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Rye alumnus lands dream reporting job

From a young age, Richard Giacovas knew that broadcast journalism was his passion.

Now 25 years old, he’s living out his dream while covering local stories for News 12 Westchester.

Richard Giacovas reports outside Virginia Road Elementary School in Valhalla after an elementary teacher at the school was arrested on drug charges. Photos/Andrew Dapolite

Giacovas began working for News 12 Westchester in September 2013 as a freelance associate producer. He was hired a few months after graduating from Iona College where he received his B.A. in mass communication with a concentration in broadcast journalism.

From there, he was promoted to a part-time position on the weekends as a producer.

“I basically did everything I could to get on camera,” Giacovas told the Review.

In March 2015, his hard work paid off and Giacovas was able to do his first on-air special about Dr. Susan Blum, founder and director at Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook. “It was my first time trying to learn to take an interview and make it compelling,” he said.

Giacovas’ current position as a reporter includes writing, shooting and editing all of his stories. “I’m actually really enjoying it,” he said.

These new responsibilities came after Altice, a media company based in the Netherlands, completed its acquisition of Cablevision, which included News 12, in May 2016, for an estimated cost of $17.7 billion.

After the acquisition, News 12 Westchester began filming out of Long Island.

For Giacovas, covering a variety of topics, including weather, natural disasters and interesting people in Westchester, is his favorite part of the job. “Every day is different and it’s so cool to have that,” he said, adding that he also cherishes the opportunity to tell people’s stories, especially ones local to the Rye community.

That type of reporting is what helped him win a spot on The Business Council of Westchester’s 40 under 40 “Rising Star” list of 2015. This yearly award recognizes 40 young, talented individuals in Westchester who are excelling in their field of work.

But the seeds of his local stardom were sown well before he reached his 20’s. “From a little boy, I always knew that I wanted to be on TV in some capacity,” Giacovas said.

Richard Giacovas stands with a White Plains Hospital gift shop volunteer at her surprise party thrown. Photo courtesy Twitter.com/RichardGNews12

Giacovas, who has lived in Rye for more than a decade, said he was 8 years old when he started putting on his own mock news broadcasts in his living room.

While attending Rye High School, Giacovas took two video journalism classes his junior and senior year which enabled him to further work on becoming an on-air reporter.

Vincent Baione, one of the teachers who ran the video journalism classes, said, “[Richard] was born with a natural ability to be warm and sincere in front of the camera.”

By Giacovas’ senior year, his class was producing the morning announcement newscasts, which played for five minutes during homeroom, with Giacovas as the on-air anchor.

“When Richard was a senior, everybody, even the other kids, knew that he was it,” said Michael Limone, an English teacher at Rye High School who also taught video journalism. “He had to do it, because he was so strong.”

Limone said that there were upwards of 20 students in the class. He explained that at first the students rotated who performed as the news anchor, but eventually the class agreed that Giacovas should exclusively do the broadcast because of his natural talent.

“He was so good that when people saw these [broadcasts] they thought he was a real newscaster,” Baione said.

Giacovas went on to attend Iona College where he was a member of three of the school’s media clubs.

Richard Giacovas interviews Sheryl Devefta of Greenburgh about the drug charges against a Virginia Road Elementary School teacher.

This included ICTV, the school’s student-run TV network, where he was a lead anchor; WICR, Iona’s radio station on which Giacovas co-hosted a show; and The Ionian, Iona’s student-run newspaper, for which he was a staff writer.

Michael Damergis, Sports Communication & Media graduate coordinator at Iona College, worked with Giacovas and his co-host Ali Mudano on their radio show, “The Lunch Hour,” and said there was no doubt that broadcast was Giacovas’ passion.

Mudano, who now works as a health and fitness coach, said that she and Giacovas both had the same type of humor, a great connection on air and also shared big dreams of becoming reporters. “It’s been really cool to see his rise through News 12,” she said.

While at Iona, Giacovas landed an exclusive interview with legendary singer Barry Manilow at the Mohegan Sun Arena. A longtime Manilow fan, he says that he’s seen the artist perform 20 times.

Giacovas has since scored more high profile interviews since working at News 12 Westchester including Carol Burnett, John Stamos and The Beach Boys.

Nonetheless, Giacovas says that he still has big goals left to achieve.

One of those includes wanting to do an interview with Howard Stern. “I listen to him every day, and I think [he’s] probably one of the greatest interviewers of all time,” he said.

Giacovas also mentioned that he would love to one day have his own talk show. “I never thought I would be on TV, so you never know,” he said.

Giacovas can be found on News 12 Westchester on Monday through Friday at 4:30 p.m.