Tom Bayles is Senior Environmental Reporter at WGCU. A lifelong Florida journalist, Tom has covered stories in 67 counties, including plenty of hurricanes. Tom covers climate change, biodiversity, water quality and quantity issues, Everglades restoration efforts, endangered and invasive species, beach and coastal issues, and the intersections of global warming and the economy, politics, religion, society, and science. 

Bayles worked for The New York Times Company in Sarasota, the Associated Press in Tampa, Miami, and Tallahassee, and he was a staff writer at the Tampa Bay Times in Clearwater, Tampa, and St. Petersburg.

For all of his work, Tom was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal for Public Service in Investigations from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, a Waldo Proffitt Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism in Florida, was named the state’s top environmental journalist by the FSNE and the Florida Press Club. 

SONG 1: “Fools Game” from Michael Bolton off his self-titled album released in 1982. https://youtu.be/NukzQZM-1Qk?si=QnPLGcJMiD0QHRr1

SONG 2: “Sweet Child O’ Mine” from Guns n’ Roses’ 1988 album Appetite For Destruction. https://youtu.be/1w7OgIMMRc4?si=Cm1CoijOT0N5V9nF

SONG 3: “Paradise By The Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf from his album Bat Out of Hell released in 1977. https://youtu.be/a136H5K3OKw?si=LIe0QLEqWd64A_ra