We cant thank you enough for being our friend and our leader, Handly said. Gentzler may be Washingtons last connection to an era of local TV in which anchors were nearly civic institutions and newscasts were broadly watched a time rapidly fading in the internet age. All rights reserved, Calls for Justice After Shoplifting Suspect Killed by Fairfax County Police, DC Leaders Respond to Federal Interference Over Criminal Code: The News4 Rundown, Driver Dies in Frederick, Maryland Tanker Fire; Northbound US Route 15 Lanes Closed, Eagles Wide Receiver Zach Pascal Robbed at Gunpoint in Maryland, The Cheapest and Most Expensive U.S. 3,274 talking about this. A few minutes later, she appeared at the foot of the stairs, still in her pajamas. After they hired her, I got a call from [reporter] Pat Collins, and he said, Sherwood, we just hired a new anchor, and shes not a bimbo. , In short, the newscasts ratings shot up, in part because of good timing: Seven months into Gentzlers tenure, Mayor Barry was arrested on drug charges, and his first call to a reporter was to Vance. I cried a lot, she says. We needed a strong woman.. Rieger's co-anchor, Doreen Gentzler, hailed her as "smart, funny and authentic." Rieger, 65, can be as cynical as anyone about the vanities and flaws of TV news. Sign Up for Our Daily Update. Vance did this for George, Gentzler says she repeated to herself. [2] Her family moved to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina when she was 11 years old. Like WTOP on Facebook and follow WTOP on Twitter and Instagram to engage in conversation about this article and others. The babies that I had during the '90s have grown up and moved out., Gentzler, a native of Arlington, Virginia, returned home to the Washington area in 1989 to join Jim Vance, Bob Ryan and George Michael on the WRC anchor desk. . Mistress of Ceremonies Doreen Gentzler from NBC4 opened the program, sharing her desire to bring awareness to the topic of mental health in our community. Though their desks were in the middle of the newsroomthey both liked to be amid the actionthey also shared an office outside it. Doreen Gentzler, who co-anchored the most popular local TV newscast in Washington for over three decades, said Friday that she would retire next month, closing out a nearly unbroken reign as the areas most-watched journalist. Doreen Gentzler Retiring From News4 After 33 Years. Gentzler has covered eight inaugurations and recalled being on the National Mall for the last Super Bowl Celebration in the early 1990s. Gentzler made the announcement during the Friday night newscast, saying that it . Read More Carl Azuz CNN 10, Age, Wife, Salary, Kids, College, Net worth, WikiContinue. She first worked at Cleveland, serving WKYC-TV for its 6pm and 11pm newscasts. How do you grieve a work husband? It was just before 9 am on July 22 when Doreen Gentzler got the call. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Doreen Gentzler anchors News4 at 6 and News4 at 11. Why is that? Horlick cut her from his shortlist. Gentzler spoke with WTOPs Hillary Howard and John Domen Tuesday and said candidly that she does not know what its going to feel like Monday morning, when she wakes up and does not have to go to work. The project has received local and national recognition for highlighting a wide range of issues related to mental illness. She started running in her 20s, working up to her first race on Mother's Day 1992, a 9K, some nine months after the birth of . She first worked with Jim Vance, George Michael and Bob Ryan on the news desk. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. Doreen Gentzler (born September 24, 1957 [1]) is a retired American television news anchor . Yet rarely do we stop to considerin our society ordered around the 9-to-5, where our coworkers are often more intimately entwined in our day-to-day than our actual partnerswhat it might be like when our work spouses die. Although Changing Minds has led us in many different areas, its main objective is to lessen the stigma attached to mental illness. She has worked as a journalist for many years. Gentzler was the same steady and warm presence she is every night. NBC4s decades-long run atop the local news ratings began in 1989 after the stations then-general manager, Allan Horlick, hired Gentzler to share the anchor desk with Vance. Doreen Gentzler said her goodbyes during NBC4's 6 p.m. show after 33 years at NBC4. [2] Her mother, Rita O'Flinn, worked as a secretary for the federal government while her father, Ferris Gentzler, was an executive with an insurance company. Abigail Constantino started her journalism career writing for a local newspaper in Fairfax County, Virginia. He told Gentzler about his diagnosis last April. And how will it affect me? Before joining NBC4 in 1989, she spent several years developing her reporting and anchoring skills in Chattanooga, Charlotte, Cleveland, and Philadelphia at WCAU. He raised $30,000 for him. She has won several Emmy awards and has been lauded for her work. He is also an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Maryland. In her News 4 Your Health segments, Doreen has brought viewers into hospital operating rooms, shown the latest technology helping to save lives, and profiled medical breakthroughs. In 1979, Doreen graduate from the Henry W. Grady College, the University of Georgia with a bachelors degree in journalism. Longtime WRC/NBC4 news anchor Doreen Gentzler announced today she will be retiring at the end of. Doreen Gentzler (@doreen.gentzler) Instagram photos and videos doreen.gentzler Verified Follow 495 posts 9,788 followers 484 following Doreen Gentzler Longtime TV news survivor; now exploring life without daily deadlines. NBC4 Annouces Death of Jim Vance- Doreen Gentzler Part 3 of 3 24,760 views Jul 22, 2017 148 Dislike Share Save Swampthing4REAL 92 subscribers On 22 July 2017, the 6pm broadcast announces the. But as he kept digging, Horlicks enthusiasm waned. Rieger retired from WRC at the end of 2021 after battling health issues; she succumbed to brain cancer in April at 65, the same age as Gentzler. So she has nursed her sadness in bits and pieces. We knew his death had an impact on her at a really personal level, but somehow shes mustered the strength to be really strong for everyone else.. When he died in 2009, Vance led a moving piece on their decades of working together. Currently, Gentzler resides in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her family. (When the homegirl came back home, Vance later said, thats when we started winning.), The pair steadily began to peel away viewers from Channel 9, and to keep them all week. How do you mourn a work wife? We all know that feeling of glee, or perhaps confusion or discomfort, when we spot a colleague out dancing on a Friday night or walking into the office one morning with eyes swollen from cryingas though the curtain has been jerked back on some terrific secret. Boards are the best place to save images and video clips. He chuckled and waved her off, told her just to let them see where things would go. Then she turns her head, closes her eyes, and puts her hand over her mouth because, sitting outside Raku in Cleveland Park, she has just started crying. She anchors News4 at 6 and News4 at 11 at NBC4 in Washington D.C. Doreen also serves as the stations medical reporter, filing cutting-edge health reports for all of the NBC4s newscasts. Additionally, Doreen has received three Emmy awards for news writing and reporting while in Cleveland. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. If youre looking for levity, look no further. Shes going to be with us for quite a while.. 1.6 m). You cant blame her. She told NBC Washington that she does not have a plan for what she will do next. Handly said he is beyond honored to have worked with her, describing her as the rock of our newsroom.. I thought, Why not step away while Im healthy enough to enjoy [retirement]? she said, adding, I am very much going to miss it, especially the people Ive worked with., But Gentzler also acknowledged that shes been worn down by the news of late. That was very difficult getting through both of those, Gentzler said. He was skeptical himself. In an interview on Friday, Gentzler said she planned to spend time with family and to travel in retirement; her announcement coincided with the retirement of her husband, Bill Miller, a public information officer at the U.S. attorneys office in the District and a former Washington Post journalist. If you missed it, you can watch Part 1 of the interview below. Doreen Gentzler was born on September 24, 1957 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, but was raised in a neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia. lawmakers push for new safety regulations after deadly Silver Spring apartment fire. From 1979 to 1983 she served as an anchor of ABC's affiliate in Charlotte, WSOC-TV. WTOP.com | Alexa | Google Home | WTOP App | 103.5 FM. In announcing Gentzlers retirement, Vice President of News for WRC and WZDC Mike Goldrick said, The phrase 'anchor' only scratches the surface of what Doreen has meant to us in the newsroom and to our viewers She has shown her empathy and kindness to generations of colleagues who have passed through our studio doors.. Shes never misinterpreted that shes somebody special. D.C. Courts employees and their community partners gathered together Friday, September 29 to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the program. Doreen Gentzler announced on Friday, she's retiring from Washington, D.C. NBC owned station WRC at the end of November. Also: wife, mother of 2, tennis and cycling fan who loves to laugh Posts Reels Videos Tagged She was stiff and came off as unfriendly. Doreen Gentzler(born September 24, 1957[1] ) is an Americantelevision newsanchor. All rights reserved. It never lets up., Vance, she says, always found the positive view. Recalling this, she laughs and shakes her head at the improbability of it all. Doreen Gentzler sat down with Wendy before her operation to talk about her cond. How could it not affect her thinking, she said. Gentzler is not retiring, instead, she is re-focusing. All Rights Reserved. Gentzler began her career as the host of Georgia Public Broadcasting's weeknight show The Lawmakers, broadcast during sessions of the Georgia State Legislature, around 1979. There Read More Mitti Hicks is an American journalist working at KMSP-TV Fox 9 as a reporter. She switched into journalist mode: Whos your doctor? She wore over-the-top costume brooches, Republican helmet hair, and ridiculous blouses with necklines up to her chin. . Shes the leader of the newsroom now, says Eun Yang.