[3][4] Having worked at WTVT for over 27 years, he is considered a television pioneer, being part of the first live color telecast in Tampa, the first remote broadcast, and the first hour-long newscast.
[3] Smith was born in Madison, South Dakota, and grew up in the small town of Pipestone, Minnesota.
[3] He earned a journalism degree at the University of Minnesota where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
Smith's broadcast career started as staff writer for WCCO-AM in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[3] In 1976 he did their first remote live broadcast while reporting from a helicopter hovering 500 feet over a news scene.