Martie Salt farewell: ‘40 years is 40 stinking years’
With her broad smile, charming guffaw and acerbic wit, anchor Martie Salt said farewell to WFTV-Channel 9.
The ABC affiliate saluted Salt, who is retiring, on the Dec. 13 newscasts. In her final broadcast at 6 p.m., she thanked viewers for keeping her employed and said she would see them at Publix.
Greg Warmoth called her “the heart and soul of the WFTV newsroom.” Vanessa Echols said it was hard to sum up a distinguished 40-year career in a few minutes.
But Salt had no trouble. “Forty years is 40 stinking years,” she said at noon.
When you say goodbye to Martie, hold the mush.
Salt said that in high school she had hoped to work in television. She said it had been “a very rewarding and fulfilling career” and thanked viewers for enduring her mistakes and “many bad hair days.” Although she is retiring from WFTV, Salt said she planned to remain active in the community.
Salt worked at the ABC affiliate from 1981- 1994, when she left to anchor at WFTS-Channel 28, the ABC affiliate in Tampa. She returned to WFTV in 2003 and helped the station bounce back from declining ratings.
Echols declared it the end of an era and wondered how the station would go on. But Salt said things would be just fine.
In a tribute report, Warmoth noted that Salt was quick to poke fun at herself and that her style was to make viewers and coworkers comfortable. The segment featured clips of Salt’s interviews with Joan Rivers, Lucille Ball, Nancy Reagan, Peter Jennings, George and Barbara Bush and Mickey Mantle.
“You’d be amazed at my measurements,” Dolly Parton told Salt, declining to reveal them.
Warmoth highlighted Salt’s rapport with meteorologist Danny Treanor, sportscaster Pat Clarke and anchor Bob Opsahl. Opsahl, who retired in 2016, returned at noon to congratulate Salt. (Salt is Warmoth’s guest on “Central Florida Spotlight” at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.)
“You are the real deal,” Echols told Salt, and described her colleague as kind, generous and a great human. Echols also said she would miss Salt — a view that Salt’s many admirers will second.