September 6, 2025 • 18 mins
Shannon is in Brazil for the Chiefs vs. Chargers game but Gary welcomes Marla Tellez from FOX 11 back to the mic! Marla opens up about life as a new mom at 49, raising her daughter Sloane, and how she stumbled into a career in broadcast journalism. From handwritten letters that landed her internships to showing up at 3 a.m. for a MONTH to finally earn a newsroom job after someones no show. Marla’s journey proves that persistence and saying “yes” to uncomfortable challenges can change everything!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right, here you go with our gas weekend fixed.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is the portion of the show that couldn't air
or didn't air during the week, and we've you know,
you got to fill twenty hours of other stuff that's
going on.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Is it R rated or X rated?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It depends on how this the rest of these next
few minutes go.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Okay, all right, yet to be determined.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm not gonna I'm.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Not gonna put I'm not gonna put restrictions on anything.
Marlotea is from Fox eleven has joined us. She's been
in with the last with us for the last couple
of days. Back again. I mean, obviously you are back
at work, but you a major life event in that
you gave birth to your to your beautiful daughter, Sloan.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes, Sloan is just well, she'd be six months this month,
which is just mind blowing.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's so weird. They grow up so freaking fast, right
in front of your eyes.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I went through that. It's fun to watch and I
said this on the air. This week It's fun to
watch because for me, those days of you know, having
a several months old person in your house with you
is old. For me, it's twenty years ago, twenty five
years ago. So it's a strange. Well, it's just it's
so fun to watch somebody else go through.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, we know that you're smart, You're a lot smarter
than I am, meaning that you had kids when you
were supposed to. On the other hand, me here, I
decided to wait till I'm almost fifty years old. Come on, So, yeah,
I gave Bertha her at forty eight. A couple of
weeks later, I turned forty nine. I'm a forty nine er, yes,
(01:37):
but you know, I'm getting through it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So one of the things that we do on this
this portion of The Gary and Shannon Show, specifically the
Weekend Fix, is that we kind of we've talked a
lot about our backgrounds and how we got into radio
and why this was a career choice for us. Got it,
and I've always I'm curious about you. And I grew
up and Shannon actually well kind of grew up sort
(02:01):
of within the same region up in northern California, where
why this industry, why TV radio fell into it.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Totally fun, an accident, like you walked into the wrong building.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
One Yeah, well I wrote a letter. I hand wrote
a letter, snail mail back in the day. No, so
I was going to well getting back to so. Yeah,
I grew up in Snowma County, where you also grew
up right, yep, you were in Snowma, not more in.
And let's see, I thought I was going to be
(02:32):
a lawyer only because a I like to argue and
be It was like lawyer, okay, that equals maybe some
good money, right.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And uh so I was going to college for that
and thought I was going to go to law school.
And I got a job working for an attorney in
San Francisco, but it was through a family friend and
of all things, that.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Was tax law.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ooh sexy, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So my introductioned alat that was not a good and
at all paid good money.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I didn't like it at all.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And me, I'm so, oh my goodness, what in the
world am I going to do? I don't have time
to go look at other laws, so what should I do?
My cousin randomly one night says you should be a newscaster,
And I like what no, And I was actually pretty shy,
like behind the scenes. And I thought, well, I do
(03:26):
like current events. I liked news. I liked watching news,
I liked to research. I like to write. I thought, well,
I don't want to be on television no way, but
I want to be a writer.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Maybe I'll be a writer.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So I wrote letters to some of the anchors in
the Bay Area, Elaine Corral being one of them. She
was the only one who wrote. Who called back?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Then? I left a phone number. We didn't have cell phones.
She called. I was stunned.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
A couple of days later and she said, I can
help you get in an internship, and I said okay.
So she put me in touch with whomever I needed
to be in touch with. I got an interview, who
got that internship. Walked into the newsroom at KTVU in
Oakland and immediately was like, I love this place. It
was just frenetic and it was crazy. This is back
(04:14):
in the day when the newsrooms were packed, phones ringing
off the hook, people drop an F bomb, yelling from
the well, why the f didn't you get it done well?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And it reminds me of the movie. Is it a movie?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Movie?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Broadcast news.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Oh yeah, classic, classic in terms of the depiction of
what newsrooms used to look like.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And that's exactly what that was. Insane and I love
the stress of it all, and I like to work
on deadline, and I said, I'm happy here.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And so my internship is really just what launched me
into it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So the first several years of being in the broadcast industry,
I was behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I was a writer and a producer.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And I loved I loved it working at KTVU, I
will my intern it was there. But then my first
real job was I got a writing position for the
morning newscast at kft Y.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, so that's the place.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
This is a small TV station in Santa Rosa, Channel fifty,
I think it is right. Yeah, yes, So I wrote
a letter also, hand wrote a letter to them saying
that I wanted to be part of they had it
at some time. It was like a young broadcaster's program
or like a TV camp or.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So I would have been in seventh or eighth grade
probably Wow. So I wrote them a letter, didn't end
up going, but I do remember specific being nervous, not
making a phone call, being or being nervous writing the
letter and trying very carefully to write. I had an
awful handwriting, so I'd be very careful to write it
very clearly so they would think I was smart. And
(05:52):
then all they did was really send me the information.
It wasn't like it was an ask to join the camp.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, the funny thing is is that Bill Martin, who
is a noted meteorologist who just retired at KTVU after
you know, one hundred years. He's the one who, you know,
put my name into the hat for a KFTY job.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And I was calling and no one was returning my call.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I'm persistent and so which could also be read
as annoying depends on which, yeah, exactly. So I literally
called every single day and I left somebody named Rick
Starkey a voicemail, a message answering machine right back then,
(06:38):
and uh, finally, I'm not kidding, like fourteen days straight.
He picks up the phone and he said, what do
you want? And I said, oh gosh, I well, I'm
just looking for a job. Well, okay, show up tomorrow
at three am.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
This is what he says. And I said, okay, so
I go and can't. Why is tiny? And three am.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Santa Rosa, Santa Rose Medicino Avenue and it's dark, there
are no lights, there's no one there, and the doors
are locked. I knock on the door at three am
and some young lady comes down, you know, like me.
Basically she's a producer of the morning show. And she says,
may I help you? And I said, hi, my name
(07:25):
is Marla. She had no no one told anybody anything,
of course, and she's the only one there, and okay,
I sure, come on in, crazy girl.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
So I came in and she said.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well I don't I don't really have anything for you.
I said, well, I can help do whatever. So I
literally sat there and did nothing, and I kept showing
up at three am. And then Rick Starkay finally met
him in person. He said, no, shit, you actually showed up.
And I said yeah, and I'm not getting paid, which
is you know, of course. And fine, that producer, the
(08:02):
associate producer one day did not show up, just didn't
show up. And I was there and they said, Marla, well,
today's your day, like you need to help produce the show.
And so I had watched enough to know sure, and
I jumped in and next thing, you know, they asked
if they offered me a job.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So I did this for about a month with just
showing up, not getting paid advance.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Who's this crazy person in the newsroom. And that's how
it all started.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It's funny that in the industry, this industry, but I'm
assuming it's for others. I wouldn't know because I'm not
I don't work in them, but that there is always
a moment of testing your willingness to put yourself out there,
whatever it might be. Sometimes it's just showing up, like
you said, you know, at three in the morning, doing
that uncomfortable thing. He may have thought in his head,
she'll never.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Show up one hundred percent, thought that one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But there's also those times when for me, it was
a time when I was working as a as an
editor in the news hit we used to call it
at Great Station in Sacramento, and I always wanted to
be on the air, but was I had been on
the air in Chico, but when I took a job
in Sacramento, was just as a writer as an editor.
(09:11):
So you got your foot in the door, got my
foot in the door, was in the building, which was
the important part. Like you were in the building doesn't matter.
And there was a moment where car chase ends and
a standoff a guy in the middle of an intersection
with a van that they think might have explosives in
it up in the north end of like the North
Highlands area of Sacramento, and the reporters that were out there,
(09:35):
there were a couple that were out there. They were
there was also some other big story I want to say,
it was a fire or something else that was taking
kind of our resources, and this story popped up out
of nowhere, and the managing editor said, you got to
take a phone and go out there.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We need you out there to do I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Just got the chills, and it was great because I
jumped in one of the news cars and got as
close as I could to the scene and ended up
basically sitting on the asphalt with my back to a
police car and there's two or three police officers sitting
on either side of me. Another TV cameraman that was
sitting we're all behind the car, and we're still a
couple of one hundred yards away from this van, but
(10:15):
we don't know what's inside of it.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I'm doing these live shots from my butt on
the you know, on the middle of the street next
to cops and and exhilarating and fun. And the next morning,
you know, I was on with KCBS in San Francisco
radio station out of Seattle. ABC News had called and
said that they wanted live reports to be filed from
(10:38):
the scene.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All of this.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It was just that that moment, that amazing moment where
all you have to be is in the right place
at the right time.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But you got to be there, You got to be
in the building.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Yeah, and unafraid.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
And I mean obviously you wanted to be on air,
so you know you said yes, yes, please, please please.
And I always my whole thing for me career wise
is because I mentioned I was shy and never really
wanted to be never wanted to be in front of
the camera and certainly not behind a microphone, is to
(11:10):
I like to overcome my fears and to do things that.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
I'm afraid of.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You see the challenge, and I love it.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And so when you called me to be just to
be a guest on the Gary and Shannon Show, I
was so nervous.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, you weren't even coming into the building. We
were just doing a phone call.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Oh yeah, no, And I was nervous and that was
just a few years ago, because I know you're looking
at me like with the so what's wrong with you?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well, because it's something I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Done, like I don't report for radio, and how will
I know the answers and all of this? Right, And
then once I had the conversation with you and then
you asked me about filling in for Shannon, I thought okay.
And the day that I was driving here to do
that for the first time again having never done radio before,
(11:58):
I was on the one oh one and almost in
tears because I'm going, what am I doing? I've never
done this. I don't know how to do this. But
it's that thing in life like okay, Marla that means
you have to do it.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
And then here I am and you're having me back.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
How do you get from from this interim associate producer
role in Santa Ros in the middle of the middle
of the night.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, how do you go from that to on air?
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Let's see, let me condense the story.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, I.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
At the same time, once I did that, for about
a year, there was an even.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Smaller station, a local cable station in Marin County, Marin
thirty one.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It's since defunct.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
One of our local photographers called YouTube, one of the
kft Y photographers, he also did some work for that station,
and they said, hey, we need some people to do
some local reports. And he asked me if I wanted
to do it, and again I was just a writer
(13:02):
behind the scenes, and I said, I have no experience,
but again using my motto, sure, Sure, And so I
did these terrible pieces. I mean, writing wise, they were decent,
I'll say, but in terms of me on camera, it
was just awful. I mean, I really wish I could
(13:23):
find those because it would be hilarious talk about blooper reels.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Anyway, they put it on the air for Merin County.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And an executive producer at KPIX, the CBS affiliate in
San Francisco, called that station and was looking for one
of the reporters who had applied at KPIX like a
year earlier.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
She had since moved on and moved away.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And that guy who was in charge of the Marine station,
because I just showed up and I did my assignment
on time, and I did the work, didn't necessarily mean
it was good. He said, I have someone who's a
good worker. She doesn't have a lot of experience, but
here she is. And they were looking for a producer
at k pix. And sure enough, I get a call
(14:11):
from KPIs one day and it's this is EP and
I get hired and I get the interview and I
get hired to be a producer at KPIX. I became
friends with a show host who was Malone Nubla is
her name, and she became a mentor of mine. So
(14:31):
I was one of her producers, and I just after
a couple of years, I felt like I had already
hit a ceiling. Sure and I said to her, I
think I'm gonna get out of the industry just like that,
because I was kind of like, what else am I
going to do? And the pay wasn't great and this
and that, and she said no, no, no, you're too
good at this. And she said just be in front
(14:52):
of the camera and I said, absolutely not, like I'm
so uncomfortable. So she took me out with a camcorder
and we shot like fake stand ups all over the
Bay area.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Hey, kids, a cam quarters like the thing on your phone,
but it was bigger and you couldn't call anybody, and
you didn't get text messages on its update. Sorry, we
just had to. I had to translate for the people
who are under thirty.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I appreciate that very much, and so I got a
little bit more comfortable doing that. I mean, she took
me to very public places and just taught me just
ignore people.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They're only looking because they're curious what's going on, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And so I put together a fake demo reel and
I sent it off to just like two stations, and
I got a call back from the one of the
stations based in Salinas, and I got an interview, and
I remember the news director said how much live experience
do you have because this was for a general assignment,
(15:48):
live reporter on the scene, and I said zero and he.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Said, oh, you look comfortable enough, you'll be.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Fine, and so but you were honest.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I was honest, and I got the job.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And then my very first live report, I was in
the bathroom prior crying because I was so scared to
go live, felt sick to my stomach. It happened to
be a studio shot, so I was blessed in that
I actually had a teleprompter. Well, I get there, they
throw to me and I could feel my heart and
(16:22):
hear it, you know, in my ears.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And next thing, you know, the.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Camera, which is at that time even was operated remotely,
it started spinning and the teleprompter is connected to the camera,
and so I don't so if you were watching from home,
it'd be the camera is doing a three sixty of
the television studio and I'm sitting there like a deer
(16:48):
in headlights, but knowing the show must go on. And
I got my lines out nonetheless, And that was my
first time live on the air, and I survived, and
here I am.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, that's fun story.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, like of course, Well, Murphy's Law.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We're glad that you came.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
We're glad that you've helped us out in the years
that you've been around.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh well, thanks for having me and you know, working
with you. It's just you're you're the best ever.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I mean, you don't have to say Elmer, you can
cut that part out.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
No, to watch you behind the scenes is incredible. Your
mind is just like boop full with us.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Sharp as attack sharp is attack.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Hey, listen anywhere you find your podcast, thank you Marla.
By the way, anywhere you'll find your podcast is where
you can find the Gary and Shannon Show. So if
you're listening right now on whichever platform, make sure you
subscribe to the podcast. That way, the Weekend Fix and
all of the regular daily shows just kind of show
up in your feed. You can rate the podcast, you
can comment on the podcast, and you can share the
(17:47):
podcast for the people that you do it all and
that you don't love. Yeah, it helps us out greatly,
So thank you for that and we'll see you next weekend.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
All right, here you go with our gas weekend fixed.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is the portion of the show that couldn't air
or didn't air during the week, and we've you know,
you got to fill twenty hours of other stuff that's
going on.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
Is it R rated or X rated?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
It depends on how this the rest of these next
few minutes go.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Okay, all right, yet to be determined.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm not gonna I'm.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Not gonna put I'm not gonna put restrictions on anything.
Marlotea is from Fox eleven has joined us. She's been
in with the last with us for the last couple
of days. Back again. I mean, obviously you are back
at work, but you a major life event in that
you gave birth to your to your beautiful daughter, Sloan.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes, Sloan is just well, she'd be six months this month,
which is just mind blowing.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It's so weird. They grow up so freaking fast, right
in front of your eyes.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I went through that. It's fun to watch and I
said this on the air. This week It's fun to
watch because for me, those days of you know, having
a several months old person in your house with you
is old. For me, it's twenty years ago, twenty five
years ago. So it's a strange. Well, it's just it's
so fun to watch somebody else go through.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Well, we know that you're smart, You're a lot smarter
than I am, meaning that you had kids when you
were supposed to. On the other hand, me here, I
decided to wait till I'm almost fifty years old. Come on, So, yeah,
I gave Bertha her at forty eight. A couple of
weeks later, I turned forty nine. I'm a forty nine er, yes,
(01:37):
but you know, I'm getting through it.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
So one of the things that we do on this
this portion of The Gary and Shannon Show, specifically the
Weekend Fix, is that we kind of we've talked a
lot about our backgrounds and how we got into radio
and why this was a career choice for us. Got it,
and I've always I'm curious about you. And I grew
up and Shannon actually well kind of grew up sort
(02:01):
of within the same region up in northern California, where
why this industry, why TV radio fell into it.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Totally fun, an accident, like you walked into the wrong building.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
One Yeah, well I wrote a letter. I hand wrote
a letter, snail mail back in the day. No, so
I was going to well getting back to so. Yeah,
I grew up in Snowma County, where you also grew
up right, yep, you were in Snowma, not more in.
And let's see, I thought I was going to be
(02:32):
a lawyer only because a I like to argue and
be It was like lawyer, okay, that equals maybe some
good money, right.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
You know?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
And uh so I was going to college for that
and thought I was going to go to law school.
And I got a job working for an attorney in
San Francisco, but it was through a family friend and
of all things, that.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Was tax law.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ooh sexy, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
So my introductioned alat that was not a good and
at all paid good money.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I didn't like it at all.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And me, I'm so, oh my goodness, what in the
world am I going to do? I don't have time
to go look at other laws, so what should I do?
My cousin randomly one night says you should be a newscaster,
And I like what no, And I was actually pretty shy,
like behind the scenes. And I thought, well, I do
(03:26):
like current events. I liked news. I liked watching news,
I liked to research. I like to write. I thought, well,
I don't want to be on television no way, but
I want to be a writer.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Maybe I'll be a writer.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So I wrote letters to some of the anchors in
the Bay Area, Elaine Corral being one of them. She
was the only one who wrote. Who called back?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Then? I left a phone number. We didn't have cell phones.
She called. I was stunned.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
A couple of days later and she said, I can
help you get in an internship, and I said okay.
So she put me in touch with whomever I needed
to be in touch with. I got an interview, who
got that internship. Walked into the newsroom at KTVU in
Oakland and immediately was like, I love this place. It
was just frenetic and it was crazy. This is back
(04:14):
in the day when the newsrooms were packed, phones ringing
off the hook, people drop an F bomb, yelling from
the well, why the f didn't you get it done well?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And it reminds me of the movie. Is it a movie?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Movie?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Broadcast news.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Oh yeah, classic, classic in terms of the depiction of
what newsrooms used to look like.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
And that's exactly what that was. Insane and I love
the stress of it all, and I like to work
on deadline, and I said, I'm happy here.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
And so my internship is really just what launched me
into it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So the first several years of being in the broadcast industry,
I was behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I was a writer and a producer.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And I loved I loved it working at KTVU, I
will my intern it was there. But then my first
real job was I got a writing position for the
morning newscast at kft Y.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, so that's the place.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
This is a small TV station in Santa Rosa, Channel fifty,
I think it is right. Yeah, yes, So I wrote
a letter also, hand wrote a letter to them saying
that I wanted to be part of they had it
at some time. It was like a young broadcaster's program
or like a TV camp or.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So I would have been in seventh or eighth grade
probably Wow. So I wrote them a letter, didn't end
up going, but I do remember specific being nervous, not
making a phone call, being or being nervous writing the
letter and trying very carefully to write. I had an
awful handwriting, so I'd be very careful to write it
very clearly so they would think I was smart. And
(05:52):
then all they did was really send me the information.
It wasn't like it was an ask to join the camp.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, the funny thing is is that Bill Martin, who
is a noted meteorologist who just retired at KTVU after
you know, one hundred years. He's the one who, you know,
put my name into the hat for a KFTY job.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
And I was calling and no one was returning my call.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I'm persistent and so which could also be read
as annoying depends on which, yeah, exactly. So I literally
called every single day and I left somebody named Rick
Starkey a voicemail, a message answering machine right back then,
(06:38):
and uh, finally, I'm not kidding, like fourteen days straight.
He picks up the phone and he said, what do
you want? And I said, oh gosh, I well, I'm
just looking for a job. Well, okay, show up tomorrow
at three am.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
This is what he says. And I said, okay, so
I go and can't. Why is tiny? And three am.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Santa Rosa, Santa Rose Medicino Avenue and it's dark, there
are no lights, there's no one there, and the doors
are locked. I knock on the door at three am
and some young lady comes down, you know, like me.
Basically she's a producer of the morning show. And she says,
may I help you? And I said, hi, my name
(07:25):
is Marla. She had no no one told anybody anything,
of course, and she's the only one there, and okay,
I sure, come on in, crazy girl.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
So I came in and she said.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Well I don't I don't really have anything for you.
I said, well, I can help do whatever. So I
literally sat there and did nothing, and I kept showing
up at three am. And then Rick Starkay finally met
him in person. He said, no, shit, you actually showed up.
And I said yeah, and I'm not getting paid, which
is you know, of course. And fine, that producer, the
(08:02):
associate producer one day did not show up, just didn't
show up. And I was there and they said, Marla, well,
today's your day, like you need to help produce the show.
And so I had watched enough to know sure, and
I jumped in and next thing, you know, they asked
if they offered me a job.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
So I did this for about a month with just
showing up, not getting paid advance.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Who's this crazy person in the newsroom. And that's how
it all started.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It's funny that in the industry, this industry, but I'm
assuming it's for others. I wouldn't know because I'm not
I don't work in them, but that there is always
a moment of testing your willingness to put yourself out there,
whatever it might be. Sometimes it's just showing up, like
you said, you know, at three in the morning, doing
that uncomfortable thing. He may have thought in his head,
she'll never.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Show up one hundred percent, thought that one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
But there's also those times when for me, it was
a time when I was working as a as an
editor in the news hit we used to call it
at Great Station in Sacramento, and I always wanted to
be on the air, but was I had been on
the air in Chico, but when I took a job
in Sacramento, was just as a writer as an editor.
(09:11):
So you got your foot in the door, got my
foot in the door, was in the building, which was
the important part. Like you were in the building doesn't matter.
And there was a moment where car chase ends and
a standoff a guy in the middle of an intersection
with a van that they think might have explosives in
it up in the north end of like the North
Highlands area of Sacramento, and the reporters that were out there,
(09:35):
there were a couple that were out there. They were
there was also some other big story I want to say,
it was a fire or something else that was taking
kind of our resources, and this story popped up out
of nowhere, and the managing editor said, you got to
take a phone and go out there.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
We need you out there to do I.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Just got the chills, and it was great because I
jumped in one of the news cars and got as
close as I could to the scene and ended up
basically sitting on the asphalt with my back to a
police car and there's two or three police officers sitting
on either side of me. Another TV cameraman that was
sitting we're all behind the car, and we're still a
couple of one hundred yards away from this van, but
(10:15):
we don't know what's inside of it.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
So we're doing this.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, I'm doing these live shots from my butt on
the you know, on the middle of the street next
to cops and and exhilarating and fun. And the next morning,
you know, I was on with KCBS in San Francisco
radio station out of Seattle. ABC News had called and
said that they wanted live reports to be filed from
(10:38):
the scene.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
All of this.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
It was just that that moment, that amazing moment where
all you have to be is in the right place
at the right time.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
But you got to be there, You got to be
in the building.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Yeah, and unafraid.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
And I mean obviously you wanted to be on air,
so you know you said yes, yes, please, please please.
And I always my whole thing for me career wise
is because I mentioned I was shy and never really
wanted to be never wanted to be in front of
the camera and certainly not behind a microphone, is to
(11:10):
I like to overcome my fears and to do things that.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
I'm afraid of.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You see the challenge, and I love it.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And so when you called me to be just to
be a guest on the Gary and Shannon Show, I
was so nervous.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, you weren't even coming into the building. We
were just doing a phone call.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Oh yeah, no, And I was nervous and that was
just a few years ago, because I know you're looking
at me like with the so what's wrong with you?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well, because it's something I hadn't.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Done, like I don't report for radio, and how will
I know the answers and all of this? Right, And
then once I had the conversation with you and then
you asked me about filling in for Shannon, I thought okay.
And the day that I was driving here to do
that for the first time again having never done radio before,
(11:58):
I was on the one oh one and almost in
tears because I'm going, what am I doing? I've never
done this. I don't know how to do this. But
it's that thing in life like okay, Marla that means
you have to do it.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
And then here I am and you're having me back.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
How do you get from from this interim associate producer
role in Santa Ros in the middle of the middle
of the night.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, how do you go from that to on air?
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Let's see, let me condense the story.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Well, I.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
At the same time, once I did that, for about
a year, there was an even.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Smaller station, a local cable station in Marin County, Marin
thirty one.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It's since defunct.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
One of our local photographers called YouTube, one of the
kft Y photographers, he also did some work for that station,
and they said, hey, we need some people to do
some local reports. And he asked me if I wanted
to do it, and again I was just a writer
(13:02):
behind the scenes, and I said, I have no experience,
but again using my motto, sure, Sure, And so I
did these terrible pieces. I mean, writing wise, they were decent,
I'll say, but in terms of me on camera, it
was just awful. I mean, I really wish I could
(13:23):
find those because it would be hilarious talk about blooper reels.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Anyway, they put it on the air for Merin County.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And an executive producer at KPIX, the CBS affiliate in
San Francisco, called that station and was looking for one
of the reporters who had applied at KPIX like a
year earlier.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
She had since moved on and moved away.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And that guy who was in charge of the Marine station,
because I just showed up and I did my assignment
on time, and I did the work, didn't necessarily mean
it was good. He said, I have someone who's a
good worker. She doesn't have a lot of experience, but
here she is. And they were looking for a producer
at k pix. And sure enough, I get a call
(14:11):
from KPIs one day and it's this is EP and
I get hired and I get the interview and I
get hired to be a producer at KPIX. I became
friends with a show host who was Malone Nubla is
her name, and she became a mentor of mine. So
(14:31):
I was one of her producers, and I just after
a couple of years, I felt like I had already
hit a ceiling. Sure and I said to her, I
think I'm gonna get out of the industry just like that,
because I was kind of like, what else am I
going to do? And the pay wasn't great and this
and that, and she said no, no, no, you're too
good at this. And she said just be in front
(14:52):
of the camera and I said, absolutely not, like I'm
so uncomfortable. So she took me out with a camcorder
and we shot like fake stand ups all over the
Bay area.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Hey, kids, a cam quarters like the thing on your phone,
but it was bigger and you couldn't call anybody, and
you didn't get text messages on its update. Sorry, we
just had to. I had to translate for the people
who are under thirty.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
I appreciate that very much, and so I got a
little bit more comfortable doing that. I mean, she took
me to very public places and just taught me just
ignore people.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
They're only looking because they're curious what's going on, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And so I put together a fake demo reel and
I sent it off to just like two stations, and
I got a call back from the one of the
stations based in Salinas, and I got an interview, and
I remember the news director said how much live experience
do you have because this was for a general assignment,
(15:48):
live reporter on the scene, and I said zero and he.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Said, oh, you look comfortable enough, you'll be.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Fine, and so but you were honest.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I was honest, and I got the job.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
And then my very first live report, I was in
the bathroom prior crying because I was so scared to
go live, felt sick to my stomach. It happened to
be a studio shot, so I was blessed in that
I actually had a teleprompter. Well, I get there, they
throw to me and I could feel my heart and
(16:22):
hear it, you know, in my ears.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And next thing, you know, the.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Camera, which is at that time even was operated remotely,
it started spinning and the teleprompter is connected to the camera,
and so I don't so if you were watching from home,
it'd be the camera is doing a three sixty of
the television studio and I'm sitting there like a deer
(16:48):
in headlights, but knowing the show must go on. And
I got my lines out nonetheless, And that was my
first time live on the air, and I survived, and
here I am.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, that's fun story.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, like of course, Well, Murphy's Law.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
We're glad that you came.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
We're glad that you've helped us out in the years
that you've been around.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Oh well, thanks for having me and you know, working
with you. It's just you're you're the best ever.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I mean, you don't have to say Elmer, you can
cut that part out.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
No, to watch you behind the scenes is incredible. Your
mind is just like boop full with us.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Sharp as attack sharp is attack.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Hey, listen anywhere you find your podcast, thank you Marla.
By the way, anywhere you'll find your podcast is where
you can find the Gary and Shannon Show. So if
you're listening right now on whichever platform, make sure you
subscribe to the podcast. That way, the Weekend Fix and
all of the regular daily shows just kind of show
up in your feed. You can rate the podcast, you
can comment on the podcast, and you can share the
(17:47):
podcast for the people that you do it all and
that you don't love. Yeah, it helps us out greatly,
So thank you for that and we'll see you next weekend.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six
forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio ap
Gary and Shannon News
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