Background
Cogdill was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of a truck driver and a mill worker
Cogdill was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the son of a truck driver and a mill worker
He graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1984, earning a Bachelor degree in communications (with an emphasis on the liberal arts).
His work as a journalist has appeared on National Broadcasting Company’s Today Show, Consumer News and Business Channel, Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company, and Cable News Network. His earliest jobs included mowing lawns, cleaning horse stalls, and working as a production assistant on film sets. Early Television Two weeks after college graduation, Cogdill began his career in television, working at WECT, an National Broadcasting Company affiliate in Wilmington, North Carolina. He soon moved over to WWAY, Wilmington"s American Broadcasting Company station, and later migrated to Columbia Broadcasting System-aligned WRDW-television in Augusta, Georgia.
He finally landed at Greenville, South Carolina station WYFF (an National Broadcasting Company affiliate) in 1989, where he cemented his position as, arguably, the most decorated anchor man in South Carolina television history.
Cogdill first rose to prominence when he reported on the story of Susan Smith, a Union, South Carolina woman convicted of murdering her two young sons in 1994 (after initially claiming that an African-American man had carjacked her and kidnapped the children). Cogdill’s Susan Smith: A Question of Justice (1996) garnered an Emmy, leading to appearances on such outlets as National Broadcasting Company’s Today Show, Consumer News and Business Channel, Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company, and Cable News Network.