Larry
Elliston Larry didn't take the road less traveled,
he paved his own. Since he got into the news business while at
the University of South Florida in the late 60's, Larry has been
a professional free spirit who has enjoyed every minute of his
TV news and entertainment career. Larry, a born story teller, started at WFLA-TV
full time on New Year's Day, 1970 working the nightshift and
weekends six days a week. He got into the business because he
was impressed with the wide range of stories that could be told
through the medium of television and that's what he's always
done. In addition to
handling general assignment and beat reporting duties, he did
live local news cut-ins during the morning "Today" program.
Once he ran the gamut of news responsibilities at Channel 8,
he was ready for the big time. He and his coworker pal, Phil
Dean, jumped ship for WTVT. After two years of reporting exclusively for
WTVT's "Project 13," news director Hugh Smith cut him
loose to chase his dreams of making news and features into works
of art. He got so good, CBS began using his work nationally...
so much so that the station eventually demanded a cut of his
extra pay from the network. His "Summer Shorts," "Assignment
Florida," and "Down Home Florida" features became
a staple of the evening Pulse News programs and won him awards
and accolades throughout the television industry. They began
with videos of distant happenings all over the State set to music
and eventually included his crafty and clever dialogue... always
with appropriate music in the background. He was Channel 13's
resident Charles Kuralt. A limited number of videos of his pieces were
published by WTVT and instantly sold out but a few can still
be found on Blockbuster Video shelves. Larry left Channel 13 in 1992 and, after three
years of freelance videography and producing, was named executive
producer of "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures," syndicated
to more than 325 stations in all parts of the world. It's shown
in Tampa Saturday afternoons on his old alma mater, WFLA. These days he travels the globe with Hanna
and crew, doing as many as thirty one-half hour shows. Whether
it be on the Australian plains, the jungles of Africa or the
mountain peaks of Alaska, Larry's hands-on approach to producing
Hanna's shows... now in their eighth year... has proven that
paving your own roads in life pays big rewards. To top it off, Larry is one of the greatest
guys you'll find in the business.
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