Beloved Broadcaster Retiring After 43 Years on TV

By Brian Jones

A news broadcaster from Memphis is calling it a career after 43 years in the business. Jarvis Greer of Action News 5 is retiring after covering the sports scene in Memphis for more than four decades. Greer is the sports director for the station and started his career in 1979 shortly after graduating from Memphis State. He will continue to be with Action News 5 through the end of the year with his final day being on New Year's Eve. 

Greer became the sports director for Action News 5 in 1991 after being the weekend sports anchor and backup to Jack Eaton, the legendary voice of Memphis Tigers and basketball. "I'm a fan like anybody else, and I hope that comes across," Greer said to the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 2019. "I always look at it like there's so much doom and gloom in the world. Hey man, let's take a break. Let's have some fun for a minute. One thing Jack always taught me is if you're interested in it, people will be interested in it. If it looks like you're just trying to pass the time, they'll just click, change the channel. That kind of freed the inner me."

Greer is a rarity in the news business as he has worked in one place for a very long time. "Jarvis is an anomaly," WMC Action News 5 lead anchor Joe Birch, who has been with the station for now 44 years, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 2019. "Most of the people in our business are nomads ... but Jarvis and I have taken the road less traveled. We've stayed right here because we love our city, we love our community and we love our wives."

With Greer staying in Memphis, he has been able to raise a family. He and his wife Emily raised two children in Memphis, and they now have grandchildren. Once Greer officially retires, he and Emily plan to travel and spend more time with the grandchildren who are triplets. Before joining Action News 5, Greer was a football star at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis. He went on to play college football at Memphis State. When Greer started at Action News 5, he was a grip, lugging equipment, and he said he did "pretty much every job in here."

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