Interview by Krista Giannak

As an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award winner, Drew Scott spent 20 years as a reporter and anchor at News 12 Long Island, retiring in 2017. Scott’s previous positions have included founding news director at WLNY Channel 55 and Washington, DC, correspondent for Tribune Broadcasting. Currently, Scott can be heard on JVC Broadcasting’s LI News Radio, and he co-chairs the Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force.

Early Career

Drew Scott got his start in college as a radio journalist with WPIX-FM. “I like radio. It’s very informal, not as rigidly structured as TV news, he says. “There’s a lot of interaction with the audience over the telephone through phone interviews.”

While in Bermuda on his honeymoon after graduation, he auditioned live for ZBM. The studio required a broadcast journalist for both television and radio, and he enjoyed his work as a news anchor.

“There was no such thing as instant television footage. You had to develop and edit the film, literally cutting it into pieces,” Scott explains. “Even if it was breaking news, you couldn’t put any pictures on the air until at least 45 minutes after the event happened.”

“The real test of a journalist is arriving in New York City,” he says, as he described working two shifts for WOR in the 1970s: one for the radio and one for television. “I prefer mornings because you tend to get fresh stories and breaking news events.”

Political Journalism

In 1980, Scott moved to Virginia to establish Tribune Broadcasting’s Washington bureau and a news program called Independent Network News. He covered Capitol Hill, would sometimes cover the White House, and followed Jimmy Carter on the campaign trail.

In 1981, Scott witnessed the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. “It was stunning. You can’t believe what you’re seeing for the first few minutes, and then you realize you’ve got to step it up and get going,” he says. He hurried to call in the story from a phone across the street, and for the next few days, he stood in front of Washington University Hospital to report on the president’s condition.

Influencing the Next Generation

When Scott anchored the LI News Tonight television program and taught student journalists at NYIT in the 1980s, the students experienced a real-world news environment. They worked alongside paid news reporters on the program and had a daily 4 p.m. deadline. Many of the students would later join Scott as TV 55 or News 12 reporters.

“The students were actually sharing stories … shoulder to shoulder with newscasters and reporters. There was no other program like it,” he says.

One of his most meaningful stories was an interview for WPIX with a Nassau County woman with AIDS early in that crisis. She wanted to leave a legacy for her young daughter, but she still owed a mortgage and had little money.

“Her mortgage banker saw the story, and the next day, the bank forgave her mortgage. So the youngster, when her mother passed away, was able to inherit a house that was fully paid for. That showed me the power of the media, at times, can be for a good thing,” Scott says.

The Variety of Local News

Prompted by his wife’s battle with breast cancer in 1997, Scott transitioned to News 12 Long Island, ending his daily commute to WPIX’s New York City studios. When she recovered, he decided to stay.

“Every day would be a different day. It might be police involvement, political development, the Long Island Railroad, LIPA. The unexpected was very interesting,” he says.

Current Opioid Crisis Advocacy

When Scott covered opioid arrests and the heroin trail as a journalist, he never imagined that one day, the opioid crisis would affect his family. In 2017, his granddaughter, Hallie Rae Ulrich, died of an overdose at age 22. Scott explained her struggle to obtain residential treatment. Today, as co-chair of the Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force, Scott works with insurance companies, hospitals, governmental agencies, and social organizations to increase treatment availability.

“I want people to hear my story and know that it can happen to any family,” he says.

Scott can be reached at drewscot@optonline.net.

 

Krista Giannak is a freelance writer and principal of Writing Wise Words That Matter.