[2] He worked as a general news reporter for a number of Florida television stations, including WTLV in Jacksonville, FL (where he worked as a paid intern), WINK in Ft. Myers, WTVT, the CBS affiliate and later Fox owned and operated station in Tampa and WTVJ (NBC) in Miami.
He is a 1982 graduate of the University of South Florida, from which he received his bachelor's degree and later a Distinguished Alumni Award.
[2] He was immediately thrust into a major story, when the ValuJet Flight 592 crash occurred in the Everglades just days after he began with NBC.
During his retirement segment on the NBC Nightly News broadcast on January 17, 2023, he thanked his wife Deborah for putting up with him.
He has also been on the front lines in both Desert Storm in 1991 and as an embedded reporter with the US Marines during the Iraq War in 2003.