Gray’s Tupelo Honey Production Company Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Emmy Award-winning production company Tupelo Honey celebrates the 25th anniversary of its founding this month. In March 1996, Cary Glotzer started the boutique production services company and named it after Tupelo, Miss., the hometown of Traci Duke, Cary’s wife.

Over the past 25 years, Tupelo Honey has created or co-created tens of thousands of hours of live and post-produced content and generated in excess of $500 million, including its investments. Now based in Indianapolis, Tupelo has offices in Nashville, New York City, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

“We are proud and excited to celebrate our 25th anniversary,” said Glotzer, who is CEO and chief content officer. “Tupelo has been influenced and inspired over the years working with industry legends Mike Weisman, Hilton Howell, Mike McCarthy, John Filippelli, Chris Bevilacqua, Pat LaPlatney and Rick Ray. This milestone is a tribute to them, as well as our vast client base over the years. We are especially proud how our family of staff, announcers, and freelance community have created incredible content across all platforms, many of which did not exist at Tupelos founding. Through it all, we have created an amazing work culture at Tupelo that enables and fosters these amazing achievements.”

Today, Tupelo is wholly owned by Gray Television. Tupelo was originally acquired by Dave Checketts’ Sports Capital Partners in 2007. In 2012, Raycom Media purchased Tupelo, before merging with Gray Television in January 2019.

“Tupelo has produced first-class content over the past 25 years for all types of platforms,” said Pat LaPlatney, Gray president and co-CEO. “Cary, John Servizzi, Greg Weitekamp and their team are truly best in class. I look forward to the next chapter of growth for its client base in the sports, entertainment, news and music sectors.”

Tupelo is a strategic partner within Gray Television, collaborating with several units of Gray including Raycom Sports, Gray’s television stations, RTM Studios (PowerNation), Swirl Films, Atlanta Film Studios and World Chase Tag. Tupelo also works closely with the country lifestyle network Circle, as well as over-the-top provider VUit.

Tupelo’s purchase of Webstream Sports from founder John Servizzi in 2015 significantly upgraded the capabilities of Tupelo Honey to include alternative mobile and REMI production models that maintain high quality and deliver cost effective productions for linear, digital and streaming platforms.

Webstream executives Servizzi and Greg Weitekamp have led the Tupelo team after that acquisition. They drove Tupelo’s investments in its state-of-the-art REMI facility in Indianapolis, which enabled Tupelo to be fully prepared for remote production when the pandemic arrived last year. The facility uses LiveU, TVU and LTN platforms, and enables live broadcasts of multiple remote events simultaneously.

Tupelo has co-created and launched several original programs over the past two years on different platforms, including most recently Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren, The Song: Recorded Live at TGL Farms and The Southern Weekend. Previously, through a joint venture with industry executive and series creator Michael Yudin called MY Tupelo Entertainment, MY Tupelo created and produced multiple high-rated reality television series including Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures. Stephen Wallen, 18 years with Tupelo and an original partner in Tupelo, oversees all series production.

Over the years, Tupelo has created content for almost every major television network, professional sports league and streaming platform. From live sports and music to packaged long-form and short-form programming, Tupelo’s recent client roster includes ESPN, PFL, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon, YouTube, CBS Sports, NFL (Saints, Giants, Falcons), MLS (Nashville SC, Dallas FC), ACL, AKC, NCAA, Horizon League, Missouri Valley Conference, Sun Belt Conference, Southern Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Butler University, Indy Eleven, Indy Fuel, IUPUI, Live Nation and Dow Jones.