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Albert Lincoln Roker (born August 20, 1954) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the weatherman for NBC's Today show.
Born in Queens, New York, Roker attended Xavier High School in Manhattan. Later, he began his weathercasting career while he was a student at the State University of New York at Oswego. Roker worked in Syracuse, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., before returning to New York in 1983 where he started as weekend weather for local station WNBC and backup weatherman for then WNBC cheif meteorologist Frank Field and one year later in 1984 rose to chief meteorologist at WNBC-TV when Frank Field left to join WCBS. Roker became the weekend weatherman for NBC's Sunday Today show in 1988 and Satudary in 1992 roles he kept utill he went to the weekday Today show full time in 1996, while keeping his WNBC duties. In 1994 the Today show weatherman Willard Scott stop working on Fridays and Roker replaced Scott on the Friday edtions of Today. In 1995 Scott stoped working on Mondays and Roker replaced Scott on the Monday edtions on Today. In 1996, he replaced Willard Scott as the full-time weekday weatherman and left WNBC'S Live at Five, and left WNBC four years later in 2000. He holds American Meteorological Society Television Seal 238.
Roker has hosted numerous events for NBC since 1994, including Christmas at Rockefeller Center since 1997 and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since 1994, and produced several programs for PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, and the Food Network. He is also the author of several non-fiction books, and an avid barbecue enthusiast. Roker has also filled in for Katie Couric and Matt Lauer as co-host of The Today Show. Roker also filled in for Jack Ford as co-host of the Sunday Today show on father's day in 1999 which was the first time that Roker acted as anchor of a Today show program.
In 2002 in accordance with his late father's wish, Roker underwent gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, which he said he did after failing at numerous diets. Eight months after the surgery, the New York Daily News reported he dropped 100 pounds (45 kg) off his 320 pound figure.
His wife is fellow journalist Deborah Roberts, who has done reporting for both ABC and NBC where she met Roker when she first joined the network in 1990 as a reporter and at that time Roker was a weatherman for WNBC'S Live at Five, 6, and 11pm newscasts. They both worked together on the today from 1990-1995 with Roberts filling in for Faith Daniels, Marget Larson, and Matt Lauer at the Newsdesk and Roker filling in for Willard Scott as the weatherman.
References
- Connor, Tracy. (November 17, 2002). "Stars put fat-fighting surgery in the spotlight". New York Daily News, p. 10.