Annette Peagler calls herself a fighter and a survivor, and her path backs it up. Born in Philadelphia, raised all over (thanks to a GM dad who climbed from plant floor to corporate), she learned early how to start over: new towns, new friends, new expectations. That constant reset forged a work ethic and resilience she now pours into the newsroom, and into people.
She cut her teeth in Memphis, a grit-and-grind market that sharpened her reporting and anchoring chops. When growth stalled, a LinkedIn message from WBTW’s news director opened a new lane on the Grand Strand, arriving as a long-time anchor prepared to retire and the station leaned into a faster, more digital future. Annette embraced the shift: break online first, then deepen it on air; meet viewers where they are, phones, tablets, streams, without surrendering the craft of local storytelling.
The job’s weight is real. After a panic attack on air three years ago, she rebuilt her routines around mental health and movement: dawn beach walks, meditation, and three days a week at CKO kickboxing (“exhaust the body, tame the mind”). Off-camera, she’s newly into bingo and cruising, small joys that create space from the daily churn of tough headlines.
This spring she finished her master’s at Coastal Carolina and stepped straight into the classroom as an adjunct (COM 150), giving students a working anchor as a mentor and model. It’s the throughline of her new podcast, too, Real Talk, Real Faith, where she practices what she teaches: be present, be useful, be honest.
Ask for the fictional character that fits her best and she picks Pocahontas, not for the animation, but for the agency. She’s the one who chose her own path when the script said play it safe. That’s Annette: loyal sister, doting aunt, relentless pro, writing her story forward, one break, one class, one round on the heavy bag at a time.
