Gayle Sierens

Sierens joined the Tampa NBC affiliate in 1977 as a weekend sports anchor and reporter after working with WFSU in Tallahassee while she was attending Florida State University.^[1] She became the first female sportscaster in the Bay Area and quickly made a reputation for herself as someone who always got the big story and interviewed the top professional sports players despite being a woman. In 1981, she was recognized by Tampa Bay Metro Magazine as the Bay Area's best sports reporter.

In 1984, Sierens was honored with a Florida Emmy Award for sports reporting and in 1991, she won her second Emmy for news reporting.^[1]

In an effort to curb declining ratings, WFLA promoted Sierens to co-anchor of the 6 & 11 p.m. newscasts with Bob Hite in October 1985, a move that was criticized at first. The move later paid off as Sierens was regarded as being likeable and just as intuitive doing news as doing sports.

In 1987, through a short stint with NBC Sports, Sierens became the first woman to do play-by-play for an NFL regular season football game when she called the December 27 game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Kansas City Chiefs.^[2] She was originally to be a regular play-by-play announcer for the season, but a contract dispute with WFLA prevented her from continuing in that role beyond her lone game.^[3] In 2017, Beth Mowins became only the second woman to call an NFL game and first woman to call a Monday Night Football broadcast. Here, the game was between the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos.^[4][5][6]

January 10, 2007 was designated as "Gayle Sierens Day" by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio to commemorate Sierens' 30th year with the station, a rarity in television news.

Sierens retired from WFLA-TV NewsChannel 8 in May 2015, after 38 years in the broadcast journalism industry.^[7]