Oliver was born in
Astoria, Queens. He graduated from
William Cullen Bryant High School, and received his bachelor's degree from
Columbia University and master's degree from
Columbia School of Journalism. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Oliver was on assignment in
Lower Manhattan when the
attack on the World Trade Center began. From street level near
New York City Hall, Oliver's camera crew captured the audio of
American Airlines Flight 11 impacting the
North Tower. With the
production truck still running, the station quickly interrupted a commercial break to switch to Oliver. After 8 minutes, the uplink signal from the van was interrupted due to a failure at the receiver on the roof of one of the two towers. Reporting from Oliver continued over a phone line. His live report was among the earliest news coverage of the event. Oliver would retire from Fox the following year and afterward taught journalism at
Columbia University,
Hunter College and
New York University. He died in a hospice care facility on November 11, 2016, aged 77, from complications of a stroke. ==References==