ABC 7’s Kevin Lewis Announces He Will Be Leaving The Station After Ten Years Covering Montgomery County

Early Thursday morning, Kevin Lewis of WJLA/ABC 7 announced that he will be leaving the station after 10 years of covering Montgomery County. Kevin Lewis joined the ABC7 News team in August of 2013 and has covered Montgomery County, Maryland, from the get-go. His full statement can be seen below:

“After nearly 10 years, Friday, February 24th, will be my final day at ABC7 in D.C. The decision to leave the station has been incredibly difficult for me to reach… confusion and sadness, but a gnawing sense that it’s time for me to write a new chapter.

Working in television news has been my dream since I was in elementary school. Growing up in the Chicago area during the 1990s, most kids idolized Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. While I loved the Bulls, my true gods were the local news reporters and anchors on ABC7, NBC5, CBS2, WGN9, and FOX32.

In high school, I formed a TV news team. A summer high school journalism camp at the University of Missouri-Columbia led me to apply to, and ultimately attend Mizzou where I majored in broadcast journalism. In college, I basically lived at KOMU-TV, the NBC station for Mid-Missouri.

I graduated from Mizzou in May 2010, and weeks later, started at WNDU-TV, the NBC affiliate in South Bend, Indiana. I reported and anchored at WNDU for three years, working tirelessly with high hopes of landing a reporting job in a mid-size Midwest market like Indianapolis, St. Louis, or Nashville.

The July 2013 offer to work at ABC7 in D.C. came out of left field. The station hired me to be its Montgomery County, Maryland, bureau reporter. The county is large with around 1.1 million residents, and before moving here, I didn’t know a single one of them.

I can recall one of my first stories was on a water main break that impacted around 10 homes. Needless to say, it was a pretty lame report. But as days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, I started to establish a few sources, and thanks to them, I started to break some half-decent stories. Within a couple of years, I had really hit my stride, which was exhilarating.

If someone had asked me in January 2020 where I saw myself working in 10 years, I would have responded by saying ABC7 D.C. Then COVID happened. Reporting during the pandemic impacted me in ways I don’t think I have still entirely processed.

For example, I was in the thick of the 2020 BLM and 2021 J6 riots. I had previously covered the 2015 Baltimore riots, which were no joke, but in my opinion, these were very different. In 2020 and 2021, I felt like I was an eyewitness to the fabric of our nation coming apart at the seams. To be honest, it scared the hell out of me.

Amid all of that societal frenzy, I took a two-week trip out West. I explored Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. The vacation turned out to be a spiritual awakening for me. While driving in Yellowstone one afternoon, Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ came on the rental car radio. Far removed from violent crime scenes, tense school board meetings, angry Twitter rants, and the like, I started to sob, more or less purging years of negative stories bottled up inside of me.

I returned to D.C. from that two-week trip with a yearning to use my journalism skills to reduce people’s blood pressure, not elevate it. And so, in 2021, I launched ‘Kevin Across America,’ a YouTube travel channel with the primary goals of being educational and truly nonpartisan. My journeys thus far have taken me to places like Savannah, Georgia, and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In a world with so much division and anger, I firmly believe that travel and adventure are unifying pastimes. Starting next month, I am going to tackle ‘Kevin Across America’ full time. I would love for you to subscribe and follow along as I report on national parks, cities big and small, plus some international destinations.https://www.youtube.com/@KevinAcrossAmerica

I want to thank my ABC7 coworkers, past and present. From the producer pod to the assignment desk, the photographers and editors to the digital team and control room production staff, my stories would have never seen the light of day without all of you.

I also have much gratitude for our loyal ABC7 viewers. I often kid around with viewers out on the street that they need to continue watching or our paychecks won’t clear every two weeks (Dad jokes, I know). In all honesty, though, viewers play a critical role in the TV journalism ecosystem.

Lastly, I want to thank my sources across Montgomery County. I have never cared all that much about being on TV, but damn I love breaking stories. My sources routinely put their livelihoods on the line, and in some extreme cases, their personal safety too, all to disclose issues that the powers that be would rather the public never know about. You gave me the thrill of a lifetime and I will forever be honored to have had your trust.

I will be moving to Florida next month, but plan to be on the road producing content for most of the year. I will continue to manage my YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, so don’t be a stranger. I’ll also happily continue to pass along any and all news tips to the ABC7 newsroom.

Here’s to the road ahead!

Kevin”

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