Steve Ohnesorge

Steve began his broadcasting career in 1972 while in college at Belmont Abbey in Belmont. He was on air at the school’s radio station and locally as well. The next year he moved to Tallahassee, Florida where he continued his schooling while working full time in radio. Two years later, in 1975, he was back in the Carolinas, still in school, and at WBT radio as producer of a weekly talk show and also covered news stories.

In February, 1976, he moved full time to the other side of the Jefferson Pilot Broadcasting building and began his career at WBTV as a photographer/live truck operator and desk assistant. (still going to school too) He quickly transitioned to a photographer/reporter/editor’s role and in January 1980 was selected to lead the team when the Western Newsroom was opened in Morganton.

Later in 1980, he went to work with CBS News in the New York and Chicago bureaus in various capacities. Steve returned to the Carolinas the next year as the Western Bureau Chief. He was brought back to Charlotte in 1982 as a reporter and in 1984 served as Executive Assignment Editor to oversee local, state and national election coverage and handled daily news content and planning. In the summer of 1985 he once again was assigned to the Western Newsroom and has been there ever since covering stories from the mountains and foothills and anywhere the assignment desk sends him.

Steve has been in almost 2 dozen hurricanes, countless blizzards, floods, and has been across the country and even to Haiti reporting on major disasters.

He also traveled to military bases across the nation to report on training and readiness. Half a dozen assignments overseas to combat zones followed. Steve covered local soldiers, sailors, and marines. He was alongside those in uniform on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea just 6 weeks after 9/11, as they launched combat air strikes into Afghanistan. Months later he traveled with ground soldiers into Kandahar and, in 2004 and 2005, he covered combat operations in Iraq. Steve says people still come up to him and ask about the convoys, the conflict, close calls, and the heroes in uniform he traveled with.

Steve has won several awards over the years from the Associated Press, United Press International, and was selected as the 2001 North Carolina Reporter of the year by the Radio/Television/News Directors Association of the Carolinas. He is a multiple regional EMMY winner, and a National Emmy Nominee.

And yes, Steve finally did graduate from Belmont Abbey College with a degree in Business Administration. He lives in Morganton with his wife and has two grown daughters and a grandson. He is a published still photographer and always looking for the perfect shot. When he is not traveling to some far off point around the world, you might find him woodworking, or at a golf course.