Al Roker Reveals His Thoughts on Retirement While Celebrating 30 Years on the Today Show (Exclusive)

Al Roker might be celebrating three decades on the Today show, but the milestone anniversary hasn’t made him consider retirement anytime soon. 

The 71-year-old weatherman spoke exclusively to PEOPLE ahead of his 30th anniversary on the NBC morning show about his plans for the future. 

“Well, let’s put it this way. I haven’t thought about retirement,” he tells PEOPLE before joking, “Somebody at NBC, that might be a different story.” 

The veteran meteorologist and journalist is just as passionate about his work today as he was when he replaced the late Willard Scott on the show in 1996. 

“I love what I do,” he says. “I feel good. I love this job. I love doing it. At some point I guess I won’t be, but I don’t feel like that’s anytime soon, so I’m just gonna keep going.”

However, Roker acknowledges that the Today show isn’t about just one broadcaster.  

“I think that’s the beauty of the broadcast is that the mission over these 74 years has not changed,” he shared. “The way we bring it to you may have, and look, the fact of the matter is we are each temporary custodians of this legacy … at some point I won’t be part of the show, somebody else will be, but to be part of a pretty cool club is very special. To say that this was a dream job isn’t really accurate because it never dawned on me that I could be on the Today show.”

Saying he’s been “really, really fortunate” to be able to work on the show for all this time, Roker shared one particular memorable day he spent interviewing legends. 

“I guess it was about 10 years ago in one 24-hour period out in California, I interviewed Don Rickles, Betty White, Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke, and it was like, wow, I’m a kid from Queens out doing this,” he recalls.

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Roker also remembers a special moment he shared during the 2013 inauguration of President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden. 

“[Obama] acknowledged when I asked him about the weather and then Vice President Biden runs up and shakes my hand,” Roker recounts. “It was the day of the inaugural but it also happened to be a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. I’m thinking my parents are looking down and going, ‘Our son was acknowledged by the President of the United States and had his hand shaken by the Vice President.’ Like I said, for a kid from Queens, that’s some pretty heavy stuff.” 

And while Roker’s time on Today hopefully isn’t ending anytime soon, he does have an idea of what he wants his legacy to be. 

“People, when they watch, that they didn’t feel like I wasted their time,” Roker explains. “And that hopefully they felt better after watching than before.”