Bob Hite: Sailing On

By Mary Kelley Hoppe

It’s been two months since Bob Hite signed off the air for the last time, capping a remarkable 30-year broadcast journalism career in Tampa Bay. Since then, he and his wife, Bonnie, have settled into their new home in Colorado, weathered multiple snowstorms and celebrated Christmas with their granddaughter. And the former NewsChannel 8 anchor is sporting a new beard – just because he can, one supposes, after conforming for three clean-shaven decades to broadcast grooming code.

But the longtime environmental reporter hasn’t abandoned Florida. Hardly. He and Bonnie maintain a beach home in Matlacha (pronounced MATT-La-Shay), a tiny outpost near Cape Coral that separates Pine Island from the Southwest Florida mainland. They also have family here and visit frequently.

All notwithstanding, Hite remains anchored to Florida for a far simpler reason: salt water courses through his veins. His love affair with the Sunshine State began decades before he dropped anchor here for good. Hite’s grandparents homesteaded on Lemon Key. “I’ve been visiting Florida since I was in the womb,” he quips.

Hite first sailed into Tampa Bay living rooms in 1977 aboard his beloved 50-foot wooden ketch, Kinship. His journey from Philadelphia to Tampa was chronicled on film, part of WFLA’s efforts to promote its new anchorman. Gayle Sierens was there to greet him when he made landfall at Apollo Beach. “She took my dock lines and has been pulling my strings ever since,” jokes Hite.

The affection and respect the two share is palpable, both on air and off. They’ve seen each other through marriages, kids and all manner of life stuff, says Hite, who counts among his most important assignments timing Sierens’ contractions on air.


Bred for broadcasting
Hite credits his parents for instilling in him a lifelong love of broadcasting and of the sea. He grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut on Long Island Sound. His father, CBS Radio anchorman, Bob Hite, Sr., pulled double-duty introducing the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. His father’s big break had come years earlier, at WXYZ Radio in Detroit, introducing The Lone Ranger and Green Hornet – classic shows enjoying a second and third life thanks to the explosion of satellite radio.

Hite’s mother deserves equal billing. A broadcaster with her own radio show, she was also casting director for an ad agency. As the story goes, Bob Hite, Sr. auditioned for a part, won the job and the heart of the future Mrs. Hite.

“Mom was the original sailor,” Hite recalls. His parents taught the Cronkites to sail and the two families became great sailing chums. Cronkite resurfaced last November for a surprise videotape tribute to Bob following his final 6 pm newscast.

No wonder, then, that Hite’s career in New York, Philadelphia, and Tampa, has been inspired by a love of the water. His bread-and-butter beats – environmental, maritime and military – have reflected the very things he is most passionate about. The former marine first learned to shoot motion pictures while serving abroad as a photographer and journalist; he yearns to return to Iraq to produce more stories about the men and women in uniform he calls heroes.

Passions pursued
Hite’s inspiration and passion is photojournalism. “I’ve always been challenged by the writing, editing, pacing and lighting, and even picking the appropriate music,” he says.

To hear co-workers tell it, he’s a master of the craft. “It boils down to respect – the respect Bob earned from his colleagues for his storytelling abilities, for his writing and delivery, and from the camera crew, who respected the fact that Bob was a reporter who was perfectly capable of shooting his own video and doing it masterfully,” says veteran WFLA cameraman, Jim Webb, who worked with Hite for almost 25 years.

His other passion might be summed up in a word: Bonnie. He first met Bonnie on a shoot off Treasure Island in 1989. After a whirlwind romance, the environmental reporter and his environmental scientist were married three weeks later to the day on a hot air balloon at the Brandon Balloon Fest, where Bob was on assignment. They honeymooned aboard Kinship, sailing across Tampa Bay under a full moon and dropping anchor in the Vinoy Basin. Twenty years later, the husband-and-wife team remain devoted to one another and their business, Kinship Productions.
As Hite embarks on the next phase of an illustrious career, one thing is certain: the story, like the man, is a work in progress. Still, if we were granted the indulgence of penning a summary of the story so far, it might read something like this:

Boy with beautiful baritone voice sails into Tampa Bay aboard fetching wooden boat, meets bonnie lass, falls madly in love, regales viewers with tales of his treasured Tampa Bay, pauses, then sails (rides) off into the sunset (mountains) in search of new adventures.

Happy trails.