Kevin Benson

Kevin Benson is an American meteorologist. He is best known for his tenure with WPXI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the National Weather Association and the American Meteorological Society, which has given him the AMS seal of approval.[2]

Benson was born in Brockway, Pennsylvania and graduated from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania.[3]

He held early radio jobs in Erie and DuBois, Pennsylvania, subsequently becoming a weather forecaster on Erie's WJET-TV.[3] He then became a weekend-afternoon DJ at Pittsburgh's WTAE-AM. He joined WPXI, Pittsburgh's NBC affiliate, in September 1987 as part-time weatherman. In June 1990, he became a WPXI co-anchor on the Pittsburgh television market's first Saturday morning news program. The experiment was a success and the format was expanded to include Sunday mornings.[1]

While working part-time at WPXI, Benson pursued a second career in beer sales. During the early 1980s, he worked for Stroh Brewery Company's Erie offices; he was a brand manager for Iron City Beer from 1984 to 1987; and from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, he helped rescue a struggling Anheuser-Busch wholesale distributor in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.[1] These jobs took him throughout every small town in Western Pennsylvania, allowing him to become intimately familiar with the geography of the region, a skill that aided him as a weatherman.[1]

Benson was described to have had his TV career's "defining moment" during the Blizzard of 1993, in which he and a co-anchor were on the air for most of an entire weekend.[1] Co-workers were unable to get to the station to relieve them because of the snow-covered roads. Benson said the incident "really put me on the map".

In 1998, WPXI hired Benson full-time.[4]

He graduated in 2003 from the meteorology training program at Mississippi State University, receiving a certificate in broadcast meteorology.

A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter criticized a 2006 WPXI gasoline giveaway presented by Benson because it allowed "commercialism to invade the bounds of the newscast".[5]

After reporting the weather on weekends for almost all of his years at WPXI, the station moved Benson to weekday mornings in April 2012.[6] Benson returned to weekends in December 2013.

Benson was charged with DUI as a result of a traffic stop by a PA State trooper in October, 2019. The stop occurred on Interstate 70, south of Pittsburgh, as a result of a call to 911 of an erratic driver on the highway. Benson's Blood Alcohol was reported to be 0.311, almost 4 times Pennsylvania's legal limit of 0.08. Traces of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, was also found in his system.[7]

Scott Trabandt, WPXI News director, confirmed on 11/19/19 that Benson was no longer with the station. Trabandt declined to elaborate on the circumstances. When reached by phone by the Tribune-Review, Benson declined to comment. There have been no reports as to whether Mr. Benson was dismissed by the station, or if he resigned.[8]