At the age of 10 together with her friends, they started a newspaper that they sold for 15 cents. While in high school she was in Trojan News, a program that gave her foundation in journalism.
“When I was 10, the Daily Globe did a story about me. I had started a newspaper with friends from my block, and we were selling it for 15 cents. I was even interviewed by WCCO radio for that story. Then I was in Trojan News in high school, which was a great program and gave me a lot of the foundation work.”
At the age of 15 she joined KWOA radio where she run the Twins and Vikings games on the AM side. They later let her do the weather reports, working weekends over the summer.
She worked at CNN while in Florida for a few months and was employed for half a year as a robotic camera operator at a large NBC station.
Liz got her first on-air opportunity at KDLT where she began doing cut-ins (local news breaks during the national show) in the morning. They later launched a morning show which she anchored until she left.
She later joined KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kan. where she worked for three years. She started as a reporter and a year later she became a morning show anchor. She later moved to the p.m. newscast, which was the big nightly newscast. While there she did a couple of big stories such as, uncovering some problems at a military school in Salina, where young cadets were allowed to beat up each other. The station had received a phone tip about the military school, and Liz’s job was to look into the claim.
“That was also when the BTK killer, a serial killer from the 1970s, happened to resurface. It was a big national story when it happened. At first, it was kind of scary. Nobody knew what to make of it. People went out and bought guns, wouldn’t walk outside after dark. He was finally arrested after more than 20 years.”
She later moved to WHP-TV, a CBS affiliate in Harrisburg, Pa where she served as an anchor and reporter.
“I was there in the aftermath of the Amish school shooting, which was a big national story. The summer that I was there, an entire family in an upscale neighborhood was killed by a 16-year-old. We saw a lot of reporters there from CNN. One story that I did work on for several months was about the child welfare system. We received a tip about accusations of child abuse before children were being removed from the home. I uncovered paperwork about it, and because of our story, lawmakers took up the cause and lobbied for new regulations.”
