FOX Weather Names Correspondents Ahead of Fall Launch
FOX Weather, the new AVOD streaming weather service from FOX News Media, is set to launch this fall. Three reporters, Nicole Valdes, Steve Bender, and Max Gorden, have been hired to cover live weather events. Valdes, based in Nashville, has a background in investigative journalism and hurricane reporting. Bender, stationed in Miami, has covered various natural disasters. Gorden will be based in Los Angeles, having previously worked in Arizona and Wisconsin. Additionally, five multimedia journalists will join the team to enhance coverage as the platform grows.
- Launch of FOX Weather enhances FOX News Media's service offerings.
- Hiring skilled journalists with extensive experience in weather reporting.
- None.
FOX Weather, FOX News Media’s new AVOD streaming weather service launching this fall, has signed three reporters and five multimedia journalists, announced Sharri Berg, president of the platform. Correspondents Nicole Valdes, Steve Bender and Max Gorden will provide live, breaking news coverage on developing weather events from around the country alongside multimedia journalists Will Nunley, Robert Ray, Katie Byrne, Mitti Hicks and Hunter Davis.
In making the announcement, Berg said, “We are excited to welcome this group of first-rate journalists to the FOX Weather team. Their specialized skills in meteorology, in-depth reporting and storm chasing will be an important component of our coverage as we launch and grow the platform.”
Nicole Valdes will serve as a field correspondent based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Valdes joins the platform after a stint as a reporter at KNXV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona, where she was nominated for a Rocky Mountain Emmy award for her investigative journalism. Prior to her time in Phoenix, Valdes covered hurricanes and other major weather events for CBS affiliate WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Florida. Notably, while there, she reported live from the scene during a 7,200-acre wildfire that engulfed Collier County in 2018, and covered Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Steve Bender joins FOX Weather as a Miami based reporter. Most recently, he served as the morning meteorologist at KRNV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Reno, Nevada where he covered major weather events since 2018, including the recent California wildfires. Previously, he anchored a morning news program in Shreveport, Louisiana at NBC affiliate KTAL-TV and served as an evening meteorologist in Greenville, Mississippi at the ABC/FOX affiliate WABG-TV. Throughout his career, he has covered a number of natural disasters, including Hurricanes Michael, Florence and Dorian.
Max Gorden will serve as a Los Angeles based field correspondent covering the West Coast. Previously, he served as a reporter and multimedia journalist at CBS affiliate KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona where he worked for the past three years. Prior to that, Gorden was a multimedia journalist at WAOW-TV, the ABC affiliate in Wausau, Wisconsin before moving to Austin, Texas as a reporter for Spectrum Cable News.
In addition, FOX Weather announced five multimedia journalists who will be reporting for the platform this fall. Nationally recognized storm chaser Will Nunley joins FOX Weather in this capacity based in Nashville, along with veteran reporter Robert Ray who is returning to FOX News Media as a multimedia journalist and storm specialist based out of Atlanta where he was a freelance reporter for The Weather Channel. Katie Byrne joins FOX Weather as a multimedia journalist based in Philadelphia while Mitti Hicks joins in the same capacity based in New Orleans, LA and Hunter Davis will be stationed in Oklahoma City, OK in the same position. Byrne, Hicks and Davis were all part of FOX News Media’s Multimedia Reporter training program, which is run by Berg.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer digital streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the AVOD platform FOX Weather. Currently the number one network in all of cable, FNC has also been the most watched television news channel for more than 19 consecutive years, while FBN currently ranks among the top business channels on cable. Owned by FOX Corporation, FOX News Media reaches 200 million people each month.
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