When anchor Martie Salt returned to Orlando in 2003, the central question was whether she would help WFTV-Channel 9 in the long term.
Sixteen years later, as she prepares to retire, the answer is an emphatic yes.
She helped boost the ABC affiliate’s ratings, delivered top-flight reporting and impressed her colleagues with her smarts and kindness. She has been a mentor with a hearty laugh and a down-to-earth style. Her final newscasts will be at noon and 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13.
Bob Opsahl, who retired from WFTV in 2016, raves about her. “I don’t believe there’s anything that could entice me to go back to work, but if there were, it would be the chance to work with Martie again,” he said. “We co-anchored countless newscasts together, covering everything from hurricanes to shuttle launches to presidential elections. I grew to depend on her professional abilities. As a newswoman, Martie was always poised, never at a loss for words, and able to nimbly react to changing situations.”
Salt certainly knows Florida. She grew up in Miami and graduated from Florida State University in 1978. She started at a Melbourne radio station in 1979, moved to WESH-Channel 2 several months later, then jumped to Channel 9 in 1981.
Veteran meteorologist Danny Treanor first worked with Salt when she took over the noon WFTV newscast after anchor Carole Nelson moved to Channel 6.
“At first I doubted that she was up to filling the shoes, but in a few short months, all doubt was erased,” Treanor said. “While shooting a bit on the Sea Escape cruise, I saw how the public gravitated to Martie to talk to her and visit with her.”
Salt’s likability comes through for a simple reason, Treanor added. “Martie has always been 100 percent the same person, on air and off air,” he said.
Her personality certainly came through in her interplay with sportscaster Pat Clarke on the 5:30 p.m. newscast on WFTV. He recalls that the station even made time for their banter. He called her “Martha.” She called him “toad person.”
“She was wonderful at the innocuous insult,” Clarke said. “She poked fun. We hit it off famously from the get-go. She’s a real special person, and I was lucky to work with her.”
Salt left WFTV in 1994 to anchor at WFTS-Channel 28, the ABC affiliate in Tampa. She returned to WFTV in 2003 when she replaced Marla Weech as Opsahl’s co-anchor at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
Former news director Bob Jordan worked with Salt three times: twice at WFTV as well as at WFTS.
“She is an absolute pro, an advocate of the highest journalistic standards and a great newsroom presence. Everybody likes Martie,” Jordan said. “She treats everyone with respect.”
Jordan said he and Salt had been friends since the early 1980s. He recalled holding her infant son, Sam, as she signed a contract at WFTS, then attending Sam’s wedding in 2018.
“Her sense of humor and laugh are legendary,” Jordan said. “She has been a tremendous asset for WFTV.”
After Opsahl departed, Salt co-anchored with Greg Warmoth, who called her “the perfect blend of everything you would want in a friend and co-worker.” He added: “She always was quick to make you smile and even quicker to make you feel better about whatever you were going through.”
In 2015, WFTV shifted Salt to anchoring at noon to make room for Martha Sugalski. Salt also became the on-air ambassador for 9 Family Connection, the community-service arm of the station.
Ever the pro, Salt said then that change was inevitable and that WFTV was treating her “royally.” With the change, she delivered what she called the most rewarding work of her career. She reported two specials, called “Blindsided,” on caring for her aging parents and helped viewers in the same situation. (Her dad, Frank, died at 90 in 2016, and her mom, Nancy, died at 96 in 2017.) Each special won a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award.
Her colleagues prize the example she has set. Fellow noon anchor Vanessa Echols and WFTV reporter Shannon Butler hosted a brunch in Salt’s honor last month.
“She’s been a mentor and inspiration for countless young journalists, especially young women,” Echols wrote on Facebook. Echols also posted a photo of anchors and reporters who saluted Salt.
“What’s interesting is that I had everyone at the brunch tell what Martie has meant to them,” Echols said in an interview. “She really was humbled and surprised that she has had such an influence on the younger journalists in the newsroom. She has no idea what kind of impact she’s made. And that’s totally cool.”
