Viewers of News Center Maine got a rare look inside the life of a broadcasting legend, as friends and colleagues of News Anchor Lee Nelson wished him a fond farewell. Nelson, who has worked in broadcast news for 3 decades, signed off for the last time Friday, as he transitions into a new chapter of his life; personal training.

Nelson made headlines in early October when some publicity photos he took with a Portland talent agency, Port City Models, hit the internet...and then promptly broke it.

Viewers had never seen this side of Nelson--the shirtless, iron-pumping, heart-throb side, that is. And once news hit that the photos were out, they were promptly taken down, leading many to wonder "What was that all about?"

A few days later, Nelson confessed that those photos were released prematurely, and  had been taken as a way to market his new profession. Then he dropped the bombshell, that he would be retiring at the end of October.

In a farewell that spanned all of the News Center broadcasts Friday, Nelson's friends, co-workers and even his wife and co-anchor, Cindy Williams, paid tribute to their colleague and his illustrious career. Following in his dad's footsteps, starting as an NBC page, to his first on-air job in Mississippi (where he met Cindy), to his time as an environmental reporter and then on to his many years of hosting News Center's morning show, Lee Nelson has been waking Maine folks up for quite some time.

We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

If you missed his send off, here are a few of the pieces featured on Friday's broadcast.

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