The 12-time Emmy award winner Raj Mathai was honoured recently by the American India Foundation at a gala in San Francisco. Mathai anchors the nightly news and is among the Bay Area’s most well-known journalists, reported americankahani.com.
Kerala-born Mathai moved with his family to Palo Alto when he was 7 years old. After attending Los Altos High School, he graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in journalism and political science.
Mathai joined the NBC affiliate station in San Francisco in 1998 as Sports Director and became the primary news anchor in 2011. During his tenure at KNTV, Mathai covered some of the Bay Area’s most significant news stories, including the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Oakland Hills firestorm, and the dot-com boom and subsequent bust.
Mathai broke many stories and covered major events, including the 2019 Gilroy mass shooting, the 2017 Inauguration of Donald Trump, the 2017 Las Vegas massacre and the 2016 San Bernardino shootings
Mathai began his journalism career in the early 1990s as a sports reporter in Fresno, California. Even today in his nightly broadcasts as an anchor, Mathai’s interest and expertise in sports come through in his exuberance while discussing his favorite beat.
Mathai grew up to become the first Indian sportscaster on American television who went on to cover six Olympic Games in Tokyo, London, Vancouver, Turin, Athens and Salt Lake City. But sports and games are not all that Mathai did over a two-decade-long career.
He broke many stories and covered major events, including the 2019 Gilroy mass shooting, the 2017 Inauguration of Donald Trump, the 2017 Las Vegas massacre and the 2016 San Bernardino shootings.
He led KNTV’s coverage of the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash at San Francisco International Airport. He interviewed a host of illustrious personalities, including Colin Powell, Kamala Harris, and Gavin Newsom.
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