Al Roker

About

Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the weather anchor on NBC’s Today, and occasionally co-hosts 3rd Hour Today. He has a lapsed American Meteorological Society (AMS) Television Seal of Approval (#238).

Roker was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, the son of Isabel, of Jamaican descent, and Albert Lincoln Roker Sr., a bus driver of Bahamian descent. He initially wanted to be a cartoonist. He was raised Catholic, his mother’s faith, and graduated from Xavier High School in Manhattan. He attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego, where he received a B.A. in communications in 1976.

Roker worked as a weather anchor for CBS affiliate WHEN-TV (now WTVH) in Syracuse, New York, from 1974 until 1976, while he was enrolled at SUNY Oswego. During his time in Oswego, he also DJ’d at the campus radio station, WNYO. Following the completion of his studies, Roker moved to Washington, D.C., and took a weathercasting position at independent station WTTG, then owned by Metromedia, remaining there for much of the next…