Spartan Profiles: Glenda Lewis
DEJA NEWS?
This fall, viewers of Detroit’s WXYZ-TV Action News (Channel 7) might do a double take when they flip on the weekend news and see anchor Glenda Lewis, ’96, who had previously worked five years at WJRT-TV in Flint. Lewis, you see, is the daughter of longtime Channel 7 anchor Diana Lewis. “It’s like a dream come true,” gushes Glenda of her new job. “I’ve been walking the halls of Channel 7 since I was a toddler, so to walk through the doors after having worked hard and being a professional in my own right, earning a place there, that’s a feeling I can’t describe.”
The two anchors are believed to be the first parent-child duo in Detroit television. Though she was born in Hollywood, CA, Glenda grew up in Detroit. “When I was five, I stood in front of a mirror and held a brush as though it was a microphone, and I’d say, ‘Back to you, Bill,’” says Glenda, recalling how she’d impersonate her mother.
But she lost interest in broadcast journalism by the time she arrived at MSU, where she majored in advertising. “My MSU experience was very important to my career,” says Glenda. “So many people were wonderful to me. My best friends are people I met at MSU. I attend every Homecoming. As you can see, I bleed green.”
But after graduation, Glenda became interested in TV news and enrolled in a school of broadcasting in Southfield. She was advised to earn her way to the Detroit market to forestall any charges of nepotism. So Glenda started at WBKB in Alpena, “the smallest market in America.” She did a stint at WLNS (Channel 6) in Lansing before moving on to Flint. She believes the Alpena job was key. “I cried every other day,” she recalls. “It was a tough town. It was tough working 10-12 hours a day. You’re assignment editor, videographer, reporter, everything. But it was so character building.”
