Wayne Fariss

Fariss spent 39 years in broadcasting, the first 5 in radio.

On February 13, 1984, Fariss joined WEVU (WZVN) in Naples/Ft. Myers, Florida as Vice President of News and Anchor for the 6 P.M. and 11 P.M. Newscasts.

Prior to that Fariss spent 26 years with WSVN-TV. He was a principal in award winning documentaries and specials that took him from a revolution of independence on the Caribbean Isle of Anguilla to his dangerous Middle East assignment in Israel, where he was in the middle of artillery fire from Syrian forces in the war-torn Golan Heights areas.

For Fariss, stops in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were only links in global news assignments that found him reporting from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, British Guiana, Canada, all the way to Moscow and Alma Ata on the Soviet-China border in Asia.

The Fariss Communist expose series in 1962 won the first of 4 Freedoms Foundation awards and a total of 11 All-America Conference to Combat Communism Vigilant Patriot Honors for the Promotion of Americanism.

News award recognition for Fariss and Channel 7 (WSVN-TV) became a habit. Fariss, who had shared a National Headliner Award at WTVT-TV, Tampa, before going to Miami, was a part of news coverage that won 3 National Headliners, the coveted Peabody Award (WSVN was the only Florida commercial television station to be honored), the University of Missouri’s Gold Journalism medallion, 2 Scripps-Howard Foundation Citations and a multitude of Sigma Delta Chi, Radio-Television News Directors, Broadcast Industry Conference, American Legion, National Conference of Christian and Jews, School bell awards, Sloan and National Safety Council recognition – all honors for excellence in reporting.

Fariss has had interviews with such diverse political figures as Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev to Dr. Martin Luther King, the latter cited as best interview on American television by the Scripps-Howard Foundation. Other interviews included such personalities as Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas; British Guiana’s Cheddi Jagan and the deposed President of the Dominican Republic, Juan Bosch. There was an exclusive interview, too, with D. S. Polyanski. A member of the Soviet politburo once destined for Kremlin leadership but later demoted in the Soviet hierarchy.

In 1962 he was nominated by the Miami Junior Chamber of Commerce as one of the “Nation’s Ten Outstanding Young Men”. In 1981, he was chosen “Man of the Year” by the Miami Shores Chamber of Commerce.

Born in Tampa, Florida on January 27, 1929, Fariss spent the first five years of his career in radio and served a tour of duty with Armed Forces Radio before joining WDEL-TV, Wilmington, Delaware. He signed WTVT-TV, Tampa, on the air for the first time and spent three years as their news anchor.

Fariss has served as an officer of Sigma Delta Chi, national journalism society. He was a member of the Miami Jaycees and served 4 terms on the board of directors of the Miami Shores Kiwanis Club. He is a Presbyterian Elder, serving 3 terms at the Miami Shores Presbyterian Church and 2 terms at the First Presbyterian Church of Bonita Springs, former Chairman of the Board of Deacons; former chairman of the Board of Management at the North Dade YMCA and also served on the Metropolitan Board of the YMCA of Greater Miami, and a member of the Committee of 100 of Miami Beach.

When a heart attack in 1984 and open-heart surgery in 1986 took him out of television news, he became successful in the real estate profession.

Fariss is married and the father of 4 children, Robert, John, David and Anne and the grandfather of 7. He and his wife, Betty now make their home in Lake Placid, Florida, where they have retired.