Nate Benson is a journalist based in Buffalo. Working with video, audio and digital platforms since 2002 his experience in production, broadcast television, podcasting, marketing, social media, and new media has allowed him to tell stories with passion, speed, and creativity.
But Nate, who are you, really?
Great question Nate, let’s dig into that.
Nate was born and raised in Auburn, NY. The son of a steel plant electrician and a mother whose career diversity ranged from real estate, to paralegal, to college admissions to elementary school secretary.
Nate’s foray into television began in 2002 when his 10th grade english teacher, Linda Weber, noticed his criminally unserious creativity during an assignment and brought him down to the schools A/V department.
Auburn High School was one of those small city schools that had its own tv station that was connected to the local cable system to broadcast sporting events, morning announcements and other programming.
Nate began learning the ins and outs of production, and anchoring “Maroon Morning Madness” under the tutelage of A/V wizard Bill Kawryga and journalism teacher Andrea Fusco.
Fortunately, to Nate’s knowledge, all evidence of Maroon Morning Madness has been lost.
After high school, Nate studied Television and Radio Production at Cayuga Community College, spent time as the program director of school radio station, WDWN 89.1 FM, “Auburn’s Only Alternative.”
He worked through his Associates degree by doing freelance video production for area organizations and businesses.
Having grown up listening to a lot of radio, Nate initially thought his career path would take him there and got his first job as a Saturday night jockey on “Rock 105 The Dog” in Syracuse in Summer 2006.
He lasted three weeks.
Not because he was bad. The station reformatted and the whole team was let go.
He wasn’t exactly good, either.
Nate moved to Buffalo in December 2006 to begin studying Digital Media at the University at Buffalo.
While at UB, Nate continued freelance video and photography work for various arts and community organizations, as well as Buffalo.com.
In 2010, while working at the Apple Store at the Walden Galleria, Nate met Phil Arno. Arno had recently purchased WBBZ and was setting up operations at the Eastern Hills Mall.
Being the sales wizard that he is, Nate sold Arno the first production computer WBBZ used.
Seeing the opportunity to maybe break into the TV business, Nate broke every rule Apple had on the books and offered to setup the computer for Phil for free.
(Sorry Apple).
Phil accepted the offer and by the time Nate was done setting everything up, he had talked his way into WBBZ’s first production job in November 2010.
Nate was all-in on Arno’s wild west vision of creating a new tv station and creating original local programming.
At first Nate mostly ingested commercials and public domain programming into the THIS-TV schedule. Once MeTV programming began on WBBZ, Arno began producing original local content like Political Buzz, All Sports WNY and The Fred Jackson Show.
Nate played a key role in bringing those productions to life under the mentorship of John DiScuilio and Bob Koshinski.
By Spring 2013 was directing and producing but was looking to get into the daily grind of news.
An opportunity at WGRZ arose and in June 2013, Nate began woring on WGRZ Daybreak as a photographer.
New director Jeff Wood quickly realized Nate can sing, dance, write and edit and quickly transitioned Nate role into a Multi-Skilled Journalist–meaning he does the job of three people for one salary, but that’s showbiz.
Nate has been witness to and covered some of the biggest stories in WNY in the last decade and change.
President Obama’s visit to Buffalo, the January 2014 blizzard, Snowvember, the Bethlehem Steel Fire, the FBI raid of Buffalo City Hall, COVID-19, Mayor Brown’s resignation, the Rainbow Bridge incident, Snovember 2, the Christmas Blizzard, and countless other stories.
Nate contributed coverage of the January 2015 blizzard that won Daybreak a 2014 NYS Emmy Award and a 2017 Murrow award for breaking news coverage of the Bethlehem Steel fire in November 2016. In 2020 he was awarded an Associated Press award in the Public Service category for his coverage of Broadband in Buffalo.
Additionally, Nate was the executive producer for WGRZ’s coverage of Governor Cuomo’s resignation that was recognized with a Murrow award, edited Maryalice Demler’s Murrow-winning investigation into corruption in North Tonawanda, and produced two episodes of WGRZ’s “Unsolved True Crime of WNY” podcast that was recognized with a Murrow award.
For his own reporting, Nate was recognized with a NYS Emmy award for his reporting on cancer clusters near a Manhattan Project waste site in Niagara County. Furthermore, Nate recieved a regional Murrow award for his investigation into a woman held at gunpoint by Amherst police after recovering her stolen vehicle.
Nate recognizes that when you list all of that out like that, it sounds quite obnoxious.
But who knows who reads this kind of biography. You never know who might need this information for their…whatever they’re doing. And you certainly never know what they might do with this information.
Currently, Nate is an award-winning reporter at WGRZ (NBC) in Buffalo.
He is known for his trademark tweed cap and vest collection. Whether it was intentional or not, the cap and vest look seemingly exemplifies who Nate is. Unserious when he can be, focused when he needs to be, but always with his own twist on it.
Nate lives in Kenmore, one small out of Buffalo proper, with his wife and two kids. He cites broadcasts journalists like Sean Mooney, Gene Okerlund and Bobby Heenan as his inspirations.
Live, laugh, eat wings.”
– NB