Alex DiPrato

Alex DiPrato grew up in Broward County watching the WSVN, the local station that covers news in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties. He was a fan of the station’s main anchor, Craig Stevens.

Today, DiPrato works side-by-side with Stevens as a general news reporter for the station.

In between, DiPrato graduated from the University of Miami with a double major in broadcast journalism and political science and spent five years working his way up in the television business in Tallahassee and East Providence, R.I.

While at UM, DiPrato was an anchor for the UMTV news program NewsVision for one semester. As a junior, he began to intern at WSVN and once the internship ended, DiPrato was hired at the station as a writer. He was still studying at UM.

“Working in a real newsroom helped my school, and being in school helped my performance at work,” DiPrato said. “I had two places of learning,”

After finishing his degree, WSVN promoted him to assistant producer. Soon, DiPrato was offered a job as an executive producer, but he had other ideas in mind for his career.

“I had always wanted to be a reporter in the field, and I was [going to be] on the producing route if I didn’t make a reel and get a reporting job,” DiPrato said. “I like going after the news and getting a good story. It’s a rush to work against a deadline and get the story in on time.”

In his pursuit of his dream career as a reporter, DiPrato used his spare time to shadow WSVN journalists in the field and create his own sample news packages for a demo reel, which he sent to news stations around the country. His first reporting job offer came from the ABC news station in Tallahassee. From there, he was hired as a reporter at the CBS news station in Rhode Island.

“You never know where the television business will take you,” DiPrato said. “I would have never imagined myself moving to Rhode Island from Tallahassee for three years and loving it.”

While working in Rhode Island, DiPrato said he covered every type of news, from scandalous to depressing.

“Interviewing Senator Kennedy after he was diagnosed with cancer is one story that stands out from my time in Rhode Island,” DiPrato said. “But it’s always difficult to knock on the door of a family whose loved one has been killed. In Rhode Island, I remember talking to families who had love ones killed in Afghanistan or Iraq.”

Although DiPrato said he enjoyed his time in Rhode Island, he still dreamed of working for his first news station, this time as a reporter. So, he applied again to WSVN.

“The television business is about climbing the ladder,” DiPrato said. “I grew up watching WSVN, and always loved it.”

To reach his goal, DiPrato had to make some sacrifices.

“The pay when you start out is not great, but gets better as you move to bigger markets,” DiPrato said. “Also, you have to give up holidays – and weekends often – which is difficult especially at Christmas or Thanksgiving.”