Peggy Fox (communication studies '86) is no criminal, but last year she experienced first-hand the sensations in a criminal mind when it finds no obstacles in the pursuit of its illicit goal.

The goal was unrestricted contact with small children. Fox, who is an anchor for WUSA-TV (Channel 6) in Washington, D.C., armed herself with a hidden camera and stalked into 25 public elementary schools in the Washington metropolitan area, trying to find out just how safe children are in school. No one ever stopped her.

"I just got braver and braver," Fox says. "I'd go into the playground and play with the kids. No adult ever approached me. I got so brave that -- this is really scary -- I'd go into the bathroom with the kids. They were easy picking."

For her news story, "Stranger Among Us," Fox won a special merit award from the National Association of School Law Enforcement officers. But what pleased her the most was her effect on school security -- school officials actually stopped her on some of her follow-up visits.

Fox, who resembles a sweeter, more athletic version of England's late Princess Diana, doesn't look like anyone's idea of a child molester. But that's the point, she says, "A molester can look like anybody."

In her two years as morning anchor and reporter for the Washington D.C., CBS affiliate, Fox has racked up an impressive array of awards, including an Emmy in July. The Emmy came for her recent news feature, "Playing with Lead," about the toxic lead paint coating on some playground equipment in the metropolitan area. Within hours of her broadcast, the offending swings had been dismantled and all their crumbling lead paint removed. Within the week, the park commission was checking for lead in all of its 200 playgrounds.

Fox loves reporting, even though it makes for some 18-hour days. "It keeps you sharp; it keeps you involved; it's fun -- I can't understand anchors who give up reporting," she says.

In her 11 years in broadcasting in Washington, Miami, Charlotte, and Charleston and Bluefield, W.Va., Fox has followed the news into some tense situations. She's covered the Oklahoma City bombing, the Panama invasion, a Pittston coal strike, and many natural disasters. The most terrifiying experience, she says, was in Charlotte when she arrived on the scene immediately after two policemen had been murdered. "No one knew where the murderer was, and police were all around in the crouch position. Someone yelled to take cover, but I didn't know what direction cover was," she says.

Fox had fun covering the celebrity-studded opening of the Planet Hollywood in Miami -- the stars were recognizing her.

"That night the reporters were lined up in front of the club. We were shamelessly aggressive, fighting for the celebrities' attention," she says. "Apparently [television star] Luke Perry had just been watching the NBC station I anchored because he looked at me and said, 'Hey, I just saw you on TV.' And to top it off, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis said the same thing."

Fox has been working up to successively larger television markets since 1986, when she began reporting part-time for Channel 6 in Bluefield, W.Va., fresh out of Virginia Tech. She made more money at her other job, waitressing at the Holiday Inn.

Fox rented a garage apartment from Midge and Melvin Sperry, local folks with roots in coal mining. Fox found a second mother in Midge, a fun-loving, unpretentious woman who said things like, "I put on this weight because when Melvin reaches for me, I want to be sure he gets a handful."

"Even today, when I think of my audience, I don't think of 80,000 viewers out there," Fox says. "I imagine I'm talking to Midge. "

In Bluefield, Fox learned about coal mining, labor unions, and snake handlers. She also learned what makes news and how to shoot, edit, and write a story quickly. "I learned how much I had to learn in Bluefield," she says. "I wouldn't trade that time of my life for anything."

In 11 years, she's moved five times. Tom Horan, her lawyer husband, has taken and passed the bar exam in six states. "He's very supportive of my career," Fox says. "He put his career on hold for me, and now we're finally living together in the same city."

A typical workday for Fox begins at 3 a.m., as she prepares to leave her suburban Virginia home. She's had five or six hours of sleep -- unless, as on a recent Thursday, she and Horan have been putting up an out-of-town band or other friends. At her cubicle in the cavernous newroom, she applies her make-up and reads over the news copy, occasionally substituting more conversational words.

At 5 a.m., she and her co-host go on the air. The show that follows seems a combination newscast and friendly coffee klatch where the clientele is unusually upbeat and witty. The staff darts around the control room, quick yet relaxed. On Fridays, the sportscaster makes pancakes for everyone on the set.

"I could stay in Washington for-ever -- well, maybe not on the morning show, but it is great to be back," Fox says. "Of course, if New York called -- well, New York is everyone's dream."

For Fox, moving to the Washington, D.C., market was coming home. She'd grown up in Springfield, Va., and did an internship on WUSA's magazine show, Capitol Edition, before her junior year. All her R.N. mother's patients at the retirement home watch Fox, and Fox's dad rises at 5 a.m. to answer any weird questions his daughter might throw at him on the air. "What's this bug we found in the newsroom, Dad?" she asked one day. In a few minutes he called in to identify the hellgrammite.

Another nice advantage of Washington is that Fox is back in Hokieland. Almost a quarter of Virginia Tech's alumni live within her viewing area, so Fox often gets calls from old friends. She was welcomed by Debbie Linz (management science '87), a friend from Tri-Delta sorority, now at Channel 4.

"If Tech seems to have a lot of television people who do really well, I think it's because they get such great experience at WUVT radio," she says. Fox was WUVT's news director at Tech and started the "Tech Talk" show, which would discuss topical issues like AIDS and take live calls from listeners. Her good friend, Hoda Kotb (communication studies '86), now New Orleans anchor of the nation's top-rated CBS affiliate, along with Philadelphia NBC news producer Melinda Emerson (communication studies '94), claim WUVT as their first news experience.

Fox is not one to get a swelled head about her glamorous job. Sure, she got to wear Princess Diana's $35,000 jeweled dress for a feature a few weeks ago, but "it's just a job," she says. "On television, you're always one word away from getting fired. If you slip and say something stupid on the air, it's all over."

Still, she knows she's worked hard to get where she is.

"I was filled with confidence when I left Virginia Tech," Fox says. "That's good. Confidence helped me get that first job. But I found I had a lot to learn. Confidence is a fragile thing, especially when you don't have a strong foundation. Confidence is backed by competence. Now I'm at a comfortable professional level built by the experience of covering thousands of stories and interviewing all kinds of people. I feel I deserve to be in D.C. now. You can't anchor and report in the nation's capital just out of school. I worked hard to get here."

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