(December 12, 2017) Since 2016, Charlie Walter has worked TV news in Mobile AL, minor league baseball in Tennessee, and TV play-by-play in Cincinnati. After testing that variety of sportscasting careers, Walter has chosen the path for his immediate future: television. An STAA member, Walter is the new weekend sports anchor at LEX 18 in Lexington, KY.
He learned about the opening through STAA From there, fate stepped in. “I had lucked out and met the main anchor a few weeks before at SEC media days in Nashville,” Walter says. “I also worked on a show in Knoxville with people that knew the Sports Director and imagine that their reference helped me land the gig.”
As a senior at Ohio University in 2015, Walter was ranked as the 8th most outstanding collegiate sportscaster in STAA’s annual All-America program. His career path since then has been a circuitous one.
Following graduation, Walter took a TV news job in Dothan, AL. After six months, the company moved him to their sports staff in Montgomery. There, he covered the Alabama Crimson Tide’s football national championship. Nine months later, Walter returned to his hometown of Cincinnati to hone his TV play-by-play skills doing a variety of high school events. Last March, it was onto minor league baseball for a broadcast assistant position with the Class-AA Tennessee Smokies.
After the baseball season, Walter stayed in Knoxville doing volunteer on-air work on a sports show for WVLT.
“They allowed me to do whatever segments I wanted, and I think the creative approach I took helped add to my reel that had no anchoring clips except for that show. I ended up spending about 12 hours a week on that one show alone, but I’m convinced without those clips, and with the lack of versatility that was offered as a part-time MMJ, my tape may have been too stale.”
Walter had two goals for the football season. “One was to put together a reel by Halloween with all new content from this (WVLT) job only,” he says. “The other goal was to create a professional website by Thanksgiving.”
The new website has already paid dividends. “I finished the website before my deadline of Thanksgiving, a few weeks before the WLEX job was posted. I think the website definitely helped land the job.”
Among the beats Walter is covering in Lexington is Kentucky Wildcat hoops. “College basketball has always been my sport and having grown up in Cincinnati I know all about UK hoops,” he says. “Growing up they would always air their games on WB64 in Cincinnati, so for as long as I can remember I’ve followed the team.”