Kevin Benson Biography
Kevin Benson is a Television meteorologist from the United States well known for his tenure with WPXI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the National Weather Association, which has earned him the AMS stamp of approval, and the American Meteorological Society.
How old is Kevin Benson? – Age
Benson is 62 years old as of 2021. He was born in 1959 in Brockway, Pennsylvania, United States.
Kevin Benson Education
Benson was a graduate of the University of Gannon in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Mississippi State University’s meteorology preparation program in 2003, earning a degree in broadcast meteorology.
Kevin Benson Family
Benson’s parents, siblings and other family members are not known to the world.
Kevin Benson Spouse – Wife
Benson has been consistent in holding his personal life out of the public eye, however much fame he has gained as a meteorologist.
Kevin Benson Net Worth
His wealth records are not revealed making it difficult to estimate his net worth.
Kevin Benson Career
He had early radio positions in Erie and DuBois, Pennsylvania, becoming a weather forecaster on Erie’s WJET-TV. He later became a weekend-afternoon DJ at WTAE-AM in Pittsburgh. As a part-time weatherman, he joined WPXI, the NBC affiliate of Pittsburgh, in September 1987. He became a WPXI co-anchor on the first Saturday morning news program for the Pittsburgh television market in June 1990. The experiment was a success and Sunday mornings were extended to use the format.
Benson pursued a second career in alcohol distribution while working part-time at WPXI. He worked for the Erie headquarters of Stroh Brewing Corporation during the early 1980s; he was brand manager for Iron City Beer from 1984 to 1987; and he helped save a failed Anheuser-Busch wholesale dealer in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. These jobs took him to every small town in Western Pennsylvania, helping him to become well acquainted with the region’s geography, a talent that benefited him as a weatherman.
During the Blizzard of 1993, in which he and a co-anchor were on the air for most of an entire weekend, Benson was described as having had his TV career’s “defining moment” Owing to the snow-covered paths, co-workers were unable to arrive at the station to relieve them. Benson said that the “really put me on the map” incident.
WPXI recruited Benson full-time in 1998. A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter criticized Benson’s 2006 WPXI fuel giveaway because it allowed “commercialism to invade the bounds of the newscast”
The station moved Benson to weekday mornings in April 2012, after covering the weather on weekends for almost all of his years at WPXI. In December 2013, Benson returned for the weekend. As a result of a traffic arrest by a PA state trooper in October 2019, Benson was charged with DUI. The stop took place on Interstate 70, south of Pittsburgh, as a result of an erratic driver calling 911 on the highway. Benson’s blood alcohol was registered to be 0.311, nearly 4 times the maximum limit of 0.08 in Pennsylvania. In his system, traces of benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, were also found.
On 11/19/19, Scott Trabandt, WPXI News chief, announced Benson was no longer with the station. Trabandt refused to comment on the conditions. Benson declined to comment when contacted by the Tribune-Review by phone. There was no news as to whether the station had fired Mr. Benson, or whether he had resigned.