Joe Arena leaving WPXI to become anchor in Long Island, NY
Joe Arena’s career in broadcast journalism began in the Big Apple and took him everywhere from Bluefield, W.Va., to Shreveport, La., before he arrived in Pittsburgh almost a decade ago.
The 45-year-old New York City native had no experience with the Steel City before starting at WPXITV as a weekday morning anchor in October 2012. He stayed in that role for seven years before becoming a Channel 11 weekend morning anchor and weekday reporter.
Along the way, Arena and his wife, Mary Claire, started a family, bought a house and began putting down roots here.
“This is the first place I’ve lived in my journey across this country where I’ve said, ‘I can make this my home,’” Arena told the Post-Gazette. “I think that has a lot to do with the people, the support you get from the community and the real interest they take in what you’re doing every day.
“That makes you feel like you’re a Pittsburgher even when you’re not.”
That chapter of Arena’s life will soon be coming to an end. He has accepted an offer to become the lead weekday anchor at News 12 Long Island. His last day at WPXI will be June 26.
He described his new job as the “full package” in terms of allowing him to work for the station he grew up watching, move closer to his brother and 81-year-old mother, and get back in the lead anchor chair. That didn’t seem to be in the cards for him in Pittsburgh, although Arena made it clear there is no bad blood between him and WPXI brass.
“There are no hard feelings at all,” he said. “It’s timing in this business. You have to do what’s best for your family and your future. ... This opportunity was available somewhere else. It would’ve been great if it was available here, but that’s the business.”
Arena attended Syracuse University but dropped out after three years when he was offered a position with “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.” He stayed in New York City for a while working in various production capacities for the likes of the now-defunct CNNfn, Don Imus’ radio show “Imus in the Morning” and
MSNBC. Having always wanted to give on-air reporting a shot, he eventually put together a resume tape and started applying for broadcast jobs nationwide.
His local news career began in West Virginia, which was “like an extension of college” in terms of giving him a crash course on how to report and anchor. Before landing at WPXI, Arena made stops in Albany, N.Y.; Washington D.C.; Shreveport, La.; and Buffalo, N.Y. He even took a year off from journalism to work in construction, which only reminded him how much he loved being in broadcasting.
When he first got to Pittsburgh, Arena and his wife lived Downtown as a means of getting to know “the heart of the market.” As his children — Jane, 9, and Charlie, 7 — got older, the family moved to Ben Avon. But those first six years living Downtown served as “an instant way to meet people” for Arena and showed him just how much Pittsburgh and Buffalo had in common.
“Places like Buffalo and Pittsburgh, those are very competitive news markets,” he said. “People hold your feet to the flames here. It’s great as a reporter to be tested like that every day.”
In his almost 10 years at WPXI, Arena has been involved with the coverage of everything from multiple Penguins Stanley Cup parades to the 2014 stabbings at Franklin Regional High School to the mass shooting at Squirrel Hill’s Tree of Life synagogue. It wasn’t always easy on his psyche, but he learned early on that “you have to separate your emotion from the story.”
One of his favorite parts about anchoring in Pittsburgh has been interacting with WPXI viewers both in person and online. Arena said he also hears from Buffalonians who are in town and see him on Channel 11.
“You walk through a Giant Eagle, and people give you their feedback,” he said. “We met a lot of people, and there are some on Facebook and Twitter that you go from just being the public guy to actually making friends and having chats. I have so many people I’ve never met that know me as Joe Arena, not just Joe Arena from Channel 11.”
That’s why Arena will be leaving Pittsburgh “with a slightly broken heart.” As a veteran of TV journalism, he knows that “most people dream of doing it in their hometown” and is more than aware of the opportunity News 12 is granting him. After graduating from the Pittsburgh and Buffalo media landscapes, he’s ready for the attention sure to come as an anchor in an even more hyperlocal market.
Arena considers his WPXI colleagues to be his “forever friends” and believes “they deserve to know they’re the best at what they do.” He feels similarly about WPXI viewers.
“Pittsburgh has flattered me and my family with kindness,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll ever know what those countless handshakes and fist bumps have meant to me. ... I just want them to know that they accepted an outsider 10 years ago. I’m forever grateful for that welcome. Hopefully now, I’m a lifer as far as being a Pittsburgher goes.”