WSB’s Karyn Greer, CBS Atlanta’s T.J. Anthony keep local news in the family
In 2011, as part of a TV special, several 11Alive journalists brought their children to the legendary Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn district to interview civil rights icon John Lewis.
One of those children was 12-year-old Tyler, younger son of then-11Alive anchor Karyn Greer.
While Lewis told his story about getting beaten by a state trooper on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, while peacefully protesting for voting rights, Tyler asked a poignantly simple question: “Were you ever afraid of what was ahead?”
On a recent Wednesday 15 years after the trip to Selma, Tyler sat next to his mom at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recounting that trenchant moment, one that would ultimately help define his future career as a journalist.
“I remember just feeling so inspired after hearing his story,” said Tyler, who uses a professional pseudonym T.J. Anthony for privacy and declines to reveal his legal surname. “Getting that firsthand perspective on his life and insight into him has stuck with me my entire life.”
Family ties
Local Atlanta news has seen a father and son anchor at the same TV station: Don Farmer on WSB-TV’s Channel 2 Action News from 1987 to 1997 followed by his son, Justin Farmer, who did the same from 2008 to 2024.
But for the first time, a parent and child are in Atlanta news on two rival stations at the same time: Greer is a key afternoon anchor for Channel 2 Action News on WSB-TV, the area’s No. 1-ranked broadcast news station. Her son joined the upstart CBS Atlanta newsroom in March and recently began anchoring its new noon newscast. (CBS Atlanta launched a news operation in fall after former CBS affiliate WANF-TV went independent.)
“It really is a calling,” Anthony said. “It runs through my veins because she was pregnant with me and still reporting and anchoring. I joke I could write a package by the age of 4.”
Just a few weeks into his CBS Atlanta job, Anthony attended an Atlanta Press Club luncheon featuring Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. Sitting next to his mom, he asked the first question to the mayor.
Dickens immediately recognized him. “You have a big voice,” Dickens said. “You have the looks.”
“I have the best coach right here,” Anthony said, gesturing toward his mom.
“It looks like you’ve been trained by the best!” Dickens said.
Months later, both mom and son chuckled over that lighthearted exchange.
“I thought it was hilarious,” Anthony said. “People have watched me grow up and I don’t even realize it.”
Following in his mom’s footsteps
As a child, Anthony said he wanted to be a dermatologist because he struggled with bad skin and thought that was a way to help others in a similar situation. Greer didn’t mind.
“She said, ‘Go pursue that!’” he said. “But in the background, journalism was always in my interests. I would go with her on off days from school just to watch. I’d go with her on interviews, see her reporting. That helped keep the bug alive.”
Evelyn Mims, who oversaw community service for 11Alive during Greer’s run there, remembers seeing Anthony in the newsroom as a kid.
“He and his brother were both so well-mannered,” Mims recalled. “He was always so inquisitive and knew how to ask questions the right way to get an answer.”
Anthony said his interest in journalism solidified when he worked on a TV news program at Johns Creek High School. “It was really cool for me to report on people and see how much impact that had on their lives,” he said.
When he wanted to pursue journalism, Greer said she told him: “I’m not paying for that!” But Anthony landed a HOPE Scholarship at the University of Georgia.
“It was nice seeing my child interested in something that I had chosen as my career path,” Greer said.
An Atlanta mainstay
Greer got into the business in the 1980s in part because she didn’t see many Black women in local news while growing up in Chicago.
“I always watched the news with my family at night,” she said. “I love that this brought everybody together. In college, I thought about being an attorney but realized there was something more to this TV thing.”
After stops at stations in Champaign, Illinois, and Charleston, South Carolina, she landed in Atlanta in 1989 at the CBS affiliate WGNX-TV and spent a decade there before spending 15 years at 11Alive when her two sons were young. Her next stop was the local CBS affiliate, then called WGCL, where she stayed for seven years before coming to WSB in 2022.
Greer is the longest-running anchor in Atlanta news currently on air. She has pocketed 10 Southeast Emmy Awards and is on the board of both the Atlanta Press Club and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
She noted that she got a job on Atlanta TV around the same age as her son did this year. “I applaud he is here doing this before he’s 30,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”
Moving up the ranks
Anthony’s first job out of UGA in 2021 was at CBS affiliate WMAZ-TV in Macon, a typical market for new journalists given its relatively modest size — now ranked 119th among TV metro areas, according to the Radio Television Digital News Association.
“That’s where I was really able to build my skills as a journalist, the character-driven stories I really love to cover,” Anthony said.
In 2023, he moved to CBS 21 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — the 42nd-biggest TV market — 100 miles west of Philadelphia.
There, Anthony got to cover big stories like Luigi Mangione allegedly murdering a healthcare company CEO in late 2024 and an arsonist setting fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion last fall.
“He operated like a veteran of 15, 20 years,” said Michael Raffaele, news director at CBS 21. “He really connected with the community. He did stories with heart. He quickly got a good feel for the city. You knew he was a next-level guy and had the pedigree.”
Raffaele said several major market stations were chasing him, but Anthony wanted to go back to his hometown.
Fortunately for Anthony, Shawn Hoder, current news director at CBS Atlanta, was already familiar with his work while running a station in Pittsburgh. So when Hoder came to CBS Atlanta last year to build a newsroom from scratch, Anthony was on the top of his list for hires.
Anthony, he felt, had enough experience to thrive in a top 10 market. Hoder was also familiar with Greer because he worked with her as an investigative producer for several years at 11Alive.
“It was serendipitous that he was Karyn’s kid,” Hoder said. “He has command of the camera. He has a passion for journalism. He comes from a journalistic family. I have a history with Karyn, and I knew he was a good kid.”
Hoder has hired several Atlanta natives, including anchor Jobina Fortson-Evans and meteorologist Troy Bridges. Anthony, he said, fit right in.
“Having those ties to Atlanta is so different,” Greer said. “I didn’t have those ties coming to the city. He’s a true insider. He knows the city. He knows how to get around. He knows who to call when he needs a story.”
Anthony acknowledges that his time shadowing his mom gave him a head start over many other young journalists, “but I definitely still had to prove myself in every role.”
Hoder said Anthony’s recent piece on drones stood out. At the same time, Anthony is still in learning mode: “I see him sitting down in editorial meetings, listening, taking notes and pitching in. People enter a market this size and sometimes are a little reserved. T.J. comes in with his values and opinions and makes it known he has a perspective nobody else has. He knows Atlanta.”
Anthony came to a newsroom with at least one familiar face: Sam Crenshaw, current CBS Atlanta sports reporter, who worked with Greer at 11Alive.
“I remember him frequently visiting our newsrooms at WXIA,” Crenshaw said. “He is attentive to detail and very resourceful. I know who he gets it from.”
Home sweet home
Anthony lives with his parents in Gwinnett County to save money, but Greer and Anthony hardly see each other on weekdays. Anthony works from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. while Greer is in her newsroom later in the day.
“I don’t hear him when he wakes up and he’s asleep by the time I get home,” she said.
Greer said her son has an edge on her when it comes to the shifting technological landscape. “I’m not the best on social media,” Greer admitted. “He’s my social media guru. He’ll tell me if something is postable or not. ‘You shouldn’t do this, mom. It’s not a good look!’”
Greer is glad her son works for a different station than she does.
“He’s able to be his own person,” she said. “He is creating his own legacy. He is showing them he is capable of doing everything to the utmost degree.”
And while they are on competing stations, “it doesn’t feel like we’re competing against each other personally,” Anthony said. “We support one another and understand we’re both serving the community, just from different newsrooms.”
Mother and son are very much a mutual appreciation society.
“When I’m at the gym, I’ll send pictures of her on TV,” he said. “I truly love watching my mom. I am her biggest supporter. I tell her that all the time. I want her to thrive and grow. I’m so proud of her.”