Bill Hemmer is a television-news anchor.
He is a co-host of America's Newsroom on the Fox News Channel.
Early life and education Bill was born William George Hemmer in Cincinnati,
Ohio in 1964.
He is the son of William R. Hemmer, a mattress executive, and Georganne M. Knittle, a former
high school teacher.
He is the middle child and second son of the Hemmers' five children.
Bill attended Our Lady of Victory Catholic parochial school before graduating from Elder
High School in Cincinnati.
During his senior year at Elder, Hemmer and a friend started a radio program, playing
fifteen minutes of music before classes began.
He credits his time as the high school disc jockey for beginning his passion for broadcasting.
Hemmer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Broadcast Journalism from Miami University,
located in Oxford, Ohio.
While at Miami University, he joined Delta Tau Delta fraternity and studied in Europe
at the Miami University Dolibois European Center, which was then located in Luxembourg
City, Luxembourg.
Career Early career
While in college, Hemmer interned as a radio disc jockey for Mama Jazz at WMUB-FM and later
at the iconic WOXY-FM, which is considered to be America's first alternative music station,
before taking an internship at Cincinnati's NBC affiliate.
He started in sports production at WLWT-TV in the mid-1980s where he realized his passion
for live television.
During his senior year at Miami University, Hemmer was offered a position at WLWT-TV as
a sports producer.
Soon after, he went to the CBS affiliate WCPO-TV as the weekend sports anchor.
At age 26, Hemmer took a nearly year-long hiatus from CBS to backpack around the world.
During his time away, Hemmer traveled through China, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Egypt, Israel
and Eastern Europe.
While in Calcutta, India, Hemmer spent two weeks working in the children's clinics run
by Mother Teresa who later died in September, 1997.
Throughout the journey, Bill wrote dispatches and submitted tapes and photos for both The
Cincinnati Post, a local newspaper, and CBS's local affiliate that were assembled into several
pieces collectively known as "Bill's Excellent Adventure."
The program won him two regional Emmys, Best Entertainment Program and Best Host.
On his return from hiatus, he returned to WCPO as a news reporter before accepting a
position at CNN's international headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
CNN Hemmer spent ten years at CNN hosting a number
of programs, including American Morning, CNN Tonight, CNN Early Edition, CNN Morning News,
and CNN Live Today with co-anchor Daryn Kagan.
While at CNN, Hemmer covered the bombing of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and spent 37
days in Tallahassee, Florida, during the Florida election recount of the 2000 U.S. presidential
election.
He reported from World Trade Center site in New York City for a month in the aftermath
of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and from Khandahar, Afghanistan during the buildup
of American forces in the early days of The War of Terror.
In May 2001, Bill played an instrumental role in the network's coverage of the Timothy McVeigh
execution, reporting from Terre Haute, Indiana, where McVeigh was put to death for his part
in the Oklahoma City bombing.
In the summer of 2002, Bill reported live from Somerset, Pennsylvania, on the mining
accident that trapped nine workers for 77 hours when a wall separating their tunnel
from an abandoned, flooded mine gave way, sending millions of gallons of water into
their work area.
In 2003, Hemmer traveled to Kuwait to report on escalating tensions in Iraq and remained
on-site to cover Operation Iraqi Freedom when the war began.
In 2004, he covered the Democratic and Republican conventions and served as one of CNN's prime-time
anchors on election night.
Hemmer provided live coverage from Vatican City on the death of Pope John Paul II in
2005.
He also spent more than a month covering the crisis in Kosovo, where he reported on the
aerial bombing missions from Aviano Air Base in Italy, the refugee crisis from Skopje,
Macedonia, and on the latest NATO developments from Brussels.
Bill received an Emmy Award for his work on CNN's coverage of the 1996 Centennial Olympic
Park bombing in Atlanta.
Fox News Hemmer joined Fox News in August 2005, and
has reported on a large number of stories both at the news desk and in the field.
These have included the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis,
the British sailors' hostage situation in Iran, the Iraq War, and an interview with
2008 presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama in July 2008.
He handled extensive onsite coverage of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States
in April 2008, as well as the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, and the 2010 earthquake
in Haiti.
He is one of the few reporters to have been embedded with U.S. Marines in Camp Fallujah,
Iraq.
In October 2008, he traveled to Baghdad, Iraq, to cover post-Iraq War troop surge of 2007
conditions.
Included within this assignment were interviews with Generals David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno,
and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
During the 2012 election season, Bill covered the Democratic National Convention live from
Charlotte, North Carolina and the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
He played an essential role on election night, monitoring FNC's "Bill Board".
More recently, Hemmer was the lead reporter and anchor from the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary
School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, as well as the site of the Boston Marathon bombing
in April 2013.
In 2014 while discussing the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, he claimed
that it took 100 years for RMS Titanic to be discovered and 2000 years for Noah's Ark
to be discovered.
Personal life Hemmer is Roman Catholic.
He has expressed a belief that the biblical story of Noah is a true story and that it
took place 2000 years before the present day.
He has returned to Cincinnati each year to host the George Knittle Memorial Bayley Place
Golf Classic named in honor of his grandfather, George F. Knittle, which benefits Bayley Senior
Living.
George Knittle passed away at the age of 100 in 2003.
In 2008, Hemmer also was the honorary chair of the Ohio River Valley chapter for the Arthritis
walk.
He is a supporter of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
In April 2013, Hemmer spent a week at the Vatican moderating the Second Annual Adult
Stem Cell Research Conference and in May of the same year served as the key note speaker
at Miami University, Oxford's Farmer school of Business' commencement.
Hemmer, along with two fellow Miami University graduates, established the MUDEC scholarship
in honor of the long-time service of Dr. Emile Haag to the Miami University Dolibois European
Campus and awarded to a student seeking financial assistance to attend school in Luxembourg.
Around 2005, Bill established the William G. Hemmer Scholarship awarded to a deserving
Elder High School student who shares an interest in journalism and world travel.
In 2013, Hemmer was the recipient of the Elder High School Professional Distinction award.
This alumni award, in honor of Paul V. Stryker, a teacher at Elder for over 40 years, is awarded
to a member of the Elder community whose professional achievements foster superior performance in
his peers as well as the men of Elder.
Hemmer's long-term girlfriend is Wilhelmina model and actress Dara Tomanovich
See also
List of CNN anchors List of The Daily Show guests
List of Delta Tau Delta members List of Miami University people
References
External links Bill Hemmer at the Internet Movie Database
"Biography of Hemmer".
FoxNews.com. 13 January 2011.
"America's Newsroom".
FoxNews.com.
Bernard, Sarah.
"Anchor Dreams: CNN’s Bill Hemmer could be either the next Scud Stud or the next network
news icon.
The trouble is, he wants to be both".
New York.
"America's Election HQ".
FoxNews.com. 29 July 2010.