor. Apody is a 2nd degree black belt in karate and she loves to play basketball. Apody was the sports director at KDBC in El Paso, Texas prior to migrating to WPVI. While in El Paso, Apody covered several sports stories of local interest, including many high school games and special interest sports stories including that involving the Miracle League of El Paso.

In March 2006, Apody received the Associated Press Award for Best Sports Story in Texas and Best Sports Story in New Mexico. Apody received the award following her segment on the Miracle League of El Paso.

Gary Papa
Sports director Gary Papa (born September 2, 1954 in Buffalo, New York) has been with WPVI since 1981 and is currently the 6 p.m., and 11 p.m sportcaster. He joined the station as a weekend sportcaster and was promoted to the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts in 1991. In June 2005, he added the 5:30 p.m. newscast to his duties on an interim basis until Jamie Apody joined in January 2007. Gary Papa currently co-hosts with Cecily Tynan the Saturday evening public affairs show Primetime Weekend. He has hosted the program since 1983 when he took over after the sudden death of . In April 2004, he revealed to viewers that he had been receiving treatment for prostate cancer and lost his hair as a result. He continued to work while receiving chemotherapy and became emotional on-air several times while discussing the matter. He is currently receiving treatment for a recurrence of his cancer.

Keith Russell

Philadelphia native Keith Russell is the weekend Sports Anchor and weekday fill-in. Keith joined WPVI in August 2005 joining the station from ESPN, which is also owned by Disney. Prior to working for ESPN, he was with WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island.

Footnotes
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