Sam Champion

Sam Champion (born August 13, 1961 in Fairfax, Virginia) is the weather anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America" and weather editor of ABC News. He graduated from Fairfax High School, Fairfax, Virginia, in 1979.

Career

Sam is a veteran of ABC. He was also a veteran weatherman for WABC-TV's "Eyewitness News" in the New York City media market for 17 years, and has continued to do fill-in work on WABC-TV since taking the network job full-time.

Champion holds a B.A. in broadcast news from Eastern Kentucky University, where he interned at WKYT-TV in Lexington, Kentucky. He worked at WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky and WJKS (now WCWJ) in Jacksonville, Florida. On WABC-TV, he had helmed the weekday weather forecasts (5, 6 and 11 p.m.) since 1988. On August 22, 2006, "Good Morning America" announced that Champion was named to his current positions with "GMA" and ABC News, effective September 5,2006. [ [http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2343718&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 "ABC News" Sam Champion Joins 'GMA' as Weather Anchor] ] He will also contribute to weather and environment-related stories for ABC News programs.

Champion is not a meteorologist, but gained weather forecasting knowledge through his broadcast work. He has occasionally appeared on "Live with Regis and Kelly", the daily talk show produced by WABC-TV, and CNN's "Larry King Live."

Champion is active in many charitable organizations in the New York City area. He was the Grand Marshal of the Multiple Sclerosis Society Fall Bike Tour, the chairman of the 25th annual March of Dimes NYC WalkAmerica, and master of ceremonies of "Stopping AIDS Together," a part of Sunday by the Bay. Champion, who is openly gay, also hosted the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project's 2002 "Courage Awards", along with movie critic Frank DeCaro. [cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2005_August_30/ai_n15655247 |title=Nueva gay island |work=The Advocate |date=2005-08-30 |first=Drew |last=Limsky] [ [http://www.avp.org/publications/media/2002courageawards.htm Anti-Violence Project to Hold Sixth Annual Courage Awards] ]

References