Tori Yorgey’s broadcast journey has taken her from central Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia area to West Virginia. Next month, she’ll make her debut in the Western Pennsylvania media market.
The 25-year-old Philadelphia area native and Penn State University graduate will start Feb. 1 as WTAE-TV’s newest nighttime reporter. Channel 4 viewers will be able to catch her latest stories Tuesday through Saturday.
“I want to cover as much of my home state as I can,” Yorgey told the Post-Gazette. “I’m just excited to be back in Pennsylvania. I love it there. I’m excited to see what the Steel City has to offer and what’s ahead for me there. It will be just a great step for me career-wise and also just in life.”
Pittsburghers may appreciate that Yorgey turned down jobs at stations in Cleveland and Baltimore to work here. Though she will always be a huge Philadelphia sports fan, she has no problems adopting Pittsburgh’s teams. She even name-dropped the Steagles — a team that merged the Eagles and Steelers for the 1943 NFL season — as a reminder that Pennsylvania’s football teams and fans can coexist in peace.
“I have to root for all Philly sports teams,” she said. “My mom would not be happy otherwise. But I still think we can all be friends.”
Yorgey didn’t know what she wanted to do professionally until a meeting with an adviser during her sophomore year at Penn State. The adviser told her that she had to declare a major and asked what she most liked to do in her everyday life.
Her response: “I like to talk and I like people.”
That was enough for Yorgey’s adviser to steer her toward broadcast journalism, the degree she received from Penn State. She got an internship at State College-based radio station WBHV-FM and was hired there in her last semester of college.
Before receiving her first full-time broadcast news job at WSAZ-TV in Charleston, W.Va., Yorgey interned at WTXF-TV in Philadelphia. She recalled a story she did at WTFX on a structure fire that helped solidify her love of news reporting.
“When I got on the scene, the adrenaline I felt and being there in that moment, I just knew news was it for me,” she said.
During her three years in West Virginia, Torgey covered everything from the 2020 gubernatorial election to the fatal shooting of a Charleston police officer to a 5-year-old girl’s homecoming after being severely burned in a fire. She had only been at WSAZ for about a year when the COVID-19 pandemic began, but she believes reporting under those conditions “made me a better journalist.”
She had hoped to one day end up in either Baltimore or Pittsburgh, and that day came sooner than expected. She has only been to Pittsburgh a few times and has no direct ties here, but Yorgey is looking forward to exploring the local food and shopping scenes, experiencing this place during the height of its sports seasons and, after leaving Philly for a smaller city like Charleston, living in a bigger city.
Yorgey is excited to “work with a bunch of amazing and experienced journalists at WTAE” and wants viewers to know how seriously she takes covering the news.
“I can’t even describe what telling stories does for me,” she said. “I really, really like to impact people and make a difference in their communities and try to get the best and most accurate information out to them so they can make the best decision for their lives.
“I love having that responsibility, and the trust I have with anyone I come in contact with is something I’ve never taken for granted and never will.”
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxelburgh.
First Published: January 12, 2022, 6:04 p.m.
