After 22 years of anchoring and reporting at WKMG-TV (CBS) in Orlando, Erik is now News 6's newest Manager of Content and Coverage.
Erik is a veteran television news journalist honored with dozens of prestigious awards recognizing him as one of the best and most trusted journalists in the southeastern United States. He holds Emmys and Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists wins in "On-Camera Talent" categories for both his Anchoring and Reporting.
Erik has been front and center for nearly every major Central Florida news story since he joined the News 6 team in 2003: hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, brush fires, Space Shuttle launches, crewed rocket launches, mass shootings, elections, notable arrests, notable trials and everything in between. Erik anchored hours-long extended coverage of one of the worst mass shootings in America: the Pulse Nightclub massacre. He was the first reporter on-scene at the Orange County Sheriff's Office when Casey Anthony was first arrested after her young daughter Caylee mysteriously disappeared.
As News 6's Space Expert, Erik spent many days and nights at the Kennedy Space Center reporting and learning. He covered extensively the Return to Flight mission of Shuttle Discovery in 2005 after the tragic loss of Shuttle Columbia as well as the final Space Shuttle launch and landing in 2011. He is one of only a handful of journalists in the world to have sat in the commander's seat on the flight deck of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Erik closely followed the subsequent decline of the Space Coast's economy resulting from the loss of the Shuttle program and then how it bounced back as the next phase of America's space program evolved: regular launches and landings of rockets carrying satellites into orbit and then crew to the International Space Station. And he covered every development of the design, construction and test flights of the deep-space Orion capsule and Artemis I moon mission. Erik even flew to Houston to meet and interview the Artemis II moon mission astronauts.
In 2014, Erik got the ride of his life in the back seat of an F-16 with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds!
Erik has also covered countless national stories including President George W. Bush's visit to Sarasota for what was supposed to be a routine trip on Sept. 11, 2001.
Erik was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. He graduated from the State University of New York's Binghamton University. He holds a degree in economics and a minor in Spanish. He got his start in journalism with an internship at CBS affiliate WBNG-TV in his college town. At WMBC-TV in New Jersey Erik covered the metro New York City area. There he learned to shoot, edit, report, produce and anchor. Erik also reported and anchored at ABC affiliate WWSB-TV in Sarasota.
Erik was an amatuer slalom waterskiing competitor and taught wakeboarding and barefoot skiing. He has a brown-belt in Okinawan GoJu-Ryu Karate, speaks some Finnish and is a clasically-trained pianist. Erik played the trumpet and French horn in his school's concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra and marching band. He sang on stage at Carnegie Hall with the Binghamton Crosbys, his college acapella group ranked at the time as one of the top six collegiate groups in the United States. Erik has traveled to 6 of 7 continents with his family to learn about people, cultures, customs and languages.
Erik has come to know Central Florida intimately through his day-to-day reporting over 22 years while raising two children in Seminole County, hosting Winter Springs' Winter Wonderland Parade and Tree Lighting for almost a decade and teaching a weekly cycle class at the Oviedo YMCA.
Erik specializes in compelling, demonstrative and honest storytelling and has reinvented himself from reporter to anchor to investigator to “Handynewsman” with his Getting Results at Home DIY franchise segments and now to Manager of Content and Coverage. You'll still see him on-air occasionally.
Erik firmly believes real journalism and real local news means focusing on our Central Florida communities, telling the truth and getting it right - every single day. He understands journalism is a privilege and brings great responsibility. Real journalism gives a voice to the voiceless, holds the powerful accountable and shines light on the darkest corners of our communities.
Email Erik about how News 6 can get results for you!
