If Westport has an unofficial spokesperson, it might just be Dave Briggs. He’s everywhere: from co-emceeing Fashionably Westport to emceeing Pink Aid to participating in and moderating conversations at the library on everything from journalism to basketball to supporting local restaurants and businesses, there’s a reason he’s earned the title of “Westport Advocate.” But Dave says he wasn’t always as plugged into Westport happenings as he is now. “Early in the pandemic, [when I suddenly was home all the time] I realized: oh my gosh, I am not connected at all with my community, and it kind of broke my heart,” he says. So he made a concerted effort to change that. “I made it a priority to really connect with this town that I love, whether it’s helping out with restaurants or businesses on Instagram or hosting Fashionably Westport or PinkAid or supporting the gem that is Dan Woog. I am a bit of a cheerleader for this town, because it was missing from my life for 10 years.” He’s become a community fixture, yes, but through deliberate work— something he’s no stranger to.
Dave began his career as a sportscaster, though he originally aspired to play basketball. At 15, he broke his back, and was told he might not play again. “It forced me much sooner than many other kids to think about: what else could I do with my life? What do I enjoy? What could I be successful at?” he says. “Quickly, I thought: sportscaster. That seems like a dream.”
He majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder (he’s originally from Colorado) and started working up the ranks in local media, going from stations in Tulsa, Okla., to a big break in Boston where he covered championship-winning Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics teams. While covering sports for a string of elite-level Boston teams might have been the pinnacle of the profession to some, Dave had loftier-still ambitions. “I am intellectually curious,” he says. “That’s what allowed me to go from sports to news.” And he did, leaving behind Boston for a gig hosting Fox & Friends Weekend. It was there he met Alisyn Camerota, another host on the show, who would go on to become a constant friend and colleague in his life (more on her in a bit). From Fox & Friends Dave went back to sports, then eventually joined CNN, where he anchored Early Start.
Throughout this time, he and his wife Brandi started looking for somewhere to live that would allow Dave easy access to both Boston and N.Y.C. “Brandi had a good friend who was raised in Westport, and the second we saw Compo Beach and our kids ran into the ocean in all their clothes… it was a quick sell,” he recalls. “We fell in love with it. We’ve met some of the best friends we’ve ever had here. We’ve had opportunities to leave— including to go back to Colorado, where we are both from— but we’ve turned them all down, because this is home.”
It’s why he’s spent the last five years going all in on Westport— including his latest project, a podcast with the aforementioned Alisyn Camerota called Sanity. “What brought us to this podcast is the fact that we were at a similar time in our lives and careers,” says Dave. Both journalists call Westport home, both recently stepped away from roles at national news outlets, both were hungry for an independent source of news and politics, and they’ve worked well together for years. (Dave’s CNN show, Early Start, led into Alisyn’s New Day.) “To have that kind of chemistry is such a gift,” he says. Dave also plans to bring their passion for local coverage to the airwaves, with a statewide, hour-long Connecticut radio show, coming to TK in TK. “The radio part of it excites me because we can connect not just to businesses around the state, but callers and people,” he says. “We’re both Westporters, we both love Connecticut, and I think we can bring a spotlight to the state.”
Dave’s personal Connecticut spotlight remains Compo Beach, where he goes to reconnect with what drew him here 17 years ago. “Taking a walk and talking with a friend along that beach reminds me how good we have it,” he says. “I’m not always great at being grateful, but that walk helps.” It proves that focusing on his connections here in town has paid off, and that even with all he’s accomplished, there are still so many exciting things he wants to do. “This is going to sound cheesy,” he says, “but I think the greatest moment in my career is still to come.”
Follow Dave Briggs @davebriggstv