Peter King

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Peter King is a Correspondent for CBS News radio, anchoring CBS Hourly newscasts and reporting on space from his home in Orlando, Florida.

King has reported for CBS News Radio since 1994. He is the principal reporter for coverage of NASA and reported on the Space Shuttle program from 1995 to its conclusion in 2011 (for CBS, 1996-2011), encompassing more than 60 missions. King broadcast the first network radio report of trouble as the Columbia accident unfolded on February 1st, 2003, and remained on the air for more than eight hours that day. He covered the story through the accident investigation and NASA's return to flight. He's covered numerous other space milestones including the construction of the International Space Station, John Glenn's return to space in 1998, and many of NASA's interplanetary missions. King continues to report on the Space Station program, covering the first commercial human spaceflights by SpaceX, as well as NASA's plan to land Americans on the Moon for the first time since 1972.

King's responsibilities include coverage of stories and breaking news from the southeastern United States and around the country. He's reported on high profile events for CBS since 1997.

In 2018 he was the first network radio reporter on the scene of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shootings in Parkland Florida and was the principal reporter for CBS News Radio's Edward R. Murrow Award winning Breaking News coverage. He remained in Parkland, then followed students to Tallahassee as they rallied for stricter firearms laws in Florida, and followed up with more reporting on significant events related to the tragedy. It was far from his first experience with mass shootings.

In 2016, he anchored CBS News Radio coverage from Orlando in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shootings and reported from Baton Rouge after the shooting deaths of 3 police officers. He also reported extensively on Florida's role in the 2016 election. In 2015, King reported on the shootings at a historic African American Church in Charleston, SC.

Peter has covered dozens of natural disasters, mostly notably, hurricanes, including Florence, in South Carolina, and Michael in the Florida Panhandle in 2018. Long after the rest of the national media left the Panhandle, he returned there for an extensive series on its slow recovery, which aired in December '18.

In 2010, he was in Haiti immediately following the earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people, and reported from various places in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. His reporting on both of those stories won Edward R Murrow Awards.

Other assignments include assignments during every Presidential election since 2000. In 2012, he covered the Republican National Convention and the Mitt Romney campaign. He was instrumental in CBS's continuing coverage of the economic crisis and foreclosure crisis in 2008 and beyond..., King covered a "perfect storm' of four national "lead" stories in early February, 2007, all taking place during an eight day period, all in Florida (the Super Bowl, Central Florida tornadoes, the arrest of astronaut Lisa Nowak and the death of Anna Nicole Smith). King covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana in 2005, along with four Florida hurricanes in six weeks during 2004. He was also in South Florida for the Elian Gonzalez custody battle, he covered the 2000 Florida recount from all over the state. He's covered scores of hurricanes, tornados, six Super Bowls, four World Series, and had contributed stories from baseball's spring training in Florida. King is also frequently heard as an anchor for CBS News Radio's hourly newscasts, updates, and the CBS World News Roundup.

King's CBS duties were concurrent with other reporting posts from 1994-97. In 1997, he was News Director for WWNZ-AM, Orlando. From 1994-1996, he was a reporter and news anchor for WWNZ, while also filing reports for Florida's Radio Network and the Voice of America. From 1990-1994, King held on-air jobs at WNDB AM, Daytona Beach and WKLX FM, Rochester. From 1980 1990, he held management and on air positions at WHEN AM/WRHP FM, Syracuse. From 1975-1980, King worked for WDOT AM, Burlington, VT, WHSH FM, Albany, NY and WTKO AM, Ithaca, NY. His career began at the Ithaca College (NY) radio station, WICB-FM.

His reporting has won many awards, including several shared Edward R. Murrow and Headliner Awards at CBS News, and "Best Investigative Reporting" and "Best Serious Feature" from the Associated Press of Florida. In 2020, His documentary, One Giant Leap: Revisited (commemorating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11), won the Best Documentary: History category at the New York Festivals Radio Awards.

In 2023, the National Space Club and Foundation presented him with its Press Award, making him only the fourth CBS News journalist to be so honored(the others were Edward R Murrow, Walter Cronkite and William Harwood).

In 2015, he was the recipient of the National Space Club Florida Committee Harry Kolcum Memorial Award for News and Communications for his decades of reporting on NASA and space.

In 2017, King was among the first recipients of the Florida Associated Press Broadcasters Legacy Award for distinguished service and for his involvement with the Florida AP Broadcasters annual college workshop. He has also been honored several times by the Central Florida Press Club. King is a past president for both organizations.

During his spare time, King enjoys traveling, reading, walking, going to the beach, playing piano and attending Major and Minor League baseball games. He loves to travel-preferably by car, hitting the open road and pulling off to find unusual things along the way. He's taught writing at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla, Broadcasting at Cayuga Community College in Auburn NY, and has lectured for classes for New York University, Syracuse University, the George Washington University and Ithaca College. He's been a contributing writer for Radio World, an industry trade publication, and is the co-author of the book, Ithaca Radio(Arcadia Publishing, 2014),with his brother. He is a 1978 graduate of Ithaca College, New York.

King divides his time between Orlando and Central New York.

• On Twitter: @PeterKingCBS