It is a big day here at 9.
News today marks 70 years
on the air for the station.
In that time, we've had some pretty
incredible journalists passed through
these doors and add to our legacy.
Now many of them are spread
out all over the country.
To help us celebrate the milestone,
we like to welcome back NBC
News correspondent and Former
9 news reporter Tom Costello.
Hello friend, how you doing?
Hey buddy, it's great to see
you and congratulations to
you and everybody at 9 news.
What a great, great celebration.
70 years. I know it's pretty amazing.
So talk a little bit about your time
at 9 news. What stands out to you?
Well, first of all,
it was my dream to work at channel 9, right?
I mean, I grew up down in Centennial.
I went to Arapahoe High School,
went to see you Boulder.
You were the Boulder Bureau reporter
when I was an intern at channel
9 and I wanted to work there.
I mean it was, it is one of the
best stations in the country.
And so I landed there two years out
of college, started in El Paso,
came back and started working at 9 news.
And it was a dream come true.
I mean, working with you and Ed
and Mike and Adele and Paula.
I mean the names go on and on, right?
Stormy and Bill Custer and.
It was truly just a dream come true to
me and I loved every single minute of it.
And Gary,
you know this true this to be true.
My best friends to this day are still
the folks that I worked with at Channel
9 and and I Miss Colorado dearly and
I miss the folks at 9 news dearly.
It is a great place to work.
It absolutely is. So you've done
pretty well with your career.
I would say what at 9 news helped
you prepare to be a reporter. On NBC.
Well, first of all,
the Gary Shapiro School of writing and
anybody out there who watches 9 News
knows that Gary is an outstanding writer.
And it's all about the writing, isn't it?
And it's all about the photography.
And Nine News still to this day has among
the best photojournalists in the country.
You could talk to the people in this
newsroom here, NBC News Washington,
and they will tell you they
know of the reputation of K USA
and the photojournalist there.
And if you have good photographers
and if you can turn a phrase and
hopefully write a good coherence.
Contains and story.
You've got a magical combination.
You combine that with the
beauty of Colorado and boy,
I was just there by the way,
Monday in and out,
in less than a day to shoot a story.
Blue skies, golden trees,
green grass, 75 degrees.
It's paradise.
It's just one of the greatest
places on the planet.
Yeah. Yeah, it is for sure.
So I remember, I remember
a lot of stories you did,
but I remember one of the stories you
did when the Pope came to town in 93,
you were in the medical tent.
It was a really hot day and all
these people ended up in the
medical tent and you were doing
live news from there and it was,
it was a pretty memorable story.
What are some of your memories?
Yeah, right. I mean,
these kids who had slipped out all night,
they hadn't been eating or drinking.
They woke up and then they it heated
up out there at the reservoir and
they started dropping like flies.
That was certainly one.
Listen, unfortunately,
there's also the tragedies.
You know, I covered United Airlines Flight
585 that crashed in Colorado Springs,
the United Airlines plane
that crashed in out in Iowa,
and now I cover aviation for NBC News.
And and so those two big stories and
the investigations that followed
really helped lay the ground.
From my understanding of this beat that
I now cover, but you know the store.
I don't know about you, Gary,
but I am off the people ask me who's
the most important person or the most
impressive person you interviewed.
Rock stars, politicians, whatever.
I'm always more taken by that.
That teacher who digs into his
or her own pocket to come up with
enough money to to feed some kid
who doesn't have money for lunch.
Or the, you know,
the brain surgeon who is traveling
around the world to do open
heart or open brain surgery.
And somebody in an underprivileged country,
I mean those stories resonate with me and I,
I had the opportunity to do exactly that.
We went to Kazakhstan following
an open heart surgical team
and and an adoption team.
So those stories that touch,
you know,
humanity,
I think that those are the
ones that really resonate and
have always resonated with me.
And you do them very well, my friend.
You are probably the most famous 9
news alum and I might add the nicest.
And it's been great visiting with you and
thanks for helping us celebrate. 70 years.
Alright, buddy, listen,
congratulations to everybody
there at channel 9.
I wanted so badly to make
the reunion last week.
I just couldn't get out of DC last Friday.
But congratulations.
And you know how much I love all of you
guys. Yeah. I hate it when
news breaks out and you know,
that takes precedent.
All right, Tom, we missed you.
Thanks much. Take care.