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Dave Statter joined 9NEWS NOW as a general assignment reporter in August 1985. You can find Dave's blog "STATter 911" on the wusa9.com home page right now, which chronicles the lives and challenges facing firefighters and EMT's. Dave has been lauded worldwide for his "STATter 911" efforts. Prior to 9NEWS NOW, dave worked at DC's WTOP Radio where he was a news and traffic reporter.
In 1997, Dave was the first in the mainstream press to discover and report on the problems with "Omega" fire sprinklers, a very popular system used around the world. "Omega" sprinklers were eventually recalled by the CPSC. Dave won a local Emmy Award in 1995 for Spot News coverage on the report, "Car Chase Fire." The same story, on which he was both producer and reporter, earned him a "Best of Gannett" award.
The series of stories he is most proud of came under the banner "Get Out Alive." From 1995 to 2001, 9NEWS NOW did a series of reports and a half-hour special teaching people what to do in case of a fire in a single family home, a high rise building, and a garden style apartment. Those reports and the special have been shown to the public at fire prevention seminars around the country. Thousands of brochures have been handed out by firefighters throughout our region. W*USA 9 still gets requests for the brochures and tapes.
In 1993, Dave was named "Best Crime Reporter" by Washingtonian magazine. His still pictures of the arrest of James Edward Swann, the 1993 "Mount Pleasant Stalker," were used by 9NEWS NOW and on the front pages of The Washington Post, The Washington Times and in papers around the country.
Dave's 1991 profile of Keter Betts, Ella Fitzgerald's bass player, earned him an Emmy for Feature Reporting. Also that year, Dave won an Emmy for Spot News Coverage of the Mount Pleasant Riot. Dave also received a Gold Medal in the International Film and TV Festival of New York for his coverage of the dramatic rescue of a family from its burning Northeast Washington home in 1989. In 1988, he and his 9NEWS NOW crew taped a DC emergency medical service vehicle searching for a location for 30 minutes. This coverage led The Washington Post to write an editorial on the subject, along with a greater examination of the local ambulance system.
In 1986, along with former 9NEWS NOW reporters Mike Buchanan and James Brown, Dave broke the tragic Len Bias story, receiving a 1987 United Press International Broadcast Journalism Award and a Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters' Association Award. Dave's coverage of the 1987 Amtrak derailment, which prompted drug testing of all future Amtrak employees, won a Washington Emmy and a 1988 Chesapeake AP Broadcasters' Association Award. In 1989, Statter covered two nights of rioting in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He also reported from Charleston, SC as hurricane Hugo made its direct hit on the city.
His first live reporting assignment for WTOP Radio was covering the 1982 Air Florida disaster. Prior to WTOP Radio, he held various positions with WXTR Radio and WMJS Radio in Maryland, and KIX-106 Radio in Virginia. A Baltimore native, Statter was a Prince George's County volunteer firefighter for six years, and he was a traffic issues columnist for the American Automobile Association of America.
