media
Following Traffic
and Trends
“Malibu Kelly” Dillon is on top of all things New Jersey
WRITTEN BY JULIA MARTIN
16
SPRING 2020 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
GETTING THE
WORD OUT
Verona resident
Kelly Dillon
reports on traffic,
celebrities and
fashion and life-
style trends.
K
eeping up with Kelly
Dillon is not easy.
Besides her
day job as after-
noon on-air traffic
reporter for WCBS
880 AM, the 35-year-old Verona
resident hosts a podcast for the
station called “Kicking Back with
Kelly,” works as a voice-over art-
ist and promotes favorite brands
on social media as a fashion and
beauty influencer.
“I am working pretty much
all the time,” Dillon says with a
laugh. Her traffic reporting starts at
4 p.m. and runs to about 10:30; on
podcast days, she commutes in ear-
lier to WCBS' offices in Manhattan's
Hudson Square neighborhood near
the Holland Tunnel. Weekends are
reserved for voice-over and influencer
work.
She is hardly complaining. “I love
what I do, so it doesn't seem like
work,” she says.
Her podcast, which features “fun
girl chat” with celebrities and CEOs
in fashion and beauty, is an especially
dreamy gig for Dillon. The idea for
the show came while talking with
a friend in the station's podcast
division who said they were look-
ing for female talent. In addition to
interviews with “Boss Babes” such
as Tanya Zuckerbrot, the founder of
F-Factor, a lifestyle and diet empire,
Dillon dishes with celebs such as the
Real Housewives of Bravo TV. A self-
professed “Bravoholic” who has been
a fan of the franchise since it began
in Ocean County, California almost