Robbie Timmons is an retired American TV news anchor/reporter for

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

television stations WJBK-TV and WXYZ-TV. She was the first female news anchor in American history to anchor the 6:00pm and 11:00pm broadcasts in March 1973 while anchoring the news at

WILX-TV WILX-TV (channel 10) is a television station licensed to Onondaga, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Lansing area. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on American Road (near I-96) in Lansing, and ...

in Lansing, Michigan. After four years at WILX-TV in Lansing, she was offered a job working as a reporter and 11pm news anchor for

WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilitie ...

(CBS) in Detroit, where she worked for six years. In 1982 Timmons accepted a news anchor position for

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on ...

, the ABC affiliate in Detroit where she received numerous honors including Emmy Awards and the distinction of being named one of the most powerful women in Michigan. Robbie Timmons retired in October 2010 and is currently an officer of a non-profit Thoroughbred retraining organization, CANTER.

Personal life and career

Timmons was born in Columbus, Ohio, attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, studying Business Administration. She had a passion for television journalism and reporting. She wrote and produced TV commercials. In 1972 she interviewed for a TV News reporter/anchor position at WILX-TV in Lansing. Two weeks later she was on television as a reporter. While working at WILX-TV as a news anchor/reporter she worked with sportscaster

Jim Brandstatter James Patrick Brandstatter (born ) is an American sports announcer. He was the radio play-by-play announcer for the Michigan Wolverines football team. He held the position of color commentator for the Detroit Lions for 31 years until the end ...

, whom she later married. In 1976 WILX sent Timmons to

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

to cover President Gerald Ford's address to television news directors at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

. Timmons was experienced in setting up and operating video cameras and after videotaping the president's address, she hoped to get an interview with him. She took advantage of an opportunity to grab Ford's attention by saying "Go Blue", as he approached. She knew that President Ford had played football at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and was an avid alumnus. The president smiled, and gave Timmons an exclusive interview. The TV news director for CBS affiliate in Detroit saw Robbie get the exclusive interview and was so impressed he scheduled an interview with Timmons. Three weeks later she was the anchor for WJBK-TV for the 11:00pm news. As Timmons career as a news anchor in Detroit took off, Jim Brandstatter began working in the Sports Department of WDIV-TV in Detroit. They were married in 1980. Timmons has six Emmy awards for reporting and anchoring, two Silver Circle awards, and in 2013 was enshrined in the Michigan Association of Broadcaster's Hall of Fame. In 1998 Timmons began volunteering for CANTER, a non-profit all volunteer organization that retrains non-competitive thoroughbred race horses for new careers as sport horses or trail horses. She began volunteering full-time as Treasurer and currently Executive Director of CANTER after her retirement from television in 2010. Timmons wrote a popular book based on one of the thoroughbreds helped by CANTER, titled "Twoey and the Goat", in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timmons, Robbie Ohio State University Fisher College of Business alumni American television reporters and correspondents