Although she’s recognized as a reporter who alerts commuters about morning traffic jams, Rachel Lutzker didn’t get her start in broadcasting.
She earned her first dollars at a variety of small jobs, from husking corn at a local farm’s fruit and vegetable stand, babysitting and working as a store clerk at an Athlete’s Foot store and a local Hallmark store in her hometown of White Plains, N.Y.
But her long-term aspirations weren’t in retail, daycare or greeting cards. Rather, Lutzker had set her sights on becoming a police officer. But her mother talked her out of the idea.
While still in high school, an opportunity in broadcasting cemented the direction her career would take. She got an internship with the Ricki Lake show, where she caught the TV bug.
“A family friend was a producer on the show,” Lutzker said. “I just loved it.”
Lutzker pursued a degree in mass communications at the University of Hartford. While an undergrad, she interned in the sports department at WVIT NBC 30, which offered her another opportunity to get a taste of the camera. She also worked in radio at WKSS, where she decided to become a promotions director.
But once again, her plans changed. “The girl doing traffic at the time was switching to the midday show at WKSS, and she asked me if I wanted to learn how to do traffic,” Lutzker said. “So I was still in college, my second semester senior year and I would do the traffic from six to nine a.m. on WCHN, then go to classes, then go back for more traffic from three to six p.m.”
Lutzker stuck with it after graduation after her first on-air position in January 1999. She got the call to appear on-camera for channel 30 in 2000, only to be transferred to WCBS-TV in Manhattan nine months later.
The city that some reporters clamor for left Lutzker unsatisfied.
“People try to get to New York because they see success as working in the No. 1 market in the country,” she said. “But once you get there, you see how structured it is, how you can’t do certain things. With every position filled, there’s not much room to learn other things.”
An opportunity to return to WKSS brought Lutzker back to Connecticut and back doing traffic on the radio and eventually, TV. Hired by Clear Channel, Lutzker provided on-air traffic reports to WFSB Channel 3 and eventually to Fox 61 as well.
“The partnership with Fox and Clear Channel is a good marriage of what I enjoy,” she said. “I can’t live without one or the other.”
Lutzker is now the morning traffic reporter for the Fox 61 Morning Show. Her traffic reports also can be heard on the Clear Channel radio stations WWYZ, WKSS, WURH and WPOP. In addition, Lutzker hosts for The River 105.9 FM.
Ricki Lake Gig Led To TV
