Isiah Carey

Background

Carey was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and attended McKinley Senior High School. After graduating from high school, Carey entered the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette in 1988 to study mass communications. In 1989, he enrolled at Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge and before graduation he worked as one of the city's youngest radio news anchor and reporters for WXOK radio in Baton Rouge.

By 1990, he was also news director and anchor at KQXL-FM and WYCT-FM. That same year, Isiah got his first break in TV as a reporter and weekend public affairs talk show host at WVLA-TV (NBC) (Baton Rouge). In 1991, he joined WAFB (Baton Rouge) where he remained for four years as a fill in co-host of a morning news program and general assignment reporter. Carey has worked at KARK-TV, channel 4 Little Rock, Arkansas and at television stations in Memphis, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. (BET).

Carey currently works as a reporter for KRIV, channel 26, in Houston, Texas. Throughout his broadcasting career, Isiah has won several awards, including an Emmy for live reporting while working in Little Rock after a plane crash in 1999 and an award from the Society of Professional Journalists in Memphis for investigative reporting in 2000.

Honors and awards

After a report on the city's homeless population, Houston Mayor, Bill White, declared June 23, 2009, "Isiah Carey Day" in Houston.

Isiah received an Emmy award in 1999 for live reporting in Little Rock, Arkansas.

While an investigative reporter in Memphis, TN at WHBQ-TV Carey was the winner of two awards by the Society of Professional Journalist in 2000.

Carey was also honored in 2008 by the University of Houston for his efforts in getting a Houston man cleared in the shooting of a pitbull that attacked his family. That man, Wady Spikes, was charged and jailed for animal cruelty. But after Isiah did an investigative report showing Spikes was protecting his grandchildren from the dogs a Harris County grand jury decided to clear the Houstonian of the charges.

Houston Councilman Peter Brown also honored Isiah back in 2006 for his informative blog The Insite: www.carey2.blogspot.com - It was declared Insite Day with the certificate of appreciation issued by Brown.

Outtake

As a general assignment reporter in Arkansas, Carey often reported from remote and rural locations throughout the state. Reporting on the death of an adult chaperon at a football game at Augusta High School in 1995, Carey did several "stand-ups" to use in his story. During one of these stand-ups, a grasshopper flew into his mouth. Carey lost his composure and launched into a profanity-filled tirade about his hay fever, in a high-pitched Southern accent that contrasted with the deep voice and the accent he normally uses on camera. In his own words:

The fuck is that?! Shit! I'm dying in this fucking country-ass, fucked-up town! Shit flying in my mouth, the fuck, I can't see — pollen — let's get the fuck out this country motherfucker. I can't even see where.

Although the bad take was never broadcast by the station, it was uploaded to YouTube in 2008 and became an internet phenomenon. The video was played on Jimmy Kimmel Live, ET and was featured on Howard Stern. It is also listed as one of the top view videos in any one day in Germany, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, New Zealand, Mexico and France. In February 2009, the video was uploaded on Facebook and continues to receive thousands of hits a day, and two Carey Fanclubs have been established. The outtake was also parodied in the season 2, episode 16 of The Cleveland Show, "The Way the Cookie Crumbles". In 2011, Carey was the subject of a "Web Redemption" on Tosh.0.