Sports Director J.P. Peterson Leaving WFLA

He says it was a mutual decision, born of a desire to try new things and differences with WFLA-Ch. 8 management over how to cover sports in the Tampa Bay area.

But rumors that WFLA sports director J.P. Peterson would be leaving the NBC affiliate first surfaced Monday -- by Wednesday I had heard from four sources with different stories. WFLA finally issued a press release today confirming that the station was not renewing Peterson's contract, ending his eight-year career there on March 16.

Peterson, 44, denied talk that an argument over a recent live report sparked the departure, saying “these things don’t happen overnight. There were discussions…It’s a mutual agreement and everyone’s happy and we move forward.”

The anchor will continue to host his weekday noontime radio show for WHBO-1470 AM, finalizing negotiations to expand the show by an hour to 3 p.m. in 2008. He also has a new venture under development which he could not detail.

Recently, WFLA has removed sports updates from most weekday morning newscasts (they air Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays now), significantly shortened the Sunday Sports Extra show and cut back sports reports in the 11 p.m. newscasts. But WFLA general manager Mike Pumo insisted the station had not definitively decided to reduce its sports coverage.

“We’re looking at all options…we’re evaluating the entire spectrum of sports,” said Pumo, who  downplayed the fact that WFLA was announcing Peterson’s departure with no successor designated, leaving open the question of whether Number Two guy Dave Reynolds might get the top job.

“Anchors are changed all the time and J.P.’s going to be with us until mid-March," Pumo added. "Our commitment to sports will continue to be strong.”

Born in Florida, Peterson attended Florida State University and has previously worked at Fox Sports Net and local CW affiliate WTOG-Ch. 44, where he served as top sports anchor when it was a UPN affiliate.

In 2002, WFLA let go Peterson’s predecessor Chris Thomas, citing salary costs. Does this indicate WFLA has trouble keeping sports anchors?

“I won’t offer an opinion on that,” Peterson said, chuckling. “You won’t get  a quote out of me on that one.”

Here's the release WFLA posted a few hours ago:

WFLA-TV NEWS CHANNEL 8 ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE OF SPORTSCASTER

WFLA-TV News Channel 8 (NBC 8) has announced the departure of sportscaster J.P. Peterson.

Peterson has worked at News Channel 8 for more than 7 years.  In addition to his television duties, he hosts a sports talk show on WHBO-AM (ESPN)1470 weekdays 12 noon- 2pm. Peterson will continue to work with WFLA-TV News Channel 8 through mid-March, 2008.

“J.P. has not been totally comfortable with the direction of our sports coverage in recent years, and so we mutually agreed now was a good time to end our relationship.   JP has a popular radio sports show, and I imagine this will give him more time to focus his energy on the show,” commented News Channel 8 News Director Don North.

“J.P. has a tremendous passion for sports here in the Tampa Bay area,” said Mike Pumo, President and General Manager of WFLA-TV.  “We certainly anticipate his future success in the market.”

Comments

[A. Cabrera]

Drew Soicher was my favorite.

[Pastine]

Mr. Deggans,

Here is your question of the year....

In your eternal quest to promote the African American experience, (often infuencing liberal newsrooms hires because of your agenda and influence) would you promote Dave Reyonolds to sports director of NC8 knowing he is among the worst sportscasters in the country.

Your easy answer is that he is not that bad, but everyone...everyone knows he is.

Its a matter of Black vs. Right...lets here it big guy.

[joe hillman]

isn't saying you like bay news 9 sorta like admitting you like picking your nose while waiting for the red light to turn green?

[chris]

Hey Girvan,
Stop waxing your eyebrows! I want to watch local sports but this guy is beyond understanding. I like Bay News 9 but this guy ?!?

Dave "Tuvok" Reynolds would be better if he loosened up and stopped sitting as if he had a pole jammed up his rear.

Chris Field and Angela Jacobs are just downright AWFUL, though they don't hold a candle to the stench that was Sage Steele. No need to wonder how those gals got their jobs.

Tom Korun is alright and Dave Wirth was ok before he went to the anchor desk. Chip is tolerable in small doses but should you ever find a day where the Bucs win the Super Bowl, the Lightning land Sidney Crosby for Marc Denis and A-Rod gets dealt to the Rays, don't be shocked if all those stories are ignored for another rousing installment of "Fishing With Chip".

Don't catch Catch 47 much because aside from Rock Riley and Dick Crippen, the insanely awful Roxanne Wilder and the northern transplants Jones and Girvan make my eyes bleed. Jones is more concerned with pimping his blog of tired, overdone surveys he tries to pass as journalism and Girvan is more concerned with primping and auditioning for a bigger job elsewhere.

None of them hold a candle to the champion of arrogant, smarmy and shoddy sportscasting - one Mr. Albert Keck.

I miss the older sportscasters who actually knew the teams in the area (or who were actually local guys) rather than just studying old media guides upon arriving in town.

[Mike]

Anyone else think that Reynolds' sort of looks like Beetlejuice?

[mike]

jack you are right on the money about everything that you have said, mike you don't have a clue what you are talking about!
why don't you listen to j p's show before you comment so you don't make an idiot out of yourself!

[Jeffrey]

For years, I have been a channel flipper for local sports coverage at 6:20pm and 11:20pm. Bottom line is, whether it's JP, Chris Thomas, Andy Hardy or whoever, sports is not important at local news stations anymore.

Clearly, the quality and quantity of local sports coverage has gone down over the years. All local channels seem to only scratch the surface with sports being the last priority.

However, I do think this new channel on Brighthouse Catch 47 is slowly becoming a factor and I think their concept of 24 hour local sports will be the future. From what I understand, Chicago and Philadelphia both have stations like it run by Comcast that are well established.

[grover]

Tampa Bay has terrible sports anchors. Peterson seemed unhappy at his job. How could that be? I laugh at Justin Allen the stumbling metrosexual. Give me Chip. . .I guess

[Chris]

Looks like SnoozeChannel 8 is losing "personalities" left and right...Victoria Lim, Bob Hite, Rod Carter, now this. You gotta wonder what's causing this. BTW, Pompous Keith Cate has to be one of the worst excuses for a lead anchor this market has ever seen. He comes off as extremely smug and arrogant. 8's going down the crapper and it's going down FAST.

[Jock O'Rly]

O'rly?

Really.

Rich McKay called. He needs his jock back.

[Really]

There goes Mr T with his blinders on. Please, we mut remember to coddle all those who make millions playing sports.

Look Mr T!! There is a light ahead says the deer.

[Mr.T]

Eric,

I wasn't here until the late '90s, so, I have little history to go on.

I'd prefer journalists to be journalists and have others come in and offer commentary. I think Chip Carter is very good at objective reporting along with Justin Allen and Angela Jacobs on 10, and finally, Joe Gervin on 9.

Sptimes' own Tom Jones gets props for his "sports reporters"-type show on 47. They may be a little more subjective, but, I think it's balanced pos/neg.

I think much of the bay area is tired of the vitriol that the Negative Neds and Nancys spew (i.e. Stroud, Kaufman, Cummings and Peterson).

Final props to Stephen Holder. If he agrees with Stroud privately, you'd never know it. Stephen is very good at objective reporting.

[Pringles]

I Love Pringles and so does JP

[Zach]

mmmm, Sage Steele is yummy.

[joe hillman]

first, jp was the only person in this market who unloaded on arguably the most inept franchise in professional sports: specifically vince naimoli and chuck lamar.

i LOVED chris thomas, but he must have been on naimoli's dime. thomas NEVER said anything bad about the rays. all the stunts namioli pulled, thomas looked the other way as did everyone else in this market with the possible exception of joe henderson and martin fennelly, and even those two were scared to stick their noses out.

props to jp on that.

i used to stay up to watch the extended sports coverage on sunday nights. i thought the sunday night newscast on channel 8 was trimmed due to the nfl games ending so late?

other than that, i rarely watch local sportscasts any longer. i mean, what's the point.

for example, i can get significantly more video content from the lighting on its website than i ever could from any of the local soortscasts. they generally stream three minutes of highlights each game. that's an entire sportscast for the local channels.

same with the bucs.

local newscasts (and to a lesser degree, newspapers) did to its sports departments what clear channel did to local radio: they dumbed everything down, homogenized everything and cut back on coverage so much that you've given up because there is so much (in some casees, much better quality) online.

and really, what real sports fan relies on bspn any longer? sportscenter has long ago become irrelevent.

[former tampanian]

Best: Worst:
Chris Thomas Dave Reynolds
Andy Hardy Sage Steele
Jay Crawford Chris Field
Al Keck Drew Soicher

[Jim]

Andy Hardy was a great sports guy. But I don't remember him exactly being a "chamber of commerce" pro-Tampa Bay sports cheerleader type of guy. I think a local sports anchor should be critical of a team when they deserve it.

Probably my favorite local sports anchor was Ken Broo "The Boomer" at Channel 10 in the 1980's. "BOOM! It's OUTTA HERE!!" Fun to watch.

[Clark]

Wow, looks like a lot of Bucs fans didn't like him, but I tuned out because of his caustic and cynical shots at every single thing the (Devil) Rays ever do...or don't do. Hard-hitting, objective criticism when it's deserved is one thing, constantly taking cheap shots whether it's merited or not is another.

[CalicoJack]

HD is knocking off Channel 8's on-air talent left and right! JP let his radio personae creep into his TV self. Here's hoping we get better sports coverage from WFLA in the future.

[who cares about local TV sports]

I like rock reilly too..guess I should join the chicks in the kitchen, huh?

[Eric Deggans]

We can also talk about the worst sports anchors. In fact, if you folks want to weigh in here, i'll try to put up the list in a blog posting later....

[who cares about local TV sports]

anybody who cares about sports enough to look for it on TV watches ESPN or reads the sports section of the newspaper. Who actually turns on channel 8 or 10 or 13 looking to find out about sports?

On another note, I think JP was upset about Chris Thomas' departure, not happy. JP is a class act,, don't know what you a-holes are all talking about.

[Zach]

Thanks, Sharon.

You just provided me with reason # 3,236 why women shouldn't watch or talk about football.

[Bob]

I love women - they're delicious!

[BayAreaBoy]

I can't tell you who's the best, but I can tell you Rock Riley is the worst. Nauseating is the word that comes to mind...

[Mike Creyton]

Simeon Rice could not start in Denver due to his injury, and was cut. He was signed by the Colts and cut 2 weeks later despite them losing Dwight Freeney for the season. According to JP the Bucs were clueless for cutting him and they had some hidden evil agenda. He praises Rich Mckay who left this team is absolute salary cap hell. He has destroyed the Atlanta franchise in just a few years and has just gotten fired. Yet according to JP, Rich Mckay can do no wrong. The list goes on and on. Jp Peterson is a fraud.

[Jack Spryland]

Mike, you clearly missed the WHOLE Simeon thing. JP broke the story and was TOTALLY behind Simeon. Simeon came on his radio show several days later and granted JP the ONLY interview in Tampa. I actually listened to it, did you? Dude, you are really clueless.

[Another Hit Job]

Turnover - the hallmark of the Mike Pumo School of Television Management. Funny how his comments are at odds with his own news director. Clearly Pumo was cutting the legs out from underneath his sports department, frankly any department under his control. That's classic Pumo.

[Mike Creyton]

Jack Spryland, JP DOES NOT tell it like it is. He slants everything to try to make Gruden and Allen look as bad as possible. He trashed this team's moves all off season. He trashed Kevin Carter for God's sake. Kevin Carter is one of the most professional and nice guys you will ever meet. If you can bash him, you are total garbage and scum as a human being.

[Rachel]

Who watches Ch 8 to get sports news? They've cut it back to 2 minutes? You people are wrong about JP. He and Chris were GREAT friends and JP hated it when Chris got fired. JP had kept it the way Chris would have wanted it. REAL. I didn't know he was on the radio everyday at Noon on 1470am. They just picked up a new listener!

[Jack Spryland]

The only reason people want to hate on JP is because he actually tells the truth and reports what is REALLY going on. If you just want an anchor who spews what they tell him to read on the prompter, then you will love Dave Reynolds. Bye bye interesting and controversial stories. At least we get to listen to him at Noon on 1470!

[Eric Deggans]

Apologies, but i had to delete a comment which violated several of the rules in our comment policy, but being abusive, containing a profanity and alleging something which could be libelous if it was false.

I think i give posters a pretty wide berth, but we gotta be a little more careful...

[Mike Creyton]

Karma, Karma, Karma. He and his boys Cummings and Kauffman tried to stage a witch-hunt on Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen the past few years. They were the most biased reporters I had ever seen. Now his attempt to get 2 great men run out of town has cost him his job. Dave Reynolds is awful though. He is honest and has no agenda, but he is as stiff as they come and the worst local sports guy I have ever seen. JP still has his radio show to try to spew his venom towards the Bucs, but no one listens to that anymore either. He tried to paint this team as a group of thugs all off season when in reality this is arguably the team with the most character and unity in the entire NFL. He is the punk and I am glad he is off the air. His wife left him recently too. Maybe he should look in the mirror before bashing people needlessly in the future.

[Ben]

JP isn't to bad but he just needs to stop sucking off Rhonde Barber.

[Gwyn]

Eric,
I vote for Andy Hardy, hands down!

I have never met JP but he certainly came off as one cocky guy on television. Sports guys are a dime a dozen and no one watches local television for sports except a few dies hards. I don't think he was in any postion to play hardball with ch8. He did not have any leverage. There are only a few people I think truly have "it" in tampa. No one at ch 10, don't watch 28, mark Wilson and Paul dellagato at 13 and S. Jerve at ch 8 are the best around.

[Eric Deggans]

Much as I am loving the back-and-forth debate here, can we leave the anti woman stuff off the grid?

On a better note, who was the best local TV sportcaster in Tampa history? Chris thomas? Andy Hardy? Salty Sol? Let the debate begin...

[Back to the kitchen Sharon]

anyone who really thinks that Chip Carter is even semi-competent should leave the sports talk to men ... probably a few dishes piling up in the kitchen that require your attention

[BayAreaBoy]

Golly...first Bob Hite, and now J.P.
If they could find a way to get rid of Gayle Sierens (looked haggard 15 yrs ago) they'd have almost a clean sweep...like Steve Jerve though...

[Hawk]

Who?

[Sharon M.]

Not to be confused with this other Sharon, I am a true Buccaneer fan and season ticket holder, and I say good riddance. J.P. was not keeping it real his biased opinion was affecting everything he said about coach Gruden, personal opinion should not be incorporated in reporting unless it is an editorial......

[Teacher]

Sharon,

You should probably home school your chidren also as they'll hear that Gruden language at school.

[former tampanian]

I first met Peterson when he was freelacing with 8. I had the feeling that he was itching to jump in Chris' chair. I think he did a good job filling some huge shoes. My bet on the coverage differences is that he wouldn't hold back on the Bucs, good or bad. There were probably some times when his stories or comments weren't favorable to the Bucs. The Bucs probably dissapproved and started playing hard ball with 8, a "Pewter Partner." Cheers to J.P. for keeping journalism real when it came to the Bucs and not folding under to management. Management, on the other hand, knows that without the Bucs, they're sports cred is squat and will do whatever it takes to stay in bed with the Glazers. One more thing- the trend in the television news business is less sports. It's been going on for years. If it wasn't for high revenue earnings from sports "specials," then most news rooms would not have a sports department, let alone a sports anchor. And please don't let Reynolds be "the guy." He sucks!

[Joe]

Karma. He took over when WFLA disrespected Chris Thomas. I haven't watched since.

[Sharon]

Glad?? Hatin' on Gruden?? I like J.P. Peterson, and well, I don't like Jon Gruden. I enjoyed the Bucs when it was okay to let kids watch them but once Gruden showed up, they became at least R-rated. So, I'm sorry to see J.P. go, but I do like Chip Carter at Channel 13 too, so good-by Channel 8.

[Dave Reynolds]

Finally!!

[Mrs. J.P. Peterson]

To be honest, I'm glad he's leaving CH8. I have to look at his ugly mug most of the day so I certainly don't want to look at him when I'm watching the newscast.

[Dave T]

Finally caught up to him, all the hatin' on Gruden and the Bucs. I quit watching Ch8 long ago after hearing his despicable rants on the radio. This guy is a disgrace to all sportswriters. Maybe in March, I'll flip over to Ch8. Good riddance, JERK!