Tom Sherry, longtime KREM-TV broadcaster, announces retirement after three decades

Tom Sherry’s three-decade run of bringing smiles and weather reports into the homes of Spokane TV viewers will end in March.

The well-liked broadcaster and head of a far-reaching Thanksgiving effort to feed Spokane families announced his retirement on Monday.

“I’ve been lucky to be part of an amazing team at KREM 2,” Sherry said in a statement announcing the retirement, shared by the local CBS affiliate. “Most importantly, I’ve loved being a part of the community. I appreciate people letting me in their homes each night and I love the Inland Northwest.”

Sherry took a leave of absence in October last year before returning to the airwaves in early December. The Spokane Falls Community College and Mississippi State University graduate began as weekend weather anchor for KREM in January 1990, while also working as a program director and drive-time announcer at the KTRW radio station. He later took over for KREM’s main weatherman Peter Colford.

“I always wanted to do TV,” Sherry told The Spokesman-Review in 1994. “So I got real lucky and worked hard to stay lucky.”

The congenial anchor and chief meteorologist has been the leader and promoter of Tom’s Turkey Drive since 1999. The annual partnership between area charities and supermarkets offers a free Thanksgiving meal to Spokane families, serving more than 11,000 per year, according to the news release.

“I think the beauty of this is that for a $20 donation, a $20 bill, which most folks can do, families can do something huge,” Sherry told The Spokesman-Review in 2013.

Sherry is a graduate of the Mississippi State’s meteorology program. He received the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Silver Circle Award in 2020, bestowed to broadcasters with more than 25 years of experience.

Sherry will continue his philanthropic efforts in the community, including as part of Tom’s Turkey Drive, according to the news release.