Jodi Applegate Biography
Jodi Applegate born Jodi Anne Applegate is an American broadcast journalist, who worked as an anchorwoman at local stations as well as nationally for MSNBC and NBC News.
Jodi Applegate Education
Applegate graduated from Moon Area High School in 1982. Applegate spent her freshman year at Temple University in Philadelphia. She later transferred as a sophomore to New York University, where she received a degree in television and film.
Jodi Applegate Career
Before turning to newscasting, Applegate briefly worked as an actress. In 1986, Jodi appeared in a television version of the classic children’s book A Pocket for Corduroy as the mother. In 1987, she appeared in a television version of the Mercer Mayer children’s book There’s a Nightmare in My Closet, also as the main character’s mother.
In the early 1990s, Applegate was a host of Close Up on C-SPAN, a weekly public affairs program that featured a high school student audience. She later worked for Metro Traffic in San Francisco as a radio and television traffic reporter.
From 1993 to 1996, she hosted Good Morning Arizona on KTVK in Phoenix. She was also an anchor at KTVN in Reno, NV.
In 1996, Jodi was the first face seen on MSNBC at its launch. She anchored MSNBC Live and Weekend Today on the main NBC network. Applegate also filled in as a substitute host on the Today show. In late 1999, she hosted Later Today with Asha Blake and Florence Henderson. The show was canceled in 2000.
In mid-2001, she joined WFXT in Boston. She anchored the short-lived Fox 25 News at 4:30 newscast then moved to 5:00 by early 2002. Applegate anchored the Fox 25 Morning News for about a year from September 2003, then moved to New York sister station WNYW in October 2004.
Career in New York City
Jodi Applegate joined WNYW as co-anchor of the station’s morning program, Good Day New York, in 2005. She remained there for three years and in 2008 she was replaced in the role by Rosanna Scotto. She left the station shortly thereafter. On May 28, 2008, Jodi made a one time only appearance in the Broadway musical Chicago.
In 2009, she began work as a fill-in anchor on all-news WCBS radio. She also guest-hosted Living Today on Sirius XM Radio’s Martha Stewart Living Radio channel, filling in for another former Good Day New York anchor, Mario Bosquez. She also guest-hosted radio talk shows hosted by Joan Hamburg on WOR in New York, and Howie Carr on WRKO in Boston.
In September 2009, Applegate made a return to television news when she joined News 12 Long Island as an evening co-anchor. With three months remaining in her one-year contract, Applegate was allowed to leave News 12 in order to join WPIX.
The Tribune Company-owned station named Applegate as sole anchor of its revamped 10:00 PM newscasts on weeknights; she started in that capacity on October 11, 2010.
She also anchored the station’s hour-long 5:00 PM newscast, which was launched in the fall of 2011.
Jodi Applegate Age
She was born on May 2, 1964 in Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. She is 60 years old as of 2024. She was raised in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Jodi Applegate Height
Applegate stands at an estimated height of about 5 feet 6 inches tall.
Jodi Applegate Family
Applegates mother, Margaret died in 1981 of breast cancer. in 2006 during mother’s day, Jodi shared a story about her mum and a family secret that was revealed after her mother’s death.
“In late 1963, she found herself pregnant and not married, which was a real scandal in those days, especially if you were Irish-Catholic,” says Applegate, especially in Wheeling, W. Va.
“She hid her pregnancy, disappeared for several months and returned with a baby she said she’d gotten at an orphanage.
“She said, ‘I’m going to keep her and adopt her’ . . . It was a story that allowed her to live in that town and go to that church.”
That is the story that Applegate grew up knowing, she believed that she had been adopted. He mother got married but she never had other children. When her mother passed away Jodi learned the truth from her aunt(her mother’s older sister).
Jodi Applegate Husband
On February 12, 2011, Applegate married New York Yankees television broadcaster Michael Kay in in New York City. The ceremony took place at the Plaza Hotel and was officiated by former New York mayor, Rudolph Giuliani.
Jodi Applegate Children
On November 21, 2012, it was announced that Jodi was expecting a baby, which was conceived by way of a gestational surrogate. Applegate subsequently announced her departure from WPIX after the station refused to allow her to reduce her schedule. She left WPIX on December 19, 2012.
On January 5, 2013 she gave birth to her daughter, Caledonia Rose Kay. On November 12, 2014 she gave birth to her son, Charles Applegate Kay, was born.
Jodi Applegate Net Worth
Applegate has an estimated net worth is $5 million which she has earned from her successful career as a broadcaster.
Jodi Applegate Salary
According to Zip Recruiter, a broadcast journalist in the United States earns an average annual salary of $54,426, and their annual payroll ranges from $19,500 to $107,500.