Ross Becker
Contact Ross
Click here for Ross' blog
For more than 30 years Ross Becker has been chasing some of the most important and interesting news stories in recent history. From the Los Angeles riots to the O.J. Simpson trial, the Northridge California earthquake to the aftermath of 9-11 and the Malibu wildfires, Ross has been on the front lines of news in Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and on the national level with MSNBC.
So far, Ross has 14 Emmy nominations for his work and has received 4 L.A. regional Emmys for his work. Awards from the Associated Press, the L.A. Press Club and the Radio/TV News Association are also crowding his fireplace mantle.
But, the real measure of Becker's impact is his continued passion for getting involved in the local community and helping tell the stories of your neighborhoods.
Ross grew up in a very close community. Green Bay, Wisconsin is a small town with a big football team. WFRV-TV hired Becker right out of college and put him to work.
After 3 years, Ross moved a bit farther south to Indianapolis, Indiana and WTHR-TV. In Indiana, Ross won his first of many awards for documentary work and breaking news. He produced and anchored the noon newscast.
In 1980, he became one of the youngest reporters to ever land a staff position at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles. In his 10 years at the CBS owned station, he worked as a reporter, anchor and in 1988 he took over as the manager and lead correspondent of the Channel 2 Investigations Unit.
In 1990, Becker was hired as the primary anchor for KCOP-TV in Los Angeles where he and his co-anchor helped shape a new kind of newscast in the nations number 2 market. Real News was a forerunner of many of the more progressive cable news programs today.
In 1995, Ross decided to take a break from TV to feed his other professional love, radio. Becker purchased 3 radio stations in Northern Kentucky and moved with his family to run them and build them. It was during this period that Ross was hired as a freelance journalist to conduct the first interview with O.J. Simpson after his acquittal.
When the stations were sold, Becker went right back to TV news in a big way. He signed on with MSNBC, the national cable outlet located in New Jersey. Becker anchored several hours a day of national and international news and interviewed many newsmakers, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Henry Kissinger.
Then Becker headed west again taking the main anchor job at KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. Ross got involved in the community, adopting a classroom every year and making sure all the students had the tools necessary to learn. It was in Las Vegas during the huge floods in 2003 that Becker and his co-anchor won praise for their breaking news coverage.
The career path for Ross lead back to Southern California where he joined the team at KNBC-TV and anchored a daily newscast that was live in the newsroom and focused on breaking news and the excitement of the wild news events of the Los Angeles area.
But, the lure of settling down in a community and getting involved was strong. Becker decided to join the ABC4 team and will work to help keep the people of Salt Lake City, the surrounding area and the entire state of Utah informed.
Becker is also passionate about golf and auto racing. He says he was on the ski team in high school in Wisconsin, so he is hoping to soon re-kindle his early love of the slopes.
