WLUC’s Scott Zerbel Announces Retirement!

Scott Zerbel

Veteran WLUC-TV (Marquette) (TV6) broadcaster Scott Zerbel has announced his pending retirement after 38 years at the station. TV6 Vice President and General Manager Rick Rhoades says Zerbel will be hard to replace. “Scott brings a wealth knowledge and experience with him to work every day. His career in unique in broadcasting. Typically, broadcasters work at several stations during their careers. Scott started at TV6 in 1984 and never left. That’s special.”

Scott Zerbel has been with WLUC for 38 years. He has served the station in several different roles over his career and has been a key player in our growing station. Over his tenure Zerbel has been a Studio Camera Operator, Production Assistant, Associate Producer/Co-Host, Program Producer/Director, Local Program Manager, Newsroom Manager, Executive Producer/Marketing, and Promotions, Creative Services Director and currently he is the Marketing and Creative Services Manager for the station. Zerbel has just about done it all at the station.

He has helped pioneer local programming along with video production in our market receiving over 45 different awards for broadcasting on the local, state, regional and national level. He has been awarded twenty five Broadcast Excellence Awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, five Michigan Associated Press Awards, two Iris awards he received from the National Association of Television Programming Executives and seven Telly Awards. A few of the most rewarding achievements in Scott’s career was successfully getting former TV6 News Director Ed Kearney into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame and Carl Pellonpaa into the MAB Hall of Fame! He was also instrumental in the establishment of Six Productions in 1990, the station’s long-form video production department, which was a leader in producing long-from videos in the region.

In 1990 Zerbel became director of the annual TV6 Canathon. He grew the event to include 10 Upper Michigan counties. The TV6 Canathon celebrated its 40th year in 2021 and collected over $62,000 and 100,000 pounds of nonperishable food items for food pantries across Upper Michigan. Since the event began in 1982 the TV6 Canathon’ s grand total for has exceeded 4.68 million pounds of food donated. This achievement can be attributed to Scott’s exceptional commitment to the event. In the community, Scott served on several boards. He sat on the Friends of the DeVos Art Museum Board and USOEC Dream Club Board, MAB Awards Committee, the Marquette Golf Marketing Committee and was a Trustee for the Marquette Regional History Museum when the new facility was built.

Zerbel is a Northern Michigan University graduate earning a Bachelor of Science in Broadcasting in 1983 and a Master of Arts in Education in Filmmaking in 1985. He also was an Adjunct Associate Professor in the film department at Northern Michigan University for 20 years (1988-2008) passing on his knowledge and experience to future generations.

He plans to retire on June 3rd of this year. As for his plans? Zerbel says he wants to travel, golf, try to sleep in and most importantly, spend more time with his family and his first granddaughter, Penny Lyn.  A search for his replacement at the station is currently underway.