Shannon Becker
Shannon Becker is a breaking news reporter with KOAM News Now and Joplin News First who covers car‑centered incidents and events across the local road network. His coverage treats vehicles, traffic and public safety as a single beat, combining live on‑scene reporting with continuous updates on social platforms. He is known as a highly sourced reporter who regularly breaks crime and crash stories before competing outlets.
Route 66 Great Race and car events
Becker’s coverage of the Hemmings Great Race on Route 66 shows how he handles automotive events as both car culture and moving news story. In “The Great Race in Joplin for Route 66 Centennial,” he follows the classic‑car rally’s return to the city and its role in celebrating the Route 66 centennial as the race travels from Springfield, Illinois to Pasadena, California. The way he frames this event connects vintage vehicles, long‑distance rally logistics and the impact on the city streets the race passes through. This kind of piece sits at the intersection of motorsport, tourism and traffic management, and fits into his broader habit of treating special automotive events as part of the live news cycle rather than as lifestyle coverage.
Road conditions and traffic safety
Road conditions are a recurring theme in Becker’s reporting, where vehicles and weather combine into a public‑safety story. In a KOAMroadconditions segment he recaps current conditions and looks ahead to how weather will affect drivers in the coming days, working alongside KOAM’s weather resources. These pieces focus on practical details: what drivers will face on key routes, how storms or ice are affecting visibility and traction, and where to expect enforcement or delays. The emphasis is preventive and real‑time, positioning him as a go‑to source when the situation on the roads is changing quickly.
Breaking news, crime and live coverage on the roads
Becker’s strongest distinction on the automobile beat is his crime and breaking‑news work, much of which involves vehicles, crashes and roadside incidents. Professional profiles describe him as a reporter who regularly breaks crime stories ahead of other media in his market, underlining how often those stories unfold on highways, local streets and parking lots. Joplin News First promotes itself as “LIVE! Breaking News in the Joplin Metro Area,” and Becker is the face of that brand, using real‑time video and social posts to bring viewers directly to scenes involving law enforcement and emergency responders. His “Big 3 Stories of the week” segments for KOAM highlight notable incidents and developments, often drawn from this stream of live coverage and focused on the most consequential events for local residents. Across these formats, his work tracks the movement of police units, tow trucks and traffic disruptions as part of the story, keeping the vehicle and the road visible even when the primary news hook is crime or public safety.
Retail traffic and community live shots
Not all of Becker’s automobile‑related work centers on danger; he also uses live hits to show how people move through commercial spaces and seasonal events. On Black Friday, KOAM features him “out talking to shoppers,” capturing foot and vehicle traffic around retail centers and the atmosphere of busy parking lots and access roads. These pieces are shorter but still rooted in the same real‑time approach, with Becker on location translating crowds, lines and congestion into simple visuals and quick interviews. They expand his beat from formal traffic reports and crime scenes to everyday consumer behavior, showing how cars, streets and commerce interact on high‑volume days.
Taken together, Becker’s work at KOAM News Now and Joplin News First is defined by live, highly sourced reporting on how vehicles, roads and public safety intersect. He covers classic‑car rallies, hazardous driving conditions, crime scenes and retail surges with the same on‑scene, social‑forward style, making him a distinctive voice on the local automobile beat.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aarian Marshall
Aarian Marshall is a staff writer at WIRED who stands out for covering how cars, software, and policy collide. She writes on transportation systems and cities, from the auto industry to broader mobility systems. Before WIRED, she reported on cities and urban policy for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Her beat runs from electric vehicles, fuel prices, tariffs, and car-buying decisions to autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and software-defined cars. She reports with a systems view, linking policy shifts, technical failures, and urban life to what happens on streets, in repair shops, and at the pump.
Adrian Leung
Adrian Leung writes engineering-led coverage of Chinese electric vehicles and performance cars for CarNewsChina. He focuses on new energy vehicles, battery systems, powertrains, electric platforms, high-end domestic brands, and track-ready models, and he explains technical details in plain language for non-specialist readers. His reporting treats new models as hardware and systems stories, with precise figures on range, battery capacity, chassis layout, motor outputs, weight, and acceleration. He also covers the Chinese auto industry’s finances and technology roadmap, including sector profits, vehicle volumes, and solid-state battery timelines. His background in Electrical and Computer Engineering shows in the way he writes about vehicle electronics and battery management.
Al Pefley
Al Pefley is a television news reporter for CBS12 News whose work centers on how laws, law enforcement and local decisions shape everyday life for drivers and other residents. He reports in a general assignment role but returns often to transportation, public safety and pocketbook issues, treating driving as a point where policy, disability and policing intersect. His coverage includes driver-focused laws, fuel and tax policy, crime, policing and internal affairs findings, with a consistent focus on accountability and concrete consequences for people’s wallets, safety and trust in institutions. He explains county gas tax debates, campaign positions on teacher pay, property crime and retail theft in short, clear segments. Pefley works primarily on the scene, using live or recorded field reporting and interview-driven pieces to show what happened, why it matters and what comes next.
Aliza Savira
Aliza Savira focuses on the hidden financial costs of owning modern cars, especially how insurance can undermine expected savings. She writes about automobiles for MSN, looking at new technology and electric vehicles through everyday ownership rather than showroom appeal. Her work highlights the gap between promises of cheaper running costs and the full financial picture of owning a vehicle. In electric vehicle coverage, she treats insurance premiums as a key ownership problem that can erode long-term value. She stays close to practical questions drivers face, such as which recurring costs matter most after purchase. She reports on how insurance structures and premium levels interact with new automotive technology. Her beat is consumer-focused automobile reporting, with a clear, utilitarian lens on ownership experience, recurring expenses, and risk, rather than lifestyle or performance.