WTAE-TV’s Yorgey leaving for Baltimore
Tori Yorgey entered Pittsburgh’s broadcast news market with a bang so loud that it made her instantly recognizable before she ever appeared on WTAE-TV’s airwaves.
The Philadelphia native and Penn State University graduate went viral shortly before officially joining Channel 4 on Feb. 1, 2022, after she was hit by a car on live TV while covering one of her final stories for Charleston, W.Va.based WSAZ-TV. She vividly recalled watching herself on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in the WTAE newsroom alongside new colleagues Kelly Sasso and Mike Clark during her first day of work.
“This was their first impression of me,” Ms. Yorgey told the PostGazette Wednesday afternoon. “I’m like, ‘What in the world is happening? This is crazy!’ ”
Ms. Yorgey spent the next two years proving to Western Pennsylvanians that she was much more than “the girl that got hit by the car” and became an integral part of WTAE’s news-gathering operation.
On Wednesday, Ms. Yorgey announced on social media that she will soon be exiting Channel 4 for a job at WBAL-TV in Baltimore. Her last day at WTAE will be Feb. 21.
She was hesitant to reveal her big news so soon since that nowinfamous accident occurred two days before she was set to leave WSAZ. Ms. Yorgey has so far enjoyed an incident-free tenure at WTAE — “but I still have a week left,” she said, joking.
During her first interview with the Post-Gazette in January 2022, Ms. Yorgey said she chose WTAE after turning down a job offer from another Baltimore station. She had never been to the Steel City before her November 2021 interview with Channel 4. Ms. Yorgey was won over by everyone she met at WTAE and “the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen” upon exiting the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
“Pittsburgh felt right,” she said. “I went with Pittsburgh, even though I could’ve been two hours from my family if I had chosen that Baltimore one.”
After her viral moment, Ms.
Yorgey was genuinely concerned how Pittsburghers would receive her as a journalist and community member. It didn’t take long for folks to start recognizing her more from her on-air work than as the poster child for why photographers should always accompany TV reporters on assignments.
“Pittsburgh was just so welcoming to me,” Ms. Yorgey said. “I’m this random woman who gets hit by a car and blurts out that it happened in college, too. ... From the second I started in Pittsburgh, they were all so kind, and I really love the people here.”
This region presented her with just about every type of story a local news reporter could ever expect to cover. Ms. Yorgey choked up while thinking about doing pieces about the deadly August 2023 house explosion in Plum and “the outpouring of support” she witnessed from folks throughout Western Pennsylvania following that tragedy.
That sort of heavy reporting was balanced by Ms. Yorgey getting to cover two Groundhog Day celebrations in Punxsutawney and going semi-viral again in August 2022 after a yinzer approached her outside Acrisure
Stadium and yelled “Go Steelerrrrrrrrrrrrrs!” into her microphone.
The WBAL opening came to Ms. Yorgey’s attention shortly before her two-year WTAE contract was set to expire. Both WBAL and WTAE are owned by Hearst Television, so she decided to remain within a company she trusted and go to a station “filled with seriously experienced people” who can help her learn and grow as a reporter.
This move will take Ms. Yorgey much closer to home and allow her to experience all Charm City has to offer. Any Steelers fan upset about Ms. Yorgey leaving Pittsburgh for Baltimore would do well to remember that she’s a diehard Eagles fan who has no stake in the Steelers-Ravens rivalry. She just hopes that Baltimoreans cheer on their team with the same vigor displayed by the black-and-gold faithful.
“When you work in a place like Pittsburgh and you’re surrounded by these passionate sports-loving people, you can’t help but support them,” Ms. Yorgey said. “It’s not about the teams for me. I love Pittsburghers, and they love the Steelers. They’re not even in [my team’s] division!”
For her, relocating to Baltimore feels like “going to my cousin’s house” in terms of how closely connected that area is to both Pittsburgh and WTAE. She was pleasantly surprised by how supportive the comments on her announcement post have been, which she held up as further proof that Pittsburgh is such a special place.
Every day before she goes home, Ms. Yorgey tells any WTAE colleague in earshot that she’ll “catch them all on the flippityflip.” She got emotional again just thinking about doing that for the final time as a Channel 4 reporter next week.
“They have really taught me a lot,” Ms. Yorgey said through tears. “I’m a pretty loud person, and on a Monday morning that’s not really ideal sometimes. But no one in that newsroom has ever made me feel unwelcome, unwanted or any type of way for me being me.
“I have always felt love there, and they’ve shown me so much.”