Feeling that his sabbatical, not to mention his cash, was coming to an end, Shuster returned to broadcasting by taking a job reading the morning news for a small radio station in Clearwater. After hours he used the station's equipment to produce segments for NPR's 'All Things Considered' radio program, which he greatly admired. Apparently, NPR liked Shuster's work and called him to talk about joining 'All Things Considered' as producer. After meeting with St. Petersburg-native and NPR stalwart Deborah Amos, and then with ATC Executive Producer David Creigh, Shuster left Florida and moved to Washington, D.C., where as producer he took "All Things Considered" from a weekday-only to a seven-day-a-week program. "It was a good experience," he recalls, "and some of the people who I worked with are still there. " He was there a little less than a year when the office politics and daily grind of producing ATC prompted another change of career. "I wanted to be a foreign correspondent."

Shuster took a position as a newscaster on an all-news radio station and for the Africa service of "The Voice Of America," which helped gain him international credibility. He became engaged to a woman who was taking a job with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Their pending move overseas prompted him to find work that would position him for a suitable job in Europe. Scott sent out tapes and resumes to all the networks, asking if they would like to have a correspondent in Geneva. Given his talent and background, they ALL said 'yes'. "ABC, CBS, NBC, AP Radio, Mutual -- every single one said they would love to have me as their correspondent in Geneva." Shuster chose ABC because they had four radio networks plus television.

Scott Shuster on assignment in Sri Lanka

Shuster and his new wife settled in Geneva, but his territory for ABC News was not Europe at all: Scott was ABC's correspondent in the Third World. Fluent in Spanish and French, he reported for ABC News from Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia (!), Zaire, Congo, Chad, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Brazil, Colombia, as well as around Europe from time to time. He did this for more than 8 1/2 years, visiting 40 countries in all. "My nickname at ABC was 'Machine Gun Shuster,' because I filed so many reports," recalls the busy reporter.

Shuster's thousands of stories included an interview with the former dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, who fled Haiti to live in exile near Shuster's Geneva apartment. Shuster knocked on Duvalier's door and was surprised when 'Baby Doc' himself answered. Shuster also attended the creation of the Afghan Liberation Organization, which began the process of breaking Afghanistan away from Russian control.