For Ryan Houston, it’s family first.
You’ve seen him come into your living rooms, detailing the news on WPXI-TV (Channel 11) for nearly three years. He loves the profession, telling the stories that impact viewers the most, in a firm, confident manner on the anchor desk.
But when his mother told him that she needed him, he knew he had to go.
Back to central Arkansas, where he was raised.
“My stepfather has colon cancer, and it’s just better for me to be closer to my family in Arkansas,” Houston told the New Pittsburgh Courier in an exclusive interview, Nov. 8. “My mom really needs me right now. It’s just best for me to head South. I have appreciated my time here in Pittsburgh, meeting all the viewers at Giant Eagle, or Mt. Ararat (Baptist Church) or Macedonia Church (of Pittsburgh). I’ve appreciated all of that and hopefully I have made the viewers of Pittsburgh proud.”
Houston’s last day at WPXI is November 28.
“I’m a mama’s boy, the oldest of four, and my mom just really needs me,” Houston continued, “and after seeing so many people die from COVID and so many other horrible things happen that sort of keep people from their families, after all that I’ve seen, it’s just shown me that family is what’s most important. The jobs, they come and go, situations come and go, but family is forever.”
Ironically, it was Houston himself who was one of the first high-profile individuals to catch COVID-19. Not even three months into his TV news career in Pittsburgh, Houston found himself battling the invisible COVID bug.
“I couldn’t get out of the bed, my chest started to harden, it was hard to breathe, I couldn’t sleep at night because I was in pain in any way that I laid down in the bed,” Houston said on WPXI in late March 2020.
RYAN HOUSTON, RIGHT, WITH COMMON PLEAS JUDGE DWAYNE WOODRUFF.
Houston eventually made his way back on the anchor desk and in the field. He proved to be a valuable commodity for WPXI, in a Pittsburgh television market that has a true three-way battle for news supremacy. There was no story that Houston couldn’t tackle.
“We are excited to have someone with his experience, and passion to help people, join our newsroom,” WPXI news director Scott Trabandt told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in announcing Houston’s arrival to Pittsburgh. Prior to the Steel City, he was in the “Queen City,” Cincinnati, as a force on ABC affiliate WCPO-TV (9). Houston, who graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 2010, began his professional TV news career in Albany, Ga. Then it was off to Augusta, Ga., Jackson, Miss., and Cincinnati.
Houston told the Courier that he may pursue some TV news opportunities closer to home in Arkansas.
“Regardless of how many markets I’ve been in, people are pretty much the same everywhere you go,” Houston told the Courier. “They want to live in safe neighborhoods, they want to feel like they are heard, like they are seen, and they want to make a decent living to leave something behind for their family and friends. That’s no different from what I’ve seen in Pittsburgh, a hardworking group of people who just want to live and make the best for themselves and for their family.”
In June, Houston was named to the Courier’s Fab 40 under 40 list, which spotlights high-achieving African Americans in a plethora of career fields. Houston said the honor “definitely energized me and made me want to do more, it made me want to volunteer more, to do stories that really have a good impact on people’s lives. It really was just the wind beneath my wings to keep me going.”
“Ryan has been a valuable contributor to the WPXI team during his time with us,” Trabandt, the WPXI news director, told the Courier, Nov. 8. “He started just a couple months before the pandemic and helped report on COVID, protests following the murder of George Floyd, criminal justice concerns in Allegheny County, the search for a new superintendent in PPS (Pittsburgh Public Schools), and countless winter storms and breaking news stories. He has also been heavily involved in the community, serving as a host, emcee and speaker at numerous events to benefit worthy organizations. While we are sorry to see him leave Pittsburgh, so much in life is about timing and being in the right place to support family at the right time, and we’re happy he will have that opportunity.”
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