 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Tracy Rowlett" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Charles Tracy Rowlett (/ˈraʊlɪt/;[1] born June 16, 1942), known professionally asTracy Rowlett, is an Americanjournalist, formerly anchor and managing editor of the CBS owned and operated station in Dallas-Fort Worth,KTVT.[2]
Rowlett's last broadcast with KTVT was at 5pm on July 11, 2008. He moved to a start-up web news site called Shale.TV, focusing on the development of natural gas plays across the U.S. The site was owned by Branded News ofOklahoma City, but sponsored byChesapeake Energy. In October 2008, prior to start up, Chesapeake withdrew funding and the site folded.
Rowlett earned his bachelor's degree fromWichita State University inbroadcasting andjournalism, and received his master's degree from theUniversity of Texas at Dallas.
He began his career as asports reporter for theWichita Beacon inWichita, Kansas. He later served in theAir Force, where he was editor of the base newspaper. He was later transferred toWheelus Air Base inTripoli, where he worked forArmed Forces Radio and Television.
WhenJohn F. Kennedy was assassinated, Rowlett was still serving at Tripoli, and broke the news of the assassination to that part of the middle east. Over the next three days and nights, he reported events surrounding the assassination,Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, and President Kennedy's funeral.
After Rowlett's military discharge, he worked atKFH radio, and as news director forKAKE radio and television in Wichita. He went on to become news director atKMNS inSioux City, Iowa, and later as the State Capitol correspondent forKTOK Radio inOklahoma City, and theOklahoma News Network.
In April 1974, he moved to theDallas/Fort Worth area, working as aninvestigative reporter forWFAA. In August, 1975, he was teamed withIola Johnson to anchor the 6 and 10 p.m. news. Tracy left WFAA in 1999 to become the main anchor at KTVT (CBS11), where he and Iola would team up again for the station's inaugural 4pm newscast from September 2000-September 2002.
Tracy Rowlett received more than 100 awards during his career, including twoduPont-Columbia Awards, severalEmmy Awards, as well as variousAssociated Press andUnited Press International awards.
He is very involved in the Dallas/Fort Worth community, serving on various boards for local organizations, and has received many community awards for his charity works.