Chris Cato - Anchor / Reporter

Email: ccato@wspa.com

Chris Cato anchors News Channel 7 at 7. He also reports for News Channel 7 covering crime, breaking news and everything in between. Chris joined WSPA in 2005 as a reporter, but before coming to the Upstate, Chris worked at WMBB in Panama City, FL, where he anchored the 5, 6, & 10 o'clock news.



Chris has covered numerous major news events in his career. He was part of a team that brought viewers 36 hours of continuous coverage as Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Florida panhandle. He has filed reports from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Mexico, an air base in Bosnia, and an airplane crash involving the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. But it's the "everyday" stories that give Chris the most pleasure: seeing the family of a crime victim get the justice they have waited for, witnessing a young cancer patient use what's left of her life to touch others, and cheering along with the rest of a community as local soldiers return home from war.



Chris has won several awards for his reporting and anchoring, including Media General's D. Tennant Bryan Award for hard news reporting, three Florida Associated Press Awards, and a South Carolina Associated Press Award. In 2007, he was given the statewide award for "Excellence in Crime Reporting" by the South Carolina Victims Assistance Network. In 2005, he was honored as "Alumnus of the Year" by Troy University's Hall School of Journalism.



Chris is originally from a little slice of heaven near Oneonta, Alabama. He grew up on a farm where he learned the value of hard work - a gift for which he thanks his parents everyday.



Chris attended Troy University in Troy, Alabama, where fell in love with a beautiful young woman named Carmen Coursey... that's right, WSPA reporter Carmen Coursey! He somehow convinced her to marry him. They live in Greenville with their Basset Hound, Ernie, and Pekingese, Biscuit. And he is a dyed-in-crimson Alabama football fan... for better or worse... Roll Tide!!!