Gordon Deal Biography

Gordon Deal is an American talk radio host for the nationally syndicated wake-up show This Morning, America’s First News with Gordon Deal alongside Jennifer Kushinka. He is best known for his work at Wall Street Journal.

He attended Rutgers University where he earned a Bachelor in Communication. Deal enjoys fishing, whitewater rafting, and coaching soccer.

Gordon Deal Age

Deal celebrates his birthday on 18 February but has not disclosed his year of birth.

Gordon Deal Wife

On 21 November 1998, Deal married his longtime girlfriend and WCBS reporter Kelly Waldron. The couple is blessed with two kids; a son, and a daughter. Deal and his family live in central New Jersey.

Gordon Deal Radio | Gordon Deal Wall Street Journal

He began his media career as a radio host in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) from 2005 to 2014. Deal has also been a public addresser announcer for the New York Knicks of the NBA and the New York Liberty of the WNBA.

He has worked for both WINS-AM and WCBS-AM in New York City where his name is well known as a writer and reporter. Deal also served as a New York City bureau chief for Metro Networks where his reports aired on WOR-Am and WCBS-Am.

He also worked as a play-by-play sports announcer for Rutgers University which is his Alma mater. Deal became the New York Giants PA Announcer at MetLife Stadium in 2012.

This Morning America’s First News With Gordon Deal | This Morning With Gordon Deal | Gordon Deal Podcast

Deal hosts the two-hour radio news/talk program This Morning, America’s First News with Gordon Deal alongside Jennifer Kushinka.  The main focus of the is on national and world headlines.

It also covers a broad range of topics such as business, finance, lifestyle, careers, technology, and more. It is broadcast on over 250 radio stations across the United States. This is often throughout early-morning drive time, and is also repackaged into a podcast. He began hosting the program in November 2005.

Gordon Deal and Jennifer Kushinka | Gordon Deal and Jennifer

Deal hosts This Morning, America’s First News alongside Jennifer Kushinka. Kushinka replaced long-serving co-host Gina Cervetti on January 2, 2015.

Gordon Deal Net Worth

Though Deal has had a successful career in radio and has acquired quite great wealth, his net worth is not yet revealed.

Gordon Deal Twitter

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Gordon Deal Interview

Adopted from: comminfo.rutgers.edu

Interviewer: How did your education at the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) prepare you for your career in journalism?

Gordon Deal: From interpersonal communication to mass media, the classroom lessons were paired with the on-air experience and passion gained at WRSU-FM. The communication skills from class were valuable in helping me understand that being in radio doesn’t just mean doing a job on-air, but it also means you’re a part of the team that has to sell and market that product to ensure overall company success.

Interviewer: Can you tell us about your current radio program “This Morning, America’s First News with Gordon Deal”?

Gordon Deal: The two-hour program is syndicated nationally, and is heard on about 260 radio stations across America, and in just about every major city. It’s a breaking news program that covers everything from natural disasters to politics and political analysis…and mixes in topics like business, finance, lifestyle, careers and technology. The show is often a lead-in to a radio station’s own local programming. It’s fast paced with trendy music, and doesn’t inject political opinion. It’s a news presentation…meaning we do not take phone calls.

Interviewer: With today’s tumultuous news cycle, how do you prioritize which stories you want to cover?

Gordon Deal: It’s not always about “what” we want to cover; it’s also about what “needs” to be covered. These are judgement calls made each and every day before airtime at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time. We need to decide: how are we going to arm the listener with as much information as possible so he or she is the smartest person in the room when they walk into the office…or sit down for a meeting or interview.

Interviewer: Your career path includes a long history in New York radio. What do you think the future holds for local journalism in light of recent cutbacks such as the layoffs at the New York Daily News?

Gordon Deal: Long before the Daily News, radio had its share of layoffs thanks to consolidation. But content is king. If you have quality content to present as a writer or broadcaster that’s generally not offensive, advertisers are available. After all, you’re still in the business of creating a sellable product.

Interviewer: Your background includes sports announcing, including for Rutgers! How did this type of reporting help you in your journalism career?

Gordon Deal: After my brief soccer career at Rutgers, I joined WRSU and started doing play-by-play announcing of Rutgers baseball, football, basketball and soccer. Play-by-play is just announcing breaking news as it happens during a sports competition. It helps ad lib skills, observation skills, and the ability to think and react calmly and intelligently under pressure when the unexpected happens. The unexpected in sports might include a bizarre touchdown. In breaking news, it might include a sudden explosion at a fire.

Interviewer: How do you think technology, social media, etc. has affected the journalism and media industries?

Gordon Deal: It’s made the job easier and harder at the same time. Social media allows us to promote our product, reach contacts that may have been difficult to reach, follow trends, and interact with the audience. It also opens the door to criticism, sometimes fair, sometimes not; sometimes from legitimate sources, sometimes from people just looking to stir the pot anonymously.

Interviewer: Do you have a specific faculty member or mentor at SC&I that has helped to guide you in the right direction professionally?

Gordon Deal: Not so much a specific faculty member, but resources like The Daily Targum and WRSU, and Rutgers alum contacts and friends who’ve offered support, encouragement, or a sounding board, like Part-Time Lecturer Mark Beal (Taylor Strategy), Mike Emanuel ’90 at Fox News, and Tara Sullivan at The Boston Globe. And even though I did not have him as a professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies in Journalism and Media Studies Steve Miller has been a fairly important figure in my involvement with things like Career Expos at Rutgers and interns.

Interviewer: What advice would you give current students and recent graduates seeking to pursue a career in journalism?

Gordon Deal: When I guest lecture at Rutgers, I often ask students: “What is your dream job, and what are you doing toward that end right now?” These days, it’s never too early to identify your professional network, maintain a LinkedIn account, and clean up your social media pages. If you want to be a writer, you should have a blog. Want to be a reporter, join The Daily Targum, or find a weekly newspaper that will allow you to cover something as a reporter. If you’d like to be a broadcaster, sites like SoundCloud and YouTube offer instant opportunities. And then it’s easy to promote yourself across platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And remember to use relevant hashtags and to tag relevant people in your network on social media.