DETROIT – Detroit's NBC affiliate announced Wednesday that anchor and consumer reporter Ruth Spencer will "sign off" for the last time in December 2015 as she and her husband co-retire to Longboat Key, Florida, where the couple has been building a house.
"I've been in television news since 1981 -- spending the last 25 years here at Local 4," says Spencer. "I've felt privileged to serve our loyal viewers as a nightly news anchor and as the consumer investigator heading up the ‘Ruth to the Rescue' unit."
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Spencer was hired at WDIV in 1990 to anchor the early evening newscast and currently solo anchors the station's number one early newscast "First at 4" and "Local 4 News at 5:30" with Devin Scillian. For 22 years, her "Ruth to the Rescue" franchise has helped viewers resolve their consumer complaints about a business, product, or service.
The Emmy award-winning Spencer is a California native, born in San Diego, whose family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she studied ballet. Later she danced many roles with Oakland Metropolitan Ballet Company and put herself through college teaching at several ballet schools. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in broadcast journalism from San Francisco State University.
Read: More about Ruth Spencer
Having worked in six newsrooms over 34 years in the television news industry, Spencer always had a zeal for news. Out of college she was an assignment editor at KPIX in San Francisco and then moved on to KRON where she worked as a field producer. Her first on-air job was at KRDO in Colorado Springs and from there she became the first female co-anchor at KATV in Little Rock before taking the chair at the Twin Cities' KSTP as their main anchor.
In 1992, Spencer married a Detroit attorney and together they have a daughter who will be a sophomore at the University of Michigan.
"When Ruth came to me to say that she wanted to retire, I was both sad for the station and happy for her. She is a viewer favorite and has genuine concern for the people of this community. We will truly miss her," said Marla Drutz, Local 4's vice-president and general manager.
"I will always feel lucky to have been welcomed by the down-to-earth people of Michigan," added Spencer. "I find them wise and hard-working. I so appreciate the opportunity that WDIV has given me to come into their homes each night. And I hope that, especially through ‘Ruth to the Rescue,' I've been able to help them in ways that have made a difference for the better in their lives."