[1] He started his career as a reporter and editor with the New York Daily News, in 1961, before becoming a reporter for United Press International Oliver was a radio host, as presenter of a program called The Daily News Bulldog Edition in 1978, and becoming assistant managing editor in 1980, he remained with the program that was broadcast on several New York station's until 1995.
On July 19, 2001, while field reporting on a landlord-tenant dispute, he was involved in a heated exchange live on air with Good Day New York anchor Jim Ryan.
[4][5] On the morning of September 11, Oliver had been on assignment in Lower Manhattan when the attack on the World Trade Center occurred.
With the production truck still running, the station quickly interrupted a commercial break to switch to Oliver.
After 8 minutes, the uplink signal from the van was interrupted due to a failure at the receiver on the roof of one of the two towers.