Right
Time and
Place
The
WRITTEN BY ADRIANA MARIELLA
NEWS 12 NEW JERSEY
TRAFFIC ANCHOR
CARA DI FALCO
48 WAYNE MAGAZINE
MAY 2015
COURTESY OF NEWS 12; BACKGROUND : THINKSTOCK
C
ara Di Falco starts her day at News 12 New
Jersey before the sun rises. As the station’s
morning traffic anchor, she is in the studio
by 4:30 a.m. and on the air by 5 a.m.,
leaving her husband, Eddie, and dog,
Roxie, still asleep at home.
Di Falco, who was born and raised in Kinnelon, has
been reporting traffic for News 12 New Jersey since
2009, when the station needed someone to fill in for the
weather report. She eventually landed the permanent
role. “I was in the right place at the right time,” says
Di Falco. “I had always wanted to be on the air. When the
traffic girl quit, the station needed a backup and asked
me to step in, so I said I would give it a shot,” she recalls.
Before joining News 12, Di Falco had been working in
Westchester, where she gained her on-camera experience.
“When I was working in Westchester I had been working
behind the scenes, but they sometimes needed someone
to fill in for weather there, and I would do it since I had
experience using a green screen before,” she explains.
Being in the right place and time has worked to
Di Falco’s advantage since she was a student at Rutgers
University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in
broadcast journalism. She recounts how even back then,
she accompanied a friend to an audition for an anchor
position on the school’s television broadcast channel.
Di Falco had no intention of auditioning, since she wanted
to focus on radio production. She was accidentally given
an audition time, however, and ended up getting the
anchor job.