Rolland Smith has over 40 years of broadcast and television production experience. He is former news anchor at WWOR-TV in New York and at WCBS-TV also in New York.
Smith first joined WWOR-TV in 1988 from the CBS network where he was co-host of "The CBS Morning Program," a 90-minute talk and news broadcast. Smith left WWOR-TV in 1993 to work for NBC in California. He returned to Channel Nine in 2000.
Smith calls himself a storyteller, but he is the consummate broadcast journalist. His skills as an anchorman, commentator, reporter, writer and producer have earned him numerous awards and honors.
He is the recipient of eleven Emmy awards. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has honored him 35 times with Emmy nominations. His weekly commentaries for have earned him an Emmy and two Emmy nominations for writing.
Smith is an author of two books of poetry. Quiet Musings, published by Sunscape Publications, was nationally released with critical acclaim in August 1995. Encore – The Poetry of Nature, also Sunscape Publications, was released in October 2001. In November 1996 he released a CD called “Syl.la.bles”.
Smith joined CBS in 1970 as a correspondent and anchor for WCBS-TV. He served as co-anchor of "The Channel 2 News at Eleven" from April 1973 to September 1986. Smith also anchored the "Channel 2 News at Six" from July 1976 to September 1986. He also anchored the station's public affairs documentary series " Eye on New York". He served as moderator of WCBS-TV's weekly public affairs program, "Public Hearing" from 1976 to 1984. He wrote and anchored a twice-weekly syndicated radio feature called "Footnotes" for CRD, a division of the CBS Radio Network, which was broadcast on various affiliate stations and the Armed Forces Radio Network from 1982 to 1986.
Prior to joining CBS, Rolland Smith worked for Metromedia Television in Washington, DC, as White House and Capital Hill correspondent and was subsequently transferred to New York, as co-anchor of the WNEW-TV Ten O'clock News where he also served as an accredited United Nations Correspondent for the Metromedia Group.
In 1968 Smith reported from the front lines of the Vietnam War during the height of the "Tet Offensive". His war zone coverage took him from the Mekong Delta to the DMZ, for Corinthian Broadcasting.
Rolland Smith counts among his memorable assignments and professional achievements:
• The distinction of being the first journalist to accompany the US Geological Survey Team inside Mt. St. Helens after the volcano erupted.
• Covering the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ireland and the United States and an exclusive televised conversation with the Pope in Rome during coverage of a Vatican Consistory.
• Anchoring separate town meetings with President George Bush and President Bill Clinton
• Flying an F-16 in simulated combat maneuvers to explain to viewers what they were seeing from official footage during the Gulf War.
• Anchoring the International feed of the 1985 "Live Aid" concert for over 11 hours to an audience in excess of two billion viewers in 107 countries.
• In May of 1986, Smith anchored the two-hour worldwide broadcast of "Sport Aid".
• Following the Moscow Summit of May 1988, Smith anchored a two-hour international radio simulcast of a joint United States-Soviet Union panel.
• In an effort to raise the world's awareness of environmental dangers, Smith anchored "Our Common Future" in June 1989. This five-hour television special, live from Lincoln Center, New York and Tokyo, Japan, brought together a variety of world leaders and performing artists to increase environmental awareness.
• Anchored and wrote a live two-hour broadcast from Moscow entitled "Earth Alert: A Global Forum". The global broadcast was carried simultaneously on Intelsat and Inter-Sputnik and was part of a five-day conference held in Moscow, where world leaders gathered to discuss serious environmental issues facing the world today.
• A journalist participant with the Global Forum on Human Survival at an Oxford College Conference of spiritual and parliamentary leaders.
Rolland Smith has covered the national political conventions since 1968, and he has conducted interviews with many world figures and political leaders. Smith's many documentary credits as writer, producer - reporter include “Nuremberg – Reflection and Resonance,” "The Survivalists," "Reflections on the Hudson," "The Bermuda Triangle," "Lady Liberty," "Joe Clark - The Myth and the Man," "Great Teachers," "Social Insecurity," “The Remarkable Mr. Mills,” and dozens of others.
In addition to Smith's on-air accomplishments, he is the former President of the Foundation for Global Broadcasting, a non-profit organization encouraging the use of television and radio to further cross-cultural understanding.
Smith has served as an Adjunct Professor of Electronic Journalism at William Patterson College and Montclair University, both in New Jersey. He has also served on the Board of Directors of Caldwell College. He was also on the advisory council for the Graduate School of Business, University of New Haven in Connecticut and served on the Communications Committee, Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge, New York.
Smith is a member of the National Association Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), The Friars Club, and has been elected to membership in New York’s Explorers Club. He is a naturalist, a poet, a commentator, a skier and golfer and a licensed pilot.
He lives with his wife Ann Gormley Smith in the Hudson Valley.