Emmy award winning broadcast journalist Isiah Carey was born in Baton Rouge, La. It was there that he got his first taste of broadcast news. He was a third-grade student at South Boulevard Elementary School when he realized he wanted to be a reporter. His teacher invited a television journalist to talk to his class. That reporter provided Isiah the inspiration to pursue a career in TV journalism. After that reporter's visit, he wrote a letter to the news director of the TV station in Baton Rouge, asking if he could work there in the summer. He was allowed to intern of sorts until he went away to college."

By the 10th grade, station personnel at WAFB TV were convinced he had a future in broadcast journalism when anchor Frank Hudson accepted his first script of a news story. After graduating from high school, Carey entered the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette in 1988 to study mass communications. In 1989, he enrolled at Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge and before graduation he worked as one of the city's youngest radio news anchor and reporters for WXOK radio in Baton Rouge.

By 1990, he was also news director and anchor at KQXL-FM and WYCT-FM. That same year, Isiah got his first break in TV as a reporter and weekend public affairs talk show host at WVLA-TV (NBC). In 1991, he joined WAFB where he remained for four years as a fill in co-host of a morning news program and general assignment reporter. He was very proud when the news director name the nightside segment after him calling it "Isiah Carey's Nightside".

His dedication to his work is evident, as Carey conducts interviews and develops a story that often starts with a simple tip in the form of a phone call from individuals who have come to respect his assertive, no-nonsense style of reporting.