The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia

On Thursday, November 16, 2000 at the Bala Golf Club, Broadcast Pioneers member Pat Ciarrocchi was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. Pat was born on Wednesday, July 2, 1952.

In addition to anchoring and reporting news for KYW-TV, CBS 3, Pat Ciarrocchi is co-host with Ukee Washington of Talk Philly, CBS 3′s Emmy Award-winning news and lifestyle program, airing weekdays at noon.

Ciarrocchi joined Channel 3 in 1982. Prior to her current assignment, she set the pace for morning news in Philadelphia as the station’s early morning news anchor, growing that program from a half-hour newscast to a two-hour staple in the market. Ciarrocchi has excelled in a variety of assignments at Channel 3 from Evening Magazine, which she co-hosted from 1991-92, to serving as the station’s medical reporter for five years. Among those special assignments was her memorable coverage from Rome of St. Katherine Drexel’s canonization in 2000 and and at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Ciarrocchi’s work has earned her multiple Philadelphia Emmy Awards, including recognition for individual achievement in News Writing. She has won the nationally prestigious Gabriel Award from Catholic Academy of Communications Arts, a CEBA Award recognizing communications excellence to Black audiences and a Sarah Award from Women in Communications locally. In 2000, she was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Hall of Fame in recognition of her accomplishments in the television industry.

Pat Ciarrocchi
Broadcast Pioneers Banquet
November 16, 2000

Pat Ciarrocchi
KYW-TV official photo
1999

Before returning home to Philadelphia, Ciarrocchi was anchor/reporter/producer for WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland for three years. She began her career in broadcasting in 1974 at WAMS Radio in Wilmington, where she was news reporter at the number-one rated Delaware radio station.

Ciarrocchi has used the celebrity of her broadcasting career to better the lives of others, committing her personal time to community activism and fundraising on issues affecting women and children.

Since 1991, she has reported on and covered live the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, telling the stories of women and their families coping with breast cancer.

Ciarrocchi has served on the boards of the Easter Seal Society of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She has also personally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities through The Pat Ciarrocchi Golf Classic and Pat’s Passion for Fashion Show and Auction, two local events she founded.

Ciarrocchi has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees for her professional and community accomplishments from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Neumann University in Aston, Cabrini College in Radnor and her alma mater, Rosemont College. Ciarrocchi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Rosemont in 1974. In 2006, she was presented with the college’s highest honor, the Cresset Award.

A native of Chester County, she currently resides in Merion, Pennsylvania with her husband, David Fineman. She has two grown stepsons and, in her free time, she and her husband enjoy opera, travel and golf.