WDIV Anchor Ruth Spencer Sets Retirement

Graham Media’s NBC affiliate WDIV Detroit (DMA 12) announced today that anchor and consumer reporter Ruth Spencer will “sign off” for the last time in December 2015 as she and her husband co-retire to Longboat Key, Fla., where the couple has been building a house. 

“I’ve been in television news since 1981 — spending the last 25 years here at Local 4,” says Spencer. “I’ve felt privileged to serve our loyal viewers as a nightly news anchor and as the consumer investigator heading up the ‘Ruth to the Rescue’ unit.”

Spencer was hired at WDIV in 1990 to anchor the early evening newscast and currently solo anchors the station’s early newscast First at 4 and Local 4 News at 5:30 with Devin Scillian. For 22 years, her “Ruth to the Rescue” franchise has helped viewers resolve their consumer complaints about a business, product, or service.

The Emmy award-winning Spencer is a California native, born in San Diego, whose family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she studied ballet. Later she danced many roles with Oakland Metropolitan Ballet Company and put herself through college teaching at several ballet schools.  She has a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in broadcast journalism from San Francisco State University.

Out of college she was an assignment editor at KPIX San Francisco and then moved on to KRON there where she worked as a field producer. Her first on-air job was at KRDO Colorado Springs and from there she became the first female co-anchor at KATV Little Rock before taking the chair at KSTP Minneapolis as its main anchor.

“When Ruth came to me to say that she wanted to retire, I was both sad for the station and happy for her,” said Marla Drutz, WDIV VP-GM. “She is a viewer favorite and has genuine concern for the people of this community. We will truly miss her.”