Jay DeDapper

Jay Warren DeDapper (born June 7, 1962) in Los Angeles to Jay Warren DeDapper Sr. and Marguerite Walcott DeDapper. Jay is a senior political reporter at WNBC-TV Channel 4 in New York City. Jay began his broadcasting career while studying at the [http://www.ucsb.edu University of California at Santa Barbara] UCSB. In his sophomore year a television program came on the air called NBC News Overnight. Anchored by Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobyns, with Bill Schechner replacing Dobyns in January 1983, it's take on news appealed to Jay and helped him decide on a career in television journalism. He attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where he obtained a master's degree and won the Harrington Award as the best journalism student of his class.

Jay landed his first job at [http://www.kwqc.com KWQC-TV6] NBC in Davenport, Iowa. Jay was the station's weekend weather anchor and one of the weekday reporters. While in Davenport a key story that he covered was the [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972658-1,00.html murder-suicide of an entire family] in the rural town of Algona, Iowa. After 15 months in Davenport, Jay landed a job in Phoenix, Arizona at [http://www.azfamily.com KTVK-TV] . Jay was part of the debut team that launched the Newschannel 3 morning news show and later did investigative reporting, winning several Emmy awards. Again one of his most notable stories was his ongoing coverage of another mass homicide. This time it was the 1991 [http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/buddhist_temple/index.html massacre] of some 9 people at the [http://www.watprom.iirt.net Wat Promkunaram Buddhist Temple] . Authorities initially arrested and charged 5 young men in the attacks. Jay helped break the story that their confessions were coerced after the true killer was discovered almost by accident.

In 1992, Jay took a job in New York City as part of WABC-TV's] [http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/front Channel 7] Eyewitness News Team. He was a general assignment reporter for five years during which he covered nearly the entire OJ Simpson trial, the crash of TWA flight 800, and a series of terrorist bombings in Israel. In 1997 Jay became the political reporter just in time to cover Rudy Giuliani's reelection campaign.

In 1998 Jay moved to WNBC-TV where he joined a newly-enlarged political unit. Jay helped develop the groundbreaking "What Matters" series of in-depth issues reporting along with his "Reality Checks". Jay has developed a following for his ability to make sense of complicated stories and has covered the campaigns of Senator Chuck Schumer, Governor George Pataki, Senator Hillary Clinton, among others. On September 11, 2001 Jay rushed to New York City Hall, reporting from there and from the street adjacent to the World Trade Center. After the collapse of the second tower he moved north eventually reporting from the police command center at the Police Academy for the next several days. Jay was the first pool reporter brought to Ground Zero on Giuliani's first visit to the site on September 12th. Since joining Newschannel 4 Jay has won numerous awards including the prestigious Cronkite Award for political reporting. In 2007 Jay and colleague Melissa Russo helped create the first local political video podcast [http://www.wnbc.com/politics/10777759/detail.html?dl_trayclick Politics to Go] for WNBC-TV.