Scott Mason – The Tar Heel Traveler – shares backstories, entertaining anecdotes and behind-the-scenes tales of the places and people he meets as he journeys along the back roads of North Carolina. Join him on Sunday, November 17, at 3:00pm.
Scott Mason is a broadcast journalist with 40 years of television experience. He has won dozens of awards for documentaries, writing, and feature reporting, including three National Edward R. Murrow awards and 20 regional Emmys. He has twice been named North Carolina Television Reporter of the Year.
Scott has worked as a reporter and bureau chief for network affiliates in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Dayton, Ohio.
In 1991, Scott joined the PBS affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, where he created, wrote, produced, and hosted a weekly newsmagazine. Virginia Currents won more than 100 awards for journalistic excellence during Scott’s six-year tenure. The U.S. Information Agency distributed the program to embassies worldwide.
Scott’s success caught the attention of WRAL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Raleigh, North Carolina. In April 1997, Scott became the station’s documentary producer. He researched, wrote, and produced ten documentaries before adding his talents to the nightly news team as a reporter specializing in features.
Today, Scott is known as the Tar Heel Traveler. His Monday-Thursday series on WRAL takes viewers along the back roads of North Carolina where he meets memorable characters, finds out-of-the-way places, and unearths fascinating historical footnotes. The series has become so popular it has led to Tar Heel Traveler half-hour specials, which Scott produces each quarter.
Scott has published five books about his television adventures: Tar Heel Traveler’s Good Eats: 101 Down-Home North Carolina Classics (2020); Tar Heel Traveler: New Journeys Across North Carolina (2019), Faith and Air: The Miracle List (2017), Tar Heel Traveler Eats: Food Journeys Across North Carolina (2014), and Tar Heel Traveler: Journeys Across North Carolina (2010). His sixth Tar Heel Traveler book is due for release in November 2024, and he is currently at work on a novel.
Scott graduated in 1984 from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he majored in Journalism and Communications. He earned his MFA degree in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte in 2015.
Scott lives in Raleigh with his wife Nina. They have two daughters, Lane and Genie, and a son, Scout.