Ray Collins was an award-winning TV News Anchor for 30+ years and has now transitioned into travel writing, media consulting, politics, business development and is among the top 2% of Realtors in Sarasota. 

Travel Writer: Ray has been published more than a hundred times, covering destinations around the world–from Hawaii to Vancouver to Portugal. He often works directly with the
respective visitors’ bureau or marketing department to write his stories. (See the stories under the ‘Articles’ tab on this website.)

Media Consultant: Ray is connected to the local and regional media–and is able to help clients get their stories in the news. He’s helped train Members of Congress, CEOs and even law students with media and presentation skills. He also shoots and produces top-notch broadcast-quality videos that get used on the news or at corporate functions. Ray is also a Master of Ceremonies or Auctioneer for dozens of events each year from Sarasota to Naples.

Politics: Ray ran for office in 2020 and defeated four opponents to win a 4-year term on the Sarasota County Charter Review board, the panel that decides which issues should go on our ballots to potentially change the county’s constitution. He is currently Vice Chairman of the 10-member board.

Business Development: Ray is an Advisor to the CEO of the Sarasota Private Trust Company. He introduces high-net worth individuals to the head of investments for this New York-based company.

Realtor: Since getting his license in 2020, Ray has bought or sold more than $70 million in residential and commercial real estate, among the top 2% in the area. Ray was MC for Coldwell Banker Realty’s annual regional awards gala at the Ritz-Carlton–where he also won one of the top awards for the third year in a row. (More information at www.RayCollinsRealEstate.com )

Journalist: From 1985 to 2019, Ray was on TV–or radio–nearly every day.  The Florida Associated Press honored with him the award of “Individual Achievement for Overall Excellence.”

Ray was born and raised near Buffalo in Amherst, NY. His high school, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, inducted him into its Wall of Honor.  His college, St. Bonaventure University, inducted him into the campus radio station’s Hall of Fame. 

Ray says the chapter that changed his life was The Washington Semester program at The American University in Washington, DC where he interned on Capitol Hill.

1985: Ray began his full-time career as a DJ, News Anchor and Talk-Show Host at WRNJ Radio in northwest New Jersey before heading south to join one of the top talk-radio stations in the country. At Newsradio 970 WFLA in Tampa, Ray anchored hourly news updates, covered major-league sports and filled-in–and buckled-up–as Airborne Traffic Reporter. 

1989: Ray went even farther south to begin his TV career–to Ft. Myers/Naples in Southwest Florida: he started as Morning Anchor at WBBH-TV and later helped launch a news department and 10pm newscast at WNPL-TV.  He hired and managed the staff, handled budgets and anchored the nightly news. During this time, he also was the Florida Correspondent for “Tennis TV” on the Prime Network covering pro tennis tournaments around the state. 

1994: Ray then had the rare opportunity to return to the station at which he interned in high school. He headed back north to WIVB-TV in Buffalo to anchor the start-up Wake Up! show, which went on to win an Emmy nomination.  While there, he also accompanied the Niagara Falls Air Force Reserves to deliver relief supplies to victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras…went to Toronto to cover the making of a CBS movie featuring a Buffalo-born producer…and developed a popular weekly series honoring unsung heroes called “Rays of Hope.”  

1999: Ray was then recruited to be the Primary Evening Anchor for WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia. During this time, he anchored the 5, 5:30, 6 and 11pm newscasts. He was on the anchor desk for 14 straight hours on 9/11 and was sent to Ground Zero to cover the grim one-anniversary. He also covered a Richmond-based case in the U.S. Supreme Court…and reported ‘live’ from the Super Dome in New Orleans where the Virginia Tech Hokies played in the Sugar Bowl. Ray was also active in political reporting–providing ‘live’ updates before and after the Bush/Gore Presidential debate at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina…reporting ‘live’ from the subsequent Inauguration of President George W. Bush…and he was a panelist on two nationally-televised live debates on C*SPAN. Ray was also a frequent guest host on WRVA-AM in Richmond–and traveled to Washington to fill-in for (Former Congressman and co-star of the ‘Love Boat’) Fred Grande on WMAL-AM in Washington, DC. 

2004: Ray returned to Florida to anchor “Good Day Tampa Bay Weekends” for Fox 13 News and manage the Sarasota/Bradenton Bureau.  He chronicled the explosive growth of the region–followed by the subsequent ‘bursting bubble,’ and the start of the Great Recession. 

2009: Ray launched Ray Collins Media and also began freelancing in 2013 for WWSB-TV in Sarasota–which soon led to anchoring “Good Morning Suncoast.”  He was sent to Cleveland in 2016 to report ‘live’ from the Republican National Convention… to Washington, DC to cover a group of local veterans who visited the World War II National Memorial as part of the Honor Flight…and to New York City in 2019 to report ‘live’ on a nationally-televised daredevil stunt in Times Square by local resident Nik Wallenda. Ray also won an Associated Press award for his investigation into a Sarasota City Commissioner. 

2020: Ray affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty’s Downtown Sarasota Office (200+ agents) and was honored to finish in the Top Ten in the office (off 200+ Realtors) in each of his first three full years as a Realtor. He won the International President’s Elite award in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Ray–and, who he calls his wife , Erin–live in downtown Sarasota and stay active playing tennis, pickleball, yoga, bike-riding and traveling each month to write resort reviews for Family Beautiful Magazine.  Ray is the longtime “Voice” of the Sarasota Open as well as the women’s pro tennis tournament in Naples.   ‘Totally Tennis Magazine’ honored him in its ‘virtual’ Hall of Fame for his contributions to the Sarasota tennis community and Play Sarasota Magazine listed Ray as one of the most influential people in local tennis.  He has served on several boards and committees and was two-time President of the Florida Broadcasters Club.  He collaborated with the Center for Executive Coaching to co-author “The Image Consultant Training Manual” and continues to tutor political candidates, executives and others with image and media skills. Ray graduated from the Gulf Coast Leadership Institute and the Human Performance Institute in Orlando.

 

 

(Picture:) Ray back on campus, being inducted into the college radio station’s Hall of Fame. (Below:) Ray’s “15 Minutes of Fame” involved this video where he hit a trick shot over the world’s #1 tennis player in 2013!