The 14-year phenomenon of on-air traffic reporting is still relatively new to Chicago television. Still, the demand for up-to-the-minute information on road conditions, public transportation, school closings and the like is at an all-time high. At Chicago's ABC 7 News, traffic reporter Roz Varon has been in the forefront of this emerging field, having the distinction of being the first full-time on-air traffic reporter in Chicago.
Varon is so much more than a traffic reporter, though. Since 1989 she has both informed and entertained early morning news watchers with her familiar traffic reports on the '7's,' but she also hits the streets regularly, microphone in hand, to bring Chicagoans the scoop on Chicago events and happenings such as The Old St. Pat's Block Party, The Anti-Cruelty Society's annual 'Bark in the Park,' a closer look at new rages such as The 'Sing Along Oz' phenomenon, the list goes on.
Not surprisingly, Varon's career as a traffic reporter began in the field of radio. Her first job was at Station WXLC in Waukegan, Ill., and during the ensuing nine years she acted as a traffic reporter for various radio stations throughout the Chicago metro area.
From 1980-'82 Varon was a morning airborne traffic reporter and also an afternoon editor for Lee Communications, where she was heard on WLS AM-FM Radio. From 1984 to 1985 Roz worked as WUSN Radio as a traffic reporter/editor and morning on-air personality. Concurrently she appeared on WLAK Radio as an on-air personality. In April 1985 Varon became a traffic reporter/editor and a morning and afternoon on-air personality at the popular WFYR radio station in Chicago.
Although the bulk of Varon's background was in radio, she took a shot at television when she auditioned for Chicago's ABC 7 in 1989. The station had decided to punctuate the morning headlines and weather with traffic reporting.
A 1980 graduate of Columbia College with a degree in broadcast communications, Varon has leant her talent to her alma mater, having taught radio broadcasting courses there for seven years.
Varon has also been involved with Big Brothers/Big Sisters since 1990. She has also been a major force in the Anti-Cruelty Society's annual 'Bark in the Park' since its inception and has hosted the event with the likes of ABC 7 colleague Mike Caplan and WXRT legend Terri Hemmert. Last year Roz was honored with the 2002 'Media Person of the Year' award from Anti-Cruelty.
Varon lives with daughter Sarah and three Anti-Cruelty cats in the western suburbs.
DAVID GUARINO: I think one of the most interesting aspects of your job is the fact that on-air traffic reporting is really only 14 years old as far as the medium of television is concerned, right?
ROZ VARON: (nods) In 1989 when Channel 7 and Channel 5 decided to start a full morning newscast (which at the time was only a half-hour, from 6:30 AM to 7 AM), both stations wanted to incorporate some form of traffic report. So that was really the birth of traffic on television as we know it (here in Chicago).
DG: And you were the first on-air television traffic reporter (here)?
RV: I was! They (the stations) really had no TV reporters to interview for this (position). Because traffic reporting wasn't being done on-air on television. So they interviewed all radio people. Well, there but for the grace of God go I … I just got really lucky. I was able to really, I don't know, wing it effectively? Because nobody had any TV experience, at least not in broadcast news. I mean, I had done some commercial work, telethons, I had done work in front of the camera before. So I wasn't completely green to that.
DG: During your radio years, did you ever have any clue you would land on TV?
RV: Hell no! (laughs) No, David, if you would have asked me 15 years ago if I thought I would be doing anything like this now, I couldn't even have fathomed it. (At that time) I was strictly going into radio, that's what I majored in, I graduated from Columbia College with a BA in broadcast journalism with a radio emphasis, and I wanted to be a DJ; I wanted to be on the radio. That was my thing. ... I've never left this market. I grew up here, I went to college here, I got a job here. I started working part-time at my first radio job on-air, which was with WXLC in Waukegan. My God! (I was) working one shift a week from midnight Saturday till eight a.m. Sunday. And that was the beginning of being drowsy on the road … Little did I know … but it was an opportunity to be on the air and I was right out of college. So I was able to use those airchecks when I found out in December of that year that Gary Lee was going to start up a traffic service and he needed some entry-level positions filled. And that was me to a 'T.' I didn't have to have traffic experience and it was a full-time job! So I put together a little aircheck ... he hired me, taught me how to do traffic.
DG: When you first applied for the job at ABC 7, what was the response you got?
RV: They said 'No.' I came back. I handed in this tape and they said, 'Well this is interesting. We'll have you come in and do a little interview on the set; we'll do a little audition on the set.' And I loved it, but I was terrible. When I was on the set I was thinking, 'Oh, my God! This is where Mary Ann Childers sits! Oh, my God! What am I doing here?' I was a wreck. And Joe Ahern (then general manager of ABC 7) looked at the tape, and he goes, 'This is so not going to happen.' And so I made another tape and I wrote him a letter and I said I understood that the tape was not the most professional looking; I asked him to please understand I didn't have the on-camera experience that the other people had but I had the traffic experience. I said, 'If you give me another chance, you give me a couple of weeks, I'm going to go in there like gangbusters and be just as good as anybody else you've got on-air.' And you know what, he (Ahern) hired me! And he'll tell you the story; he'll tell you 'I respected her tenacity.'
DG: Do you prepare your own reports?
RV: They're finally giving me police scanners … after begging on hands and knees! But yes, I use a lot of different tools because we (WLS) don't subscribe right now to Shadow (Traffic), Metro; I do everything myself. I compile all of my information so I'm doing things from the Internet, from I-Dot's Web site so I can get my travel times and determine where the congestion is. I have a whole bunch of police contacts I call and then of course with the addition of the scanners, it will help tremendously.
DG: Then there are your legendary live shots. I remember you were one of the first reporters on the street last November when the water main broke on Lake Shore Drive across the street from where I live. Your interaction with your crew, and with people in general, is impressive. Does it come naturally? That's probably where your radio training comes in handy …
RV: Yeah, I was just going to say that. One of the things that I hear from people that I work with, particularly the crews, is that they are surprised at how easily and how naturally I do live shots. When you're ad libbing and you're just-there! And that definitely comes from my radio background. Because you have to be able to do that; you have to be able to back-time. If they're telling me I have a certain amount of time to do something, in my head my internal sense of timing will tell me when, for instance, 30 seconds are up. I can do that. It's an acquired talent … .
DG: Rumor has it that at one time you worked for a country station ...
RV: Worked at US 99? Doing the country hits? (laughs) That was challenging.
DG: Did you like doing that?
RV: You know what, it was different. I worked there in 1983, and only for a year. But I was doing traffic in the morning, and then I had a weekend DJ shift. And I'll tell you what was really interesting about that; I worked with Don Wade (of Don and Roma). Way back when, when Don was doing 'shit kickin' country,' he was the goofy morning guy and I was the traffic gal. I mean, I've known him for 20 years!
DG: Tell me about working with XRT's Terri Hemmert … .
RV: Well, I emceed with her for The Anti-Cruelty Society's 'Bark in the Park.' I knew her, but not really well. I mean it's just kind of like within the industry, you know who the competition is and who's working where. Terri Hemmert, I mean when I was in radio she was (already) an icon. So when I first got my job in television and I started doing some of these other stories, if there was ever a chance to interview anybody in radio for anything … I remember, I did call her up, and I was so flattered that she knew who I was, and she said, 'Congratulations, it is so cool to make the switch from radio to TV, you're doing such a great job.' That was like the ultimate, ultimate compliment from somebody I grew up listening to and really looked up to as a role model. Because there weren't many women, (in radio) at least when I started, who you could look up to and say, 'I want to be like that.' I have so much respect for her.
DG: You have spoken about the importance of shooting and editing your own packages. Do you do that?
RV: I don't shoot. They have union restrictions here. (at ABC 7) So reporters are really not allowed to touch equipment at all. The only thing that we can do is screen tapes, we have screening rooms where we can actually put a tape in a machine and hit 'play' and 'rewind,' and look at things.
DG: Can you edit your stories?
RV: No. In a smaller market reporters can do just about everything. So it's a disadvantage on the one hand because I don't know how to do some of those things. On the other hand, there are people who are specifically trained to do those functions and I wouldn't want to take away their jobs.
DG: Can you tell me a bit more about some of the organizations you support?
RV: Well, of course you already know about the Anti-Cruelty Society's 'Bark in the Park.' I've been with that group since its inception, and so has my colleague Mike Caplan. And we're in our ninth year. I'm also involved with The Girl Scouts and also UCP (United Cerebral Palsy). When I first started here (at ABC 7) they (UCP) were still doing the telethons, so they just kind of grabbed everybody and anybody who would do it. And then when Mary Ann Childers went to Channel 2, they asked me to take a bigger part in it. And eventually it became Dick Johnson and I co-hosting. But they really aren't doing telethons anymore, they take up too much time, use up too much revenue, blah blah blah. What they do is tape a one-hour special and they air it maybe a half-dozen times. So I still do that and so, from that standpoint, I've been a part of this organization for so long! I really don't have that much free time, so those are really the only organizations that I have time to be involved with. (Roz smiles)
DG: How did you feel about your former colleague Dick Johnson going over to NB?
RV: I was happy for him because that is something he always wanted to do. Dick always wanted to anchor, so this (his morning anchor spot on the NBC 5 Morning News) is like his dream job.
DG: As a mother and activist, how do you feel about the Boy Scouts exclusionary policies regarding the admission of gays and lesbians?
RV: I feel very sad about it, yes I do. It makes me very sad that an issue like that is taking away from what I believe should be the message that the kids are getting who are involved with scouting. I don't like to see it (the GLBT issue) take away from that. Because I believe scouting is about teamwork and self esteem … it's about growth experience and opportunity and that's what I think scouting is all about.
DG: What do you still want to achieve?
RV: To not ever have to worry about money ever again ... I mean, how am I going to pay for my daughter's education? College is very expensive! We went to Spain last summer. You know, I wanted to make that trip because we are Spanish-Jews, so our mother country is Spain. I wanted three generations to make this trip, so it was my mom, my daughter and I. But the cool thing is because she understands the geography behind it, she will say things like, 'OK, we were in Spain, we were in Madrid, we went to Barcelona, we went to Portugal.'
DG: Do you have a philosophy as to what it takes to be successful?
RV: Go for it! What have you got to lose? When I was growing up, my father would criticize me by saying, 'You never take no for an answer.' Because I was very determined and probably a little challenging for my parents. But, on the other hand, because I don't take no for an answer, I got this job! So my advice would be: be persistent, be aggressive and believe that if you really try hard enough, if you want it bad enough, it's yours for the taking.
Roz Varon will co-host of the Anti-Cruelty Society's 9th 'Bark in the Park' Saturday, May 3; (312) 644-8338; www.barkinthepark.org .
E-mail: DavdRonald@aol.com
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
