Most Pittsburghers are quite familiar with the local anchors and reporters on the city’s big three television stations. There are, however, a lot more folks behind the scenes responsible for putting together fun and functional newscasts.
Take Ian Smith, 48, of Ross, who has been a KDKA-TV photojournalist since 2005. The man has covered everything from Super Bowls to hurricanes to police shootings and is still going strong almost 18 years later.
On Nov. 30, Smith announced that he had accepted the role of chief photographer at KDKA, which means he’s now tasked with guiding the station’s roster of photojournalists who gather the footage and photos viewers see on TV every day.
“KDKA has a long history of tremendous photojournalists here,” Smith told the Union Progress. “We have people who have been here a long time and some newer people. All of them have their talents. It’s just an honor to be able to lead them.”
That role had been vacant since 2017, which is when longtime KDKA chief photographer Michael Challik retired after 39 years with Channel 2. Smith said he made newly appointed KDKA news director Shawn Hoder aware of that situation soon after he started in July, and Hoder quickly opted to grant Smith chief photographer status.
“Ian exemplifies KDKA and the importance of our connection with our community,” Hoder said. “He leads by example and has our team’s full support. … We are excited to see him lead the talented photojournalists we have here and are looking forward to even greater days ahead.”
Smith is a North Hills High School graduate who went on to study radio and television production at Kent State University. It took him eight years to finish his higher education because he dropped out of school at one point to take a job at WJW-TV in Cleveland. That’s where he met his wife and started his family.
After graduating from Kent State, Smith worked at WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio, for five years before joining KDKA as a photojournalist, editor and live-truck operator. As a kid, he had idolized retired Channel 2 legends such as Ralph Iannotti, Lynne Hayes-Freeland and Paul Martino. He still treasures the time KDKA sports director Bob Pompeani invited a 13-year-old Smith and his father to hang out in the newsroom.
“That’s all I ever wanted to do,” Smith said. “My goal was to get back here, raise my kids in Pittsburgh and be part of the scene I worshipped growing up. It’s been every bit as cool as I dreamed it would be.”
For him, it’s the “storytelling aspect” and the way little sounds or images “can put you into the moment” that drive him as a photojournalist. He had been in Pittsburgh less than a month when he and KDKA money and politics editor Jon Delano were sent to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Earlier this year, he and reporter Chris Hoffman traveled to the Gulf Coast and surveilled the damage wrought by — ironically enough — Hurricane Ian.
In May 2020, Smith found himself by PPG Paints Arena documenting a crowd that had formed to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. At some point, a peaceful day turned violent. Smith’s camera was destroyed, and his head, chest and legs were brutally beaten. He was saved by, of all people, then-Penguins President and CEO David Morehouse, who helped pull him inside the arena and summon an ambulance.
Though his injuries from that day have since healed, Smith said he still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from that assault.
“It was a pivotal moment in my life,” he said. “It scared me to death. People were chanting for them to kill me. Fortunately, there were some good people there who came to my rescue.”
These days, Smith mostly aims his camera at Pittsburgh sporting events. His time at KDKA has afforded him the opportunity to cover three Super Bowls and four Stanley Cup Finals featuring the Steelers and Penguins, respectively.
As recently as Saturday, Smith was at Acrisure Stadium braving frozen conditions to capture the Steelers’ victory over the Las Vegas Raiders only a few days after the death of legendary Steelers running back Franco Harris.
“The game had a magical feel,” he said. “Maybe because it was Christmas Eve, maybe because of Franco or a combination, but even with the extreme cold, Saturday was a very special night, probably the best night of the whole season.”
One of the coolest assignments Smith has ever received was getting to accompany “The Big K Morning Show” co-host Larry Richert as he peeled back the curtain on CBS’ “The NFL Today” pregame show. He had the rare opportunity to have dinner with Richert, former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former University of Pittsburgh star quarterback Dan Marino. It was an unforgettable experience that Smith would’ve paid “tens of thousands of dollars to do.”
Becoming KDKA’s new chief photographer is Smith’s first time in a management position of any kind. He knows how talented Channel 2’s photojournalists are, so he has no plans to implement anything radical. Instead, he’s going in with the goals of “focusing on the art” of visual storytelling and enhancing everyone’s inherent skill sets “to be the best we can possibly be every day.”
“We’re creating journalism and art with our pictures,” Smith said. “Let’s not just fill the black. Let’s focus on each shot and make sure it’s something that helps tell the story.”
To that end, Smith hopes Pittsburghers continue to tune into KDKA so they can see what he and his staff have in store for them. He urged viewers to remember that behind every broadcast reporter is a photojournalist or two who were also out there in the thick of things.
“Keep an eye on not just the reporters,” he said, “but the video and the people behind the scenes.”
Joshua covers pop culture, media and more at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Contact him at jaxelrod@unionprogress.com.