Months ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic, I had the privilege of visiting with current Bedford resident and WKYC Channel 3 morning show personality Danielle Wiggins. I had to get up that day earlier than normal (but nothing compared to the time she has to get up) so I could meet with her for an interview during one her breaks on the newscast. Wiggins has been doing the morning traffic report and other on-air jobs for more than six years at WKYC.
Traffic on the way to downtown was almost non-existent as I drove up Interstate 77 toward the lakeshore and parked in the WKYC lot. I had never been on a live news set before, so I felt a little nervous as I was ushered through security, behind the rigging and eventually brought out to the actual studio soundstage.
It was eerily quiet — I mean no noise whatsoever. I saw morning show personalities Hollie Strano and Maureen Kyle as I walked in and sat down in a seat they had set up for me about 20 feet in front of the news desk, just behind the cameras. Then I saw Danielle getting ready to do the traffic report. Along with helping drivers get where they need to go in the morning, Danielle does a variety of other spots as well.
The environment on the set is surreal to say the least. There are long segments of silence, and then seemingly out of nowhere, one of the personalities begins to speak. After she is finished, it’s perfect silence again for a time until someone else breaks in. How each person knows where to be and when to start speaking is a mystery to me. (That is, until I am told later by Danielle that each person wears an earpiece with the producer speaking to them.)
Wiggins finishes a segment on pop culture news and then we meet together in one of the staff meeting rooms just off the soundstage. Like just about everything else in this part of the studio, all of the walls are glass, so I can still see the people working on the morning production. Wiggins is as engaging in person as she is on the screen.
Being in front of the cameras had always been a dream for Wiggins, but because of health issues during college, she thought she might never get the opportunity.
“I went to the University of Missouri for two years right after I graduated from Bedford High School,” she said.” “I got a scholarship from Missouri and I was there for two years and I got sick and I had to come home against my will.”
Wiggins enrolled at Kent State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a master’s degree in media management. She had trained to be a news anchor there, but the health issues came up again.
After graduation, instead of trying out for jobs as a broadcaster, Wiggins decided to work behind the scenes on the production side. She was the main producer of the award-winning NPR program “The Regina Brett Show,” and has also worked at CBS and ABC affiliates in Cleveland. Even though Wiggins was successful as a producer, and gained valuable experience, she still had designs on being in front of the camera someday.
During her years as a producer, Wiggins was not only gaining accolades, she also married her sweetheart and started a family.
“By that time, (I was in my late 20s) and thinking like ‘I’m old,’” she said with a chuckle. “I was married when I was 24. I got married and we had kids and … I was (feeling) OK and everything was fine. I thought I have three other people to take care of and think of, so when I make career decisions I can’t just make decisions for myself.”
She said she thought that the dream of being an on-air personality was dead.
But the dream wasn’t dead. Around that time WKYC announced open try-outs for the morning traffic reporter slot. Amazingly, this was the type of break she was looking for. Even though she knew little about reporting on traffic, she decided to give it a shot … and she got the position. She had broadcasting training in college, and had worked behind the scenes for years, but it took some time to get comfortable with this new career path.
“I’d say I don’t think I actually fully got it until maybe a year in,” she said. “People were patient with me, and I am very thankful for that.”
As part of the learning process, Wiggins had to take to the roads to become familiar with the area’s byways so she could help others navigate when their morning commutes might get disrupted.
“So, (my training) came from studying maps and learning navigation,” she said. “I was driving around looking at where the traffic cameras are located and studying how to get the drive times and things like that. Those are things that are not taught in school.”
Doing traffic is mostly ad-lib, so it is not like traditional reporting, she said. Writing and reporting stories had been strengths of hers, but she said those skills were not as important in her new role. Thinking on your feet, however, was a high priority.
“I knew reporting, as far as telling a story,” she said. “But I didn’t know how that necessarily translated to accidents and slow downs and drive times. So I had to learn how to do that by building graphics.”
She said the graphics she builds for her traffic reports are basically her “notes” when on the air, and that she just has to trust that the ad-libbed parts will come to her. She also has had to get used to doing her work while having people speak to her in her earpiece while she is on air.
“We didn’t have that (in college) when I was there, and so not only are you paying attention to what is going on around you, you also have producers talking in your ears as well, so it may look like we’re talking to ourselves but we’re really talking to producers. During that last segment, the producer was talking to me and asked, ‘Do you need more time for traffic,’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and she said, ‘Danielle you have 10 more seconds.’”
Even with all of these elements occurring at once, the anchors are still supposed to remain looking calm and collected.
“It is very stressful behind the scenes, but we can’t make it look like that,” she said. “We can’t look frazzled, and a lot of times we’ve done this so much that most of it becomes routine. You do want to change things up sometimes as a producer. I love that I have that producer background because it helps me respect the producers and to know how hard they work and not make their job harder for them.”
Wiggins said that she knows most drivers have devices in their cars that warn them of potential trouble in their morning ride. But what she likes to do is be the driver’s friend from the time he or she wakes up until it is time to get the navigation device. Then the navigation device can take over when the driver gets in his or her car.
As Wiggins has gained more experience, the morning producers have been tweaking the show to give her opportunities to see if she could do other things besides traffic.
“And that comes back to what we talked about earlier when I said that I came in, and this is my opportunity. I didn’t know how to do (traffic) but it was a foot in the door. I knew I had the (anchor) skill set over here, and it was kind of in my back pocket. Once I got traffic down, then I was able to start saying, ‘Look at what else I can do.’”
The format of the morning show has changed from the traditional two anchors to reflect The Today Show model of wanting to build a family-unit where team members can perform different roles. This has the potential to open up other avenues for Wiggins to show her skill set.
“I just say, ‘Yes.’ I’ll take whatever opportunities they will give me until they take it away,” she said.” I feel like as long as they’re not asking me to do anything that is totally outside my character then I’m, “OK here we go! I’m here and I love it.”
Wiggins lives in Bedford now, but grew up in Oakwood Village. One of her mentors in the Bedford Schools was Yvonne Sims, who also happened to be a mentor to Halle Berry years before. Wiggins said that Sims is retired now, but she was like a mom away from home to her.
“As a teenage girl, you know, my mom and I are exactly alike, and Mrs. Sims didn’t have to live with me, so she was the person that I would go to. … She helped me through a lot and spoke life into me.”
Wiggins said that when she was in high school, Mrs. Sims asked many of the African American women from different cliques at school to come together and share their experiences. These were students who all had influence in some way at the school, and they met as a group on Wednesday mornings at 7 a.m.
Wiggins said they would talk about different issues and how to navigate various areas in life, and Sims would pour into them.
“I remember I was listening to another young lady from another clique who said, ‘I have low self-esteem,’ and then she went and started describing it.” And Wiggins thought to herself at that time, “I have that too. … Oh my gosh, that’s what I have.”
She said she remembered going to Sims’ office after that session crying and telling her that she struggled with self-worth issues. Wiggins said Sims was really encouraging to her and said, “Danielle, you can do this.”
Wiggins said Mrs. Sims had girls of her own, but that she also mothered so many of the girls at the school. She said that those times in high school set her on a process of healing, and realizing that who she is not about what she accomplishes.
“I was so thankful for that and to continue to go through that process because it would kill me to (worry about that) here (at this job),” she said. “We are constantly in competition, and if they got rid of me today, there are a million people they could replace me with. But it lets me know that my worth is not in the next achievement, or my job, or being on television. My worth is who I am.”
Wiggins said taking on this job was the hardest thing she’s ever done professionally, but that some of the rough roads she traveled down personally beforehand prepared her for this endeavor.
“I think one thing that I wasn’t prepared for (at first) was (some of the) backlash from the audience, and like the nasty emails,” she said. So she thought to herself, “OK here is another level of ‘no matter what somebody says, you still have to believe in yourself and you have to believe the positive, and when the people are attacking you, not taking that in.'”
Wiggins continues to expand her responsibilities at the station, and during the coronavirus pandemic, she has been covering stories that focus specifically on hope. A few colleagues and she launched a new YouTube series called Reality Break. Click on the link below to watch some of the segments.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_SLtTChKczIFYvDFZz6_xQHLyepcRK50
