Tom Rivers

Tom Rivers, a household name to millions of listeners in the US for decades from his reporting perch in London and his travels beyond.

 For nearly 40 years, he's covered some of the biggest stories overseas  — including the Lockerbie disaster, the war in Bosnia, terror attacks in London, Paris, Oslo, Berlin, Nice, Moscow and Barcelona. He also covered a number of Royal Weddings — Charles and Camilla, William and Kate and Harry and Meghan, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the tragic death of Princess Diana. Over the years he's interviewed thousands, including Margaret Thatcher, Salman Rushdie and Richard Branson to name but a few. He covered the dramatic conclusion of the Amanda Knox trial in Perugia, Italy, the selection of Pope Francis at the Vatican and German reunification after the fall of the wall.

One of the first American reporters on the scene of the Lockerbie disaster in December 1988, Rivers covered the story right to the conclusion of the trial of two Libyans at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in 2001.

After 24 years, he recently retired from ABC News as the London Radio Correspondent where he reported news, sports and entertainment. Over many years he covered a wide range of topics, everything from British elections to Wimbledon tennis, to NFL action in London, to Olympic games, to things like the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London in 2007.

Prior to joining ABC News Radio, Rivers was a radio correspondent at CBS News and was the London bureau chief at NBC/Mutual Radio and UPI. Before that, he worked for five years at a number of Minneapolis radio and television stations where he threw himself into a lot of off air activities as well such as bull riding for a couple of summers and wrestling Victor the bear in St. Paul before 7,000 fans.

First stop for Tom overseas in the mid-'80s was the Knock Deep in the North Sea where he was the program director of the offshore American radio station, Laser 558. Moored in international water 18 miles off the English coast, the ship-based station at the time boasted the world's largest audience of 12 million listeners per week.

Rivers holds a Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism — Summa Cum Laude and Phi Kappa Phi — and a Master’s degree in broadcast management and audience research, both from the University of Minnesota.

Born in Eveleth, in the heart of Minnesota’s Iron Range, Rivers is passionate about hockey but is also a fan of British soccer. He's married with two grown daughters and a grand daughter.

Tom is cut from the old school reporter cloth and prides himself in calling balls and strikes. Not a cheerleader nor a stenographer, his approach is to dig into topics and let the chips fall where they may.