On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy and special guest, co-host Harriet Wallace -broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – welcomed Wallace to the show and talked with her about what she’s doing now with Fox 17, her background in journalism, growing up Nashville, and what ultimately brought her back to the city after college.
Gill: And joining us in-studio, and we’re going to start doing this. We’ve got special in studio guest host Harriet Wallace, WZTV Channel 17 and Scott Wallace her husband whose with the fairgrounds, runs the fairgrounds. Do we get like discounted parking and tickets at the fairgrounds if we come in Scott? We got free parking, I think they always have free parking so it’s no big deal. Harriet good to have you in studio with us and happy almost Christmas season.
Wallace: Hey thanks so much for having me. I am excited to be up again so early in the morning. And look, Christmas is my favorite time of year, my husband can tell you. Decorations, all the little toppers coming out, Christmas tree shopping, about four in the house. It’s the best time of year.
Gill: It’s increasingly starting right at Halloween. I think they’re moving it almost starting, some people start to put their trees up at Easter. It just keeps getting sooner and sooner that people put up the lights and start playing the Christmas music the whole thing.
Wallace: Raise his hand, I’m guilty. I feel like all these other holidays get in the way of the Christmas season you know what I mean?
Gill and Wallace joked about how College season is the time when her husband will get into the attic and start bringing out all the Christmas decor. Gill concurred as his wife magically gets the home all decked out in Christmas decorations upon returning from his work day and that his job was to clean up at the end of the season.
Gill: Tell us a little bit, Harriet Wallace, we know you from Channel 17, we know you from Fox News, you do Pumps and Politics and now you’ve got the Sunday morning show with Scott Couch and you’re a regular guest. How did you get to Nashville?
Wallace: Gosh wow well, born and raised in Nashville so I’m a daughter of Nashville, of this amazing amazing city. Born and raised here in the north Nashville, White’s Creek area. Went to private Catholic school here and my mom taught at Tennessee State University. I grew up at the campus in her classroom, she taught nursing. She was the interim director over there. You know when it was time for college, I was like, well I just thought TSU was where I would go. I mean, mommy graduated from there, daddy graduated from there this is where they met and married, well shortly after that they married. She’s like “no, you’re going away, your going to spread your wings.” I’ve always been in journalism since a child. Mommy recognized my writing ability when I was younger. I was in writing camps at Sewanee when I was a kid. And did school newspaper and did some stuff at the Tennessee Tribune when I was in eighth grade and so naturally, broadcast journalism was you know my fit. We found Hampton University in Virginia went there did a lot of stuff. And so finally, I was like, “I’m never going back to Nashville.” Now, remember this is before the Titans okay? You remember before the Titans were here it was not the same Nashville. Right, you know Titans opened the door, and I was like I’m not going back to Nashville. So I worked at a TV station and became the youngest person to host a talk show at WVEC out there in Norfolk, Virginia. Then daddy got sick and you know I made the choice to come home and I’ve been here ever since. This is my second time at Fox 17 and I love the station so obviously I came back and they love me, I appreciate it.
At the end of the segment, Gill talked about all the folks that the Tennessee Star does interviews with at Fox 17 and how the people that work there have a different culture than most of the other local news outlets. Wallace agreed by stating that it was a “roll up your sleeves, work really hard, get along, and have a lot of fun” work environment.
Listen to the full segment:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
