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Gabe Ross came to Ohio University to be a musician in the Ohio University Marching 110, but quickly discovered that he wanted to be a broadcaster.
“I played on the drumline and loved music,” said Ross. “But it didn’t take long for me to realize that WOUB was where I should be spending more of my time.”
Ross started as a student volunteer at WOUB and decided to major in video production in the Scripps College of Communication. He grew up nearby in Somerset, Ohio, and his dad, the late Ted Ross, was the director of engineering at WOUB so Gabe had a special family connection to broadcasting.
“My parents met at WSFJ TV 51 in 1983. They knew each other for six months and got married,” said Ross. “My brothers and I grew up at the TV station. We were exposed to the fun of live TV, lights, equipment, sound and everything else that came along with it.”
In Athens, Ross started appearing on a local, student-run sketch comedy show called Fridays Live and eventually started working in the WOUB newsroom doing behind-the-scenes production work.
“In the summer of 2008, I became fascinated with weather. I loved the science behind it. Some friends encouraged me to try out to anchor the weather on WOUB TV’s NewsWatch ,” said Ross. “I tried out and was approved to do it!”
Ross spent the rest of his time at WOUB doing weather and continuing to work on the production side. He enjoyed doing both. When he graduated in 2011, he was offered a job at WHIZ in Zanesville as the weekend weather anchor and weekday reporter.
“It didn’t take me long to realize that the reporting side of news wasn’t for me,” said Ross. “I worked in Zanesville for about a year. I then learned about a position that gave me the opportunity to return to WOUB to oversee NewsWatch .”
Ross supervised NewsWatch and eventually also started doing newsroom operations management work at WOUB. He was in that role for about two years when he got a phone call from another former WOUB student.
“Will Tapper worked in news operations at WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina. He called to tell me he was leaving, and he thought I should apply for the position. The news director at WECT at the time was a former WOUB student as well. So, the connection was amazing, and I got the job.”
Ross worked as the news operations manager at WECT for about a year and a half when his past experience as an on-air weather anchor came up.
“One of the meteorologists was leaving, and the chief meteorologist at WECT told me that he had heard that I had done weather before,” said Ross. “He asked if I would be interested in doing it again. He was excited because he thought my experience on-air and behind the scenes would be a great combination. I could do the on-air work and also propel our product to the next level by helping to upgrade the technology and improve the weather graphics.”
Ross started doing weekend morning weather at WECT in 2016 and hasn’t looked back.
“I have always loved doing all sides of things,” said Ross. “The nice thing about WOUB is that I had the chance to learn it all. I got experience doing everything from running master control to on-air work. I did everything I could get my hands on.”
To learn more about WOUB, visit woub.org.