Columbus TV news anchor inducted into GA Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
Columbus TV news anchor Dee Armstrong was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame during a ceremony Friday at the Emory Conference Center and Hotel in Atlanta.
Armstrong anchors the weekday broadcasts on WTVM Midday and WLTZ News at 4. Her more than four decades in broadcasting also include roles as a reporter and talk show host.
According to her bio on WTVM’s website, Armstrong began her career as a weekend radio news anchor at WDAK for two years while still attending Columbus High School.
Armstrong was the nation’s youngest weekend TV news anchor at 19 when she joined WRBL, her bio says. Following two years at WSBT in South Bend, Indiana, she returned to Columbus to help her ill father, according to the GAB’s news release.
After graduating from Georgia State University and the death of her husband, Armstrong joined WTVM as a weekend reporter and then weekend anchor, according to the GAB.
Within two years, Armstrong was promoted to main anchor on WTVM’s newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m., where she remained for more than 30 years.
Armstrong left WTVM in 2005 to pursue her “entrepreneurial spirit,” she told the GAB. She bought properties to manage, bought and operated a thrift mall and worked in an insurance agency.
But she returned to Columbus TV in 2011, when she started hosting the first local daytime TV talk show, “The Dee Armstrong Show,” on WLTZ. She also anchored the station’s 6 p.m. newscast.
After WLTZ and WTVM entered into a shared services agreement in 2020, Armstrong went back to WTVM.
Armstrong’s community service has included helping local organizations such as Young Life, Girls Inc., Women’s Job Corps, Joy Columbus, Omegas, hosting fundraisers for former first lady Rosalynn Carter and speaking and singing at church events, according to the GAB.
After losing her hair due to adult-onset alopecia, Armstrong founded an alopecia support group, wrote and performed a one-woman show about the disease and hosted the local Alopecia Ball, GAB’s news release says.
Armstrong praised the producers she has worked with during her broadcasting career.
“Producers taught me that every word means something, even if it doesn’t mean something to me,” she said in the news release. “The producers I’ve worked with have taught me that if you want someone to sit there and listen, they’ve got to feel like you’re talking to them.”
Armstrong learned in a surprising way that she was selected for the GAB Hall of Fame. During one of her November newscasts, Armstrong thought she was introducing a correspondent for a report from Washington, but GAB president Randy Gravley appeared on the screen instead.
“I’m delighted today to let you know that you will be in the class of 2026, so congratulations,” Gravley told her.
“Thank you. Thank you,” Armstrong replied. “I’m honored, and I am — whoa. I’m so surprised. Oh, my goodness, they could keep secrets around here.”
Armstrong said in the GAB news release, “That was one of the coolest things that ever happened to me. I’ll never forget the way they did it.”
