Like a few of my excellent abc27 colleagues, my first TV reporting job was at WDVM in Hagerstown. Unlike them, that was in 1994! I think, but am not certain, I was the country’s youngest reporter at a network affiliate, reporting weekends (while a sophomore in college) at what was then WHAG-NBC 25. (TV news nerds: I was there when we transitioned away from the “News 25 Alive” moniker.)
Yes, I took the long road here. After a couple TV news jobs, I spent several years with Miami-Dade County government, working on the inside to overcome challenges in areas like elections and transportation. That experience gives me unique perspective when I cover those issues now. Then I spent the next decade-plus focusing on aviation with Airline Weekly. But I always missed TV news reporting and decided I would go back into it if the timing and job were ever right.
Finally, both were: I became a free agent after we sold Airline Weekly to Skift, and then I was invited to join the incredible group of broadcast journalists here at abc27. I could only be a part of a team that takes the care this one does in covering meaningful news and getting the story right. (Friends elsewhere in the country who have watched us online, just to see where I work, have remarked to me that our newscasts are some of the best they’ve seen anywhere in America.)
My family and I moved to Harrisburg from Washington, D.C., a natural transition given the baseball affiliation. (Go Nats! Go Senators!) We are six mammals: my wife Dina; our six-year-old human Abriana; our cats Fred, Oscar and Molly; and myself. (I went back and added that last semicolon to clarify that I’m not a cat – which, to be clear, would be considered a compliment in our house. We adore them.)
I’m originally from Miami and have found a lot of common cause with Midstaters, although on one thing we will never agree: To you, Doug Pederson is the person who coached the Eagles to their only world championship. To me, he is the third-string quarterback who led the Dolphins to Don Shula’s record-breaking 325th win, a victory over the Eagles on Nov. 14, 1993. (I was there. I was young and foolish enough to wear a Dolphins sweatshirt into The Vet. I felt little brotherly love.)
I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from George Washington University and a master’s degree in public administration from Florida International University.
