Jay DeDapper has served as political reporter for WNBC since joining the station in June 1998. During his tenure, DeDapper has covered presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial and mayoral campaigns both nationally and in the Tri-State area. His coverage has included live interview programs, debates, ad watches, campaign trail coverage from Iowa, New Hampshire and other states and in-depth campaign finance reporting. He currently hosts "News Forum Now," a program that features local politics and government and also airs in the station’s digital channel WNBC 4.4.

DeDapper has filed several innovative series on a variety of issues. The first, titled "What Matters," aired eight consecutive Monday evenings prior to the general election in November 2000. The 15-minute segments utilized WNBC reporters to tell stories that personalized an issue in a campaign, such as gun control or Social Security, and then DeDapper followed with where the candidates stood on specific legislative items that related to the larger issue. WNBC garnered a Walter Cronkite Award for the series.

Subsequently, "What Matters" has served as part of WNBC's campaign coverage in most elections, including the 2002 New York governor's race, the 2004 presidential contest, and the 2005 mayoral campaign. In 2004, the segments also ran as part of a two-hour pre-election special co-hosted by DeDepper, which received numerous accolades, including a New York Emmy Award, multiple New York State Broadcasters Awards, many New York Press Club Awards and an AP Award. DeDapper was honored at the 51st Annual New York Emmy Award ceremony in 2008 for his win in the category of "Politics/Government."

In 2001, "What Matters" took on a different format during the campaign to succeed New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Temporarily titled "Unfinished Business -- Can They Do It?", the series ran five straight nights during the week preceding the primary election and sought to ask if the candidates' plans were achievable.

DeDapper covered Hillary Clinton's run for the U.S. Senate in New York, beginning from the first days of her "listening tour" to her victory night at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. DeDapper then spent the next six weeks covering the disputed Bush/Gore election. Most recently, he reported on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's re-election effort, as well as Governor Eliot Spitzer's record-breaking win.

"Reality Check," DeDapper's regular feature in which he specializes in making the arcane and intricacies of politics easy to understand, can be seen frequently on WNBC's newscasts. In early 2007, he launched "Politics To Go," a daily political audio and video podcast and the first by a local station in the United States.

Prior, DeDapper served as political reporter at WABC-TV in New York from 1996 to 1998, serving as the station's nightside reporter from 1992 to 1996 where he covered a wide range of stories including the crash of TWA flight 800 and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was also assigned to cover the duration of the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles.

Before that, DeDapper was a general assignment and investigative reporter at KTKV-TV in Phoenix where he won four local Emmy Awards®. His first job was reporter, substitute anchor and weekend weatherman at WOC-TV in Davenport, Iowa. While there, he covered the 1988 Presidential Caucuses.

He earned his Master's Degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree in Communication Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

DeDapper grew up in California and Connecticut, and now resides in New York City's West Village.

Click Here to e-mail Jay DeDapper.