Shannon Paige Sohn (born February 27, 1974) is a television news reporter at

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...

Eyewitness News in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where she became the first helicopter reporter to win a national

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

.Smith, Jessica
"TV news reporter recalls how her career took off: OBHS grad became first helicopter reporter to win national Emmy"
, ''Old Bridge Sentinel'', July 3, 2008. Accessed November 7, 2008. Sohn grew up in

Old Bridge Township, New Jersey Old Bridge Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, located in the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region and within the New York metropolitan area. As of the 202 ...

and graduated from

Old Bridge High School Old Bridge High School (formed from combining the former Cedar Ridge and Madison Central High Schools) is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Old Bridge Township in Middlesex ...

(then called Cedar Ridge High School) in 1992. She attended

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, majoring in journalism and communications, along with a minor in advertising. While in college, Sohn spent two years as an intern at

WCTC WCTC (1450 AM broadcasting, AM "Fox Sports New Jersey") is a commercial radio, commercial radio station broadcasting a sports radio radio format, format. city of license, Licensed to New Brunswick, New Jersey, the station serves Middlesex Coun ...

News Radio in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'' while at WCTC. In 2000, she earned a degree in broadcast meteorology degree through courses taken online at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

. Sohn started doing airplane traffic reports for New York City radio stations WABC,

WHTZ WHTZ (100.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial contemporary hit radio, top 40/CHR station city of license, licensed to Newark, New Jersey and broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WHTZ is the Flagship (broadcasti ...

and

WPLJ WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a non-commercial Christian adult contemporary music radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and broadcasts EMF's flagship programming service, K-Love. WPLJ's transmitte ...

. Sohn was hired by

in 2001 as part of its Eyewitness News Team on NewsCopter 7. In May 2001, Sohn married Dan Rice, who had trained her at WCTC and was then working for crosstown rival

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

on its Chopper 4. She won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for her coverage of the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

.Shannon Sohn
,

. Accessed November 7, 2008. She was scheduled to end her shift just minutes after the first tower was hit and did not leave her chair in the studio until Friday, providing news to the public as it came in from reporters in the field. In 2005, while flying in the WABC helicopter, she was able to track the crash of
Chopper 4
helicopter, using the helicopter's camera to track the crash, hoping that the images would allow emergency personnel to be accurately and quickly directed to the precise location of the incident. Sohn won a local Emmy Award for "Instant Breaking News" for her coverage of the crash.Huff, Richard

, ''

Daily News (New York) The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', April 5, 2005. Accessed November 7, 2008. The clip was submitted for a national Emmy Award which Sohn won, making her the first helicopter reporter to win a national Emmy. Sohn lives with Rice and their children Mackenzie and Zachary in the Long Valley section of

Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey Washington Township is a township in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 18,197, a decrease of 336 (−1.8%) from the 2010 census count of 18,533, which in turn r ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sohn, Shannon Mississippi State University alumni Old Bridge High School alumni People from Old Bridge Township, New Jersey People from Washington Township, Morris County, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni 1974 births Living people