Erik von Ancken anchors and reports for WKMG-TV News 6 (CBS) in Orlando and is a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist in the prestigious and coveted "On-Camera Talent" categories for both anchoring and reporting.
Erik joined the News 6 News Team in 2003 days after the tragic loss of space shuttle Columbia. Since then, he has covered almost every shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center, including the Return to Flight mission of Shuttle Discovery in 2005 and the final Space Shuttle launch and landing in 2011. He is one of only a handful of journalists in the world to have sat in the commander's seat on the flight deck of Space Shuttle Atlantis. From the beginning, he has covered and continues to cover the next phase of America's space program: the design, construction, and test flight of the deep-space Orion capsule. In 2014, he got the ride of his life in the back seat of an F-16 with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds! He's weathered the brush fires, hurricanes and tornadoes of Central Florida and Erik has covered countless national stories including President George W. Bush's visit to Sarasota for what was supposed to be a routine trip on Sept. 11, 2001. Erik is always looking for a good story and often news finds him. In October 2006, Erik was celebrating his engagement at a beachfront resort in Hawaii when a 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island, centered only a few miles from Kona where he and his then-fiancee were vacationing.
Amid the chaos, Erik went to work, reporting from his hotel. Erik grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. and graduated from the State University of New York's Binghamton University. He holds a degree in economics and a minor in Spanish. He got his start in journalism with an internship at CBS affiliate WBNG-TV in his college town. At WMBC-TV in New Jersey Erik covered the metro New York City area. There he learned to shoot, edit, report, produce, anchor - you name it. Erik also reported and anchored at ABC affiliate WWSB-TV in Sarasota.
Erik's reporting and anchoring have earned him more than a dozen prestigious awards, recognizing him as one of the best and most trusted journalists in the southeastern United States. He has been honored with Emmys for both his anchoring and reporting along with numerous nominations for his storytelling and investigative work, as well as numerous first place and best-overall awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists.
When he's not covering the big stories of Central Florida, you'll find Erik spending time with his wife and beautiful daughter and son, making home improvements, or on the water. He grew up competing in and teaching slalom skiing, wakeboarding, barefoot skiing, and show skiing. Erik is also a snow skier, tennis player, keyboard player, self-proclaimed handyman and proud father. He has a brown-belt in Okinawan GoJu-Ryu Karate, speaks Finnish, and loves to volunteer. Organizations and charities close to his heart are Seminole County Schools' Families in Transition, Runway to Hope, and the Ronald McDonald House. He loves to lend a hand at the annual Orlando Chili Cook-Off and Monsters Celebrity Bowl-A-Rama, enjoys emceeing fundraisers of all kinds and speaks to students about his passion for journalism whenever he can.
Erik has traveled the world, trekking through the Incan ruins of Macchu Picchu in Peru, the temples of Thailand, the castles of Germany, the Alps of Switzerland, the outback of Australia and the Great Wall of China.
You can catch Erik anchoring at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. You can also catch Erik over on News 6+ for Getting Results at Home. He’s helping people get results at home with the best trips and tricks when it comes to home improvement and DIY projects.
Drop Erik a line at evonancken@wkmg.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
