Sarasota TV news personality Stephanie Roberts knows a lot about cold northern weather.
Roberts, WXIX-TV’s new chief meteorologist, was born and raised in Chicago, graduated from Penn State University, and lived in Minneapolis, Toledo, and Cleveland before settling in Florida, according to her profile at Sarasota’s WWSB-TV.
Currently, Roberts is executive producer and host of Suncoast View¸ a one-hour Sarasota TV talk show airing at 9 a.m. weekdays following ABC’s Good Morning America on WWSB-TV, a sister Gray Media station to WXIX-TV.
Come November, she replaces Steve Horstmeyer, who retired in August after 48 years as a Cincinnati TV forecaster, the last 17 years as WXIX-TV chief meteorologist.
For one year (2010-2011) Roberts freelanced as weather reporter for ABC’s Good Morning America. She did remote breaking news coverage during an East Coast blizzard, Midwest snow, and the U.S. impact of the Japan tsunami and earthquake, all in addition to being a recurring fill-in GMA meteorologist on weekdays and weekends.
Roberts also has been a guest host on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network (HSN).
Her six years as a journalist/meteorologist in Cleveland were spent at three stations, WOIO-TV/WUAB-TV (1999-2002) and Scripps’ WEWS-TV (2002-2005). She also has been a journalist/meteorologist at Tampa’s WTSP-TV (2008) and WFTS-TV (2008-12) and a news anchor at WWSB-TV.
“Her passion and excitement is contagious,” said the WXIX-TV memo announcing Roberts' hiring to the staff. She starts at Channel 19 in November.
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