White Salmon man produces television for world’s biggest sporting events

Dougherty grew up in a small town just outside of Philadelphia, and credits his dad for sparking his interest in video production. His first memories working alongside his dad were filming video of the late Kobe Bryant when he played high school basketball at Lower Merion High School.

“My dad would put like a camera on my shoulder and say, ‘Sit here on the baseline and I just want you to follow him around wherever he goes,’” said Dougherty.

When Dougherty was younger, he also complied highlights for many of the hockey greats like Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. He attended Boston College and graduated with a degree in history, which he took to New York City and found a gig writing for the History Channel. Also at the time, he was working with a company called CSTV (College Sports TV) Networks. In 2005, their rights were acquired by CBS Sports and Dougherty decided to take some time away.

In 2007, Dougherty returned home to hike the 2,190-mile Appalachian Mountain Range with his younger brother, Terrence, a few other friends and their dogs. According to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy only one in four hikers complete the entire distance, but Dougherty and his group finished the trek in five or six months — depending who you ask.

“We ran up that thing,” said Dougherty. “We actually took over a month of zeros (hiking term for not logging any miles). We kept getting stuck in towns and having a good time.”

Once the group finished, Dougherty rejoined CBS Sports where he worked for about six years. Those years would be the mot formative years of his life and his career. Dougherty would go on to win three Emmy awards in three years and most importantly, meet his wife, Marla Keethler. Dougherty would win Emmy awards in three straight years from 2011-2013. In 2011, he and his team at CBS Sports was honored in the Outstanding New Approaches Sports Event Coverage of the NCAA March Madness On Demand. In the two years following 2011, he would be recognized again for coverage of The Masters golf tournament. Additionally in 2018, his crew would win one for their coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Dougherty isn’t the only Emmy award winner in his family. Keethler has also been recognized for her work in sports television production. The tree-time Emmy award winner has been honored for her work covering the 2004 World Figure Skating Championships (ABS Sports/ESPN), 2008 Beijing Olympics (NBC) and Super Bowl 50 (CBS Sports).

The Emmy-award winning couple got married in 2016 and decide to drive across the country to the Columbia River Gorge. Soon after settling in White Salmon, they welcomed Bailey, age 4, and Charlie, age 2. Dougherty says the balance between traveling for work and enjoying time with his family was difficult at first. Last year Dougherty flew well over 150,000 miles. When he isn’t being the camera Dougherty likes spending time with his family and being outdoors.