A Florida TV news legend was spotted last week at struggling Tegna station in Tampa.

Joel Cheatwood, the mastermind behind building WSVN into a news powerhouse with an in your face style that has been copied coast to coast, was spotted at WTSP in Tampa.

It seems that Tegna is having Cheatwood consult the Tegna stations that are not up to par with their performance.

Along with WSVN, Cheatwood worked at WHDH in Boston and then with Fox. Cheatwood followed Glenn Beck out the door at Fox News and after leaving Beck, Cheatwood started Red Seat Ventures.

Red Seat Ventures is a consulting company that puts heavy emphasis on digital and digital first content.

It was no surprise that after Cheatwood's visit to WTSP, that GM Elliot Wiser demanded the station stream hours of live coverage to Facebook during hurricane Hermine.

Sources tell FTVLive that Cheatwood was also spotted at KXTV in Sacramento, before making his trip to Tampa.

KXTV is another underperforming Tegna property.

Cheatwood was spotted at WTSP with a couple of other guys from Red Seat Ventures.

Word is that he will have a big impact on changing the way the underperforming Tegna stations do their news and it will be much more involved in digital.

Cheatwood knows his stuff and it is certainly a good move by Tegna to bring him in. Many at WTSP are wondering how Cheatwood's aggressive news style will mesh with Wiser's much more conservative and boring style of doing news?

Time will tell, but it appears that Tegna is serious about getting their "also ran" stations back in the game.

Don't be surprised if you hear about Cheatwood making a visit to WCNC in Charlotte as well. That's another Tegna station that needs some work.

Stay tuned.....