Arch Deal An Intrepid Skydiver

Arch Deal Of WFLA

If you are a transplant to Tampa you may not know the name Arch Deal. He was the news anchor at WFLA channel 8 from 1958 - 1976, He pioneered on air interviews during a time of stodgy newscasting. In fact, he had a famous on air interview with President Kennedy when he visited Tampa just four days before he died.

Deal was good about getting people to open up to him.. He was smart, personable, well liked and an overall good guy with a love of life. He did have an exciting passion. Arch Deal loved to skydive.

Deal was a professional sky diver with thousands of jumps under his belt. He was almost as famous for his jumping as he was for being a news anchor with a golden voice. In fact, it was his golden voice that gave him away on the television show To Tell The Truth.

He was on the show in 1971 and the panel had no trouble in picking out because of his voice and his relaxed demeanour under the lights with this sky diving suit on. In 1975 Arch was doing a promotional jump at Cypress Gardens when his main parachute failed to open. He hit the ground after falling 3,000 feet. Nobody had ever survived a fall from that height. That is why rescue took its time in finding Arch. They took over 30 minutes to get to him and amazingly, he was alive.

Rescue workers find Arch Deal in an orange grove alive

He had broken almost every bone in his body. He later accounted a near death experience while laying in the orange grove. He talked about seeing a white light and a calm feeling coming over hm. Perhaps it was just not hiss time.

Arch would later leave WFLA for mostly political reasons. They never liked his passion for sky diving and nobody at the television station ever visited Arch when he was in the hospital. That was just wrong.

Arch moved on to another station and would eventually become a corporate spokesman. He has written a book about his adventures called "Corporate Fall Guy."

Comments

[Meanolddrunk]

wow!! i had forgotten about him, my dad knew him they used to drink at a bar sometimes called millers bar(pub?) here in new port richey. i was about 10 or so and got to meet him, he drew a pen tattoo of devil on my fore arm. it was sooooo cool looking