THE 2023 SILVER CIRCLE HONOREES
Pembroke Pines, FL (April 2023) – The Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce the 2023 Silver Circle honorees. The annual recognition is given to individuals who have worked with distinction in the television industry within the Suncoast Region, which includes the State of Florida, the State of Louisiana, the Mobile, Alabama-Pensacola, Florida television markets, as well as Puerto Rico. Seven of this year’s honorees are from the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, and Orlando-Daytona Beach markets. This year’s in-person ceremony will take place on Sunday, June 4, 2023, at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa, Fort Lauderdale.
2023 Silver Circle Press Release
Silver Circle Luncheon invitation
Purchase tickets
Arly Alfaro
News and Education Reporter, WSCV, Miramar, FL
Arly Alfaro is an Emmy® award-winning Journalist with more than twenty-five years of experience in news.
She began her career at the Palm Beach Daily News & Palm Beach Life Magazine. In 1994 she was hired by Univision’s national news magazine Primer Impacto where she held various positions. In 1998 she joined Univision’s New York affiliate, WXTV as a News Anchor and Reporter. She has the distinction of being the first female anchor to launch the Tri-State Area’s first-weekend newscast in Spanish earning her a nomination as Best Anchor for an Ace Award. A year later, she also launched the Tri-state area’s first early morning Spanish-language Newscast as female Anchor. She was also part of the winning news team of an Edward R. Murrow Award in the New York Region for spot news covering “The Aftermath of Hurricane Floyd” in Bound Brook, New Jersey.
She returned to Miami in 2001 to work as a Reporter for Univision Network’s Newscast Ultima Hora. Two years later, she joined Univision’s Miami station, Ch. 23 as a Reporter and substitute Anchor. Her work got her an Emmy® Nomination in 2006 as On-Camera Talent for Best Anchor.
In 2007, WSCV hired Arly as Morning News Anchor and Reporter. She earned an Emmy® nomination as Best Morning Anchor in 2008. Arly was also the station’s health reporter. In 2010, she won an Emmy in the category of Health/Science/Environment for “Semana de Salud”, a week-long series of reports about living a healthy life. In 2012 and in 2015, Arly was again nominated for Emmy Awards for health reporting. In 2022, she was part of a team Emmy® nomination for News Special reporting on the housing crisis in South Florida. For 12 years she produced and reported a weekly franchise segment about children, education, and family topics called “Mi Familia”. Arly continues to report on general news assignments but has become Telemundo 51’s Education Reporter, a role she expanded during the Pandemic reporting on distance learning and more recently on education laws in Florida.
Arly was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Palm Beach County. She is married and lives in Miami with her husband and two children. In 2019 she was recognized in the book “Hecho en Nicaragua” which highlighted 100 outstanding contemporanean Nicaraguan personalities. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree at Purdue University Global.
Bruce Hamilton
New Anchor, WJXT, Jacksonville, FL
Bruce Hamilton is a 5-time Emmy® award-winning television journalist and has more than a dozen Emmy® nominations to his credit.
Bruce anchors the #1 rated news and interview program in NE Florida.
Bruce has been honored by receiving the prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award; 5 Associated Press Awards and the Central Florida Press Club award. Numerous other journalistic, civil, and religious institutions have honored Bruce for his outstanding reporting and community service.
Hamilton has engaged in exclusive White House interviews with Presidents Bush and Clinton, as well as conducted one-on-one interviews with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. He has covered numerous Democratic and Republican National Conventions. This enterprising journalist has reported from breaking news spots around the world; covered numerous space shuttle launches and landings; other historic space ventures; and even flown with the Navy’s elite Blue Angels. He trained and flew with FA 18 Hornet pilots. Did trap landings on the USS John F Kennedy and the “Ike” aircraft carriers. He was the first American journalist to report from the Soviet nuclear submarine base in Murmansk. Bruce also gained unprecedented access to interviews and locations on the Guantanamo Bay Prison site housing high-profile terrorists. Reported from earthquake sites in the mountains of Colombia and Haiti. Covered countless hurricanes. A bit of a daredevil, he also had the privilege of skydiving with the world-renowned British Red Devil acrobatic skydiving team jumping out of a C 130.
The readers of several local newspapers and magazines repeatedly vote Bruce as the “Best News Anchor” in Jacksonville.
While happy to be living his dream in the world of news and its growing realm of delivery vehicles, Bruce’s primary focus is his family. He and his wife Christy have a blended family with 7 kids, their respective spouses, 4 grandchildren, and 3 more on the way. They also have two 4-legged kids, Carly and Chloe. They are a real-life Brady Bunch.
Lynn Martinez
Anchor of 7NEWS at 4 pm, 5:30 pm, 6:30 pm & Deco Drive, WSVN, Miami, FL
Lynn Martinez joined WSVN in 1991 as a co-anchor of TODAY IN FLORIDA, WSVN’s #1 rated morning news program and general assignment reporter. One of a trio of anchors in the morning, Martinez quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to weekend anchor. Two years later, she moved to her current assignment on the weeknight news. In 1998, she began co-hosting Deco Drive, the half-hour news magazine show known for celebrity news and the latest on the South Florida entertainment circuit.
Martinez began her broadcasting career in 1989 at the CBS affiliate in Cadillac, Michigan, where she served as an anchor and producer.
During her 25 years at WSVN, Martinez has covered the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, was one of the first U.S. reporters to cover the atrocities in Bosnia, traveled to Holland after the murder of a German tourist in Miami, and went to Rome to cover the Pope. She was also featured on the Fox program “America’s Most Wanted” on a story about how to survive a carjacking. She’s covered numerous hurricanes including Andrew in 1992 and Wilma in 2005. She also interviewed President Barack Obama in 2011. For “Deco Drive,” Martinez has interviewed numerous celebrities, among them: Tom Hanks, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Cameron Diaz, Andy Garcia, and Keanu Reeves.
Martinez won an award for a series on organ donation called “Dying for an Organ,” and was nominated for an Emmy® for her coverage of Hurricane Andrew.
Martinez has a master’s and bachelor’s degree in journalism from “Webster University” in St. Louis, Missouri. She is married and has two children.
Ross Noble
Retired Photographer/Editor, WTVJ, Miami, FL
Alexander Ross Noble grew up in Glen Rock, a town in northern New Jersey. He attended the University of Miami and graduated from the School of Communications in 1979. The most important class he took at the U was an internship in the sports department at WTVJ under Bernie Rosen in the fall of 1978. He must have done something right because Bernie allowed him to intern again in the spring of ‘79 and hired him as a full-time photographer/editor in 1980.
Growing up a sports fan, he was now shooting interviews with Muhammad Ali, Don Shula, Jack Nicklaus, and all the sports figures that traverse South Florida each year. Nothing was more rewarding than covering the Dolphins for 41 years. Traveling to each NFL city with added games in London, Berlin, Tokyo, and Mexico City are prized memories. The Miami Hurricanes football and baseball championships, PGA at Doral, and the Lipton tennis tournament in Key Biscayne added to year-round events. The birth of the Heat, Panthers, and Marlins franchises bringing with them NBA Championships, the Stanley Cup Finals, and World Series wins added to special times for our community.
On the News side, Miami never rests. In 1980 he found himself flying over a burning Liberty City during the McDuffie Riots which along with the Overtown Riots changed this town. Covering Hurricane Andrew and the Parkland shooting survivors for weeks after these events was an emotional experience he will never forget. As a sign of where local news is going, WTVJ offered buyouts to senior staff and he retired in 2020. He now freelances with the Heat. Ross is married to Linda and they have 2 Daughters, Samantha and Kelly. Forty years of helping to document the history of South Florida with all the good people he worked with leaves him with a great sense of pride. It was a great ride.
Bob Palumbo
Photojournalist, WPLG, Miami, FL
Bob Palumbo has been in broadcast journalism for nearly four decades, the past 30 years at WPLG Miami/Ft. Lauderdale.
Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he grew up in nearby Duxbury. He went to school for two years at the University of Massachusetts and then transferred to the University of Florida.
While in school, his first job in television was shooting high school football and weekend news in Gainesville.
After graduating in 1985, he joined WPTV-TV5 in West Palm Beach. He quickly became recognized for his great skill at storytelling. To make extra money, Bob worked nights at Channel 5 and was a third-grade substitute teacher by day. The kids called him “Mr. Bob.”
Following the Republican convention in 1988 Bob was recruited by Potomac Communications in Washington, D.C. It was there that he perfected his photography skills. He was often assigned to staff the White House in the early years of CNN.
Bob loved Washington but really missed the thrill of local news, so he returned to Florida, joining WPLG in June 1993. After only a few years, he was promoted to Chief Photographer. That was an impressive accomplishment for a young up coming photographer in a big market like Miami. After a few years, the position was eliminated, but Bob stayed on and became one of the station’s go-to guys for all the major stories.
During his 30 years at Channel 10, Bob has covered it all; the ValueJet crash, the assassination of Gianni Versace, the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting, and too many storms to count. Bob has traveled extensively for work, going to places like Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Uvalde, London, and many more.
Bob loves aviation and got his private pilot license in 1990. He has several hundred hours in a Cessna 172. He also has his commercial drone license.
He looks forward to many more years enjoying the richness and color of a place like South Florida.
Jim Payne
Anchor/Reporter, WESH 2, Orlando, FL
Jim Payne joined the WESH 2 News team in 2000. Jim is an experienced, award-winning journalist who believes in making a difference in his community.
Jim came to central Florida from WRAL-TV in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina. He also honed his skills at WRBL-TV in Columbus, Ga.; WKJG-TV (now WISE-TV) in Fort Wayne, Ind.; WTWO-TV in Terre Haute, Ind.; WFLI-TV in Lafayette, Ind.; and the NBC News Southwest Bureau in Houston, Tex.
Jim received journalism’s most prestigious honor, the George Foster Peabody Award, for his work on the month-long investigative series “Building Homes: Building Problems.” The reports detailed problems with new home construction in central Florida. He’s also been honored with an Alfred I. duPont Award for his work on the space shuttle Columbia disaster, two National Headliner Awards, multiple Edward R. Murrow awards; numerous awards from the Associated Press and Radio Television Digital News Association; the Jefferson Award for Public Service; The President’s Award for Volunteer Service; and multiple Emmy® awards.
He’s also been named part of Orlando’s Best TV News Team by Orlando Magazine.
He was born in Green Bay, Wis., and attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., earning a bachelor’s degree in communications. Jim has been honored by Purdue as a distinguished alumnus.
Jim has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Special Olympics
Florida for more than two decades, he has been an ambassador for the Edgewood Children’s Ranch in Orlando and advocates for people and families dealing with addiction and alcoholism. However, his most well-known community service effort takes place annually; the Jim Payne Fearless 5k for the Children raises money for Kids House, a non-profit organization assisting victims of abuse.
When he’s not working, Jim enjoys running and weight training and fixing broken things, spending time with his wife, Sharon. Jim also has two adult sons, James and Michael, daughter-in-law Vanessa (married to James), and three grandchildren, Conner, James, and Leia.
Armando Pico
Sr. Content Creator, WOW MKTG, Miami, FL
Armando Pico is a talented and creative video journalist and brilliant investigative producer and editor who began his career at Univision 23 in 1993. He has 61 Emmy® nominations and has been recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with 36 Emmy® awards. During his more than 30 years in the television industry, he has made great contributions in exposing many social ills and even impacting legislation in Tallahassee. He has covered prominent international events including, presidential summits in South America and Europe, and a royal wedding in Spain. Armando has also produced and directed several TV commercials, corporate videos, as well as special event films. He has also maintained a photography business, A Pico Studio, and sharpened his skills as an independent commercial photographer, and cinematographer. Armando’s keen eye and sensitivity to the human experience have allowed him to excel in his craft, as he worked on compelling stories that documented the history of South Florida for the last three decades.
Armando is married to Univision anchor, Andrea Linares, and is the father of two beautiful young girls Camila & Leía.