GREG KELLY CO-ANCHORING THE MORNING NEWS ON FOX 5 IS GOOD NEWS FOR NEW YORK
By Suzanne Corso
Photography by Alessandro Casagli
There may be no face in New York more likeable and trusted than Greg Kelly’s. The popular, friendly and funny co-host of Good Day New York is everybody’s favorite anchorman this side of Ron Burgundy, but he did not take the traditional route to the newsroom.
The son of New York City’s respected Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Greg is a Fordham grad and former Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, who spent nine years as a pilot, accumulating 158 aircraft carrier landings and flying over Iraq to enforce the United Nations’ No-Fly Zone. When his service was over, Kelly pursued a career in journalism. He landed an anchor gig upstate in Binghamton before coming home to the Big Apple to join NY1 as a political reporter, a job which found him chasing down his dad for stories. Ironically, his next job at Fox News took him back to Iraq, where he was an embedded reporter in Baghdad and caught shrapnel from a mortar shell. When he returned stateside, he did it in style, serving as Fox News’ White House correspondent from 2005 to 2007, before joining Rosanna Scotto behind the anchor desk for the morning news show. Kelly recently welcomed our Suzanne Corso into his office to talk about his long road to becoming every New Yorker’s favorite guy to have a cup of coffee with in the morning.
How does a former Marine march his way from Baghdad to the anchor desk in New York? I knew I was interested in the Marine Corps, and I was definitely drawn into military service at an early age, because of my father’s experience. I realized at a very young age I could enroll in an officer program as a teenager, which to me seemed a very adult thing to do. I also knew I did not want to do this for the rest of my life. I wanted to do it, learn from it and move on just like my father did. But, also while growing up, I was always interested in news and current events. I remember watching TV news as a four-year-old and reading the paper every day in grade school. Later, at college, I became involved with the radio station, WRUV, but I didn’t really consider journalism as a potential career until I was almost done with my military service.
Do you draw from your experiences in the military in this role today as a journalist? My whole world view was shaped by the Marine Corps. It prepared me for everything. It was the foundation for my professional life. Obviously, having been a Marine was valuable when I was embedded with the troops from the invasion of Iraq.
How would you explain the great chemistry that you have with Rosanna Scotto? Personally, I don’t see it! Ha! Ha! Just kidding. I feel as though we are cousins—some people say brother and sister. I just feel as though Rosanna is family. We can say just about anything to each other. We grew up in similar cultures; we get the same references. We’re like reflections of each other in the mirror. There is a nice diversity that just fits well and plays out on TV perfectly, except when it’s a disaster! We get each other. We like to think we truly are New York.
Greg Kelly is the I’m Tawkin’ subject of DOWNTOWN’s Spring 2014. If you would like to continue reading the entire interview with the Good Day New York anchor, you can find it in our latest issue on newsstands now!
