Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We
Speaker 1: have new episodes coming out, starting with this one today.
Speaker 1: A very special guest and to be totally totally transparent,
Speaker 1: she's one of my very best friends.
Speaker 2: So if you're from New York, you've heard of her,
Speaker 2: My dear friend, Rosanna Scotto.
Speaker 1: She's in an incredible thirty plus year career in journalism,
Speaker 1: which is of course currently anchoring Good Day New York
Speaker 1: on Fox five here in New York. Rosanna is a
Speaker 1: brilliant journalist, a brilliant person, and she truly is the
Speaker 1: face of morning TV here in New York City. I
Speaker 1: can't think of a better guest to welcome our podcast
Speaker 1: back online.
Speaker 2: So let's listen in with Rosanna Scotto.
Speaker 1: It's so weird having my best friend Rosanna Scatto here,
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you she's my best friend because I
Speaker 1: want to be very, very very open and honest with you.
Speaker 1: But I want to talk to you today about things
Speaker 1: we've never talked about.
Speaker 3: Oh gee, you know it's funny. You've been on my
Speaker 3: show Good Day New York a number of times and
Speaker 3: usually I get to ask you the questions. But I'm
Speaker 3: really nervous now because you kind of know where the
Speaker 3: bones are buried with me, because I do you know
Speaker 3: where all the bones are buried with me.
Speaker 2: I'm not digging up any bones.
Speaker 3: How deep are we going? Is this with or without alcohol?
Speaker 2: Obviously we're without right now.
Speaker 1: No, I think you're going to enjoy where we're going because, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's weird having a friend who you're as close with
Speaker 1: as we are with each other, but there are things
Speaker 1: we don't know about each other, true, and I.
Speaker 2: Just want to go down those those those Okay, I pass.
Speaker 3: I feel like, you know, during twenty twenty, you and
Speaker 3: I kind of explored a little bit because well, you know,
Speaker 3: the world fell apart and we had a lot of
Speaker 3: time on our hands, and so we actually had conversations.
Speaker 3: But now we're busy again, and now you want to
Speaker 3: go down that rabbit hole.
Speaker 2: Well we're busy going down a rabbit hole. Okay, So
Speaker 2: of course.
Speaker 1: Rosanna Scotto the co host, actually the host of a
Speaker 1: Good Day in New York on Fox five.
Speaker 2: Here in New York.
Speaker 1: She has been a part of the media scene, a
Speaker 1: TV journalism scene here in New York City for how
Speaker 1: many years?
Speaker 3: Here in New York Let's just say over thirty because
Speaker 3: it might be more.
Speaker 2: So it's more than thirty.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But before working on TV doing TV journalism here, you
Speaker 1: were in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: I was in Atlanta and I worked for Eyewitness News
Speaker 3: at one point two, and then I was doing After
Speaker 3: I Witness News, than I did the ten o'clock news
Speaker 3: on Fox five, and then I've been with Good Day
Speaker 3: New York for almost twenty years now.
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar, not from New York, A good
Speaker 1: in New York is the number one rated morning wake
Speaker 1: up show on TV here in New York City.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of fun. We do everything from newsmakers
Speaker 3: to celebrities like you.
Speaker 1: I'm not a celebrity, but no, so the times Rosanna's
Speaker 1: inviting me to co host on the show, it's only
Speaker 1: the last hour. That's when they loosen up from the
Speaker 1: news and turn it into more lifestyle lifestyle show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of fun. So I never asked
Speaker 1: you like a girl growing up in Brooklyn, Yes, with
Speaker 1: a great, great family. It's very well known here in
Speaker 1: New York City. Then later on your family opens up
Speaker 1: Fresco by Scotto, which is just the premiere restaurant for
Speaker 1: people in media and politics for lunch and dinner.
Speaker 2: First of all, where did the restaurant come from? How
Speaker 2: did that get toto?
Speaker 3: Okay, so this is the story. So my brothers were
Speaker 3: living in California and they had a restaurant. My brother
Speaker 3: John had this place called Bar One. It was near
Speaker 3: Sunset Tower, and it was crazy, like we would go
Speaker 3: visit him and they would be like throwing out Julia
Speaker 3: Roberts out of the club because she had no shoes on.
Speaker 3: Sliced Alan was there. I mean, it was just it's,
Speaker 3: you know, the same players back then are the same
Speaker 3: players back right now? Anyway, So my mother thought like
Speaker 3: they were going to get in trouble, which they did,
Speaker 3: and so she said, what will it take to get
Speaker 3: you back to New York? And they said a restaurant.
Speaker 3: My mother, who had volunteered her whole life, really didn't
Speaker 3: know about, you know, dollars and cents. And she said,
Speaker 3: we're going to open up a restaurant. When she realized
Speaker 3: how much it would cost, she mortgaged the family home
Speaker 3: in Brooklyn. Now she was retirement age when she mortgaged
Speaker 3: the family where this this was nineteen ninety three. We're
Speaker 3: celebrating our thirtieth anniversary at Fresco by Scottola Fall. So
Speaker 3: it was nineteen ninety three, and my dad didn't think
Speaker 3: it was a good idea. He was like, we should be,
Speaker 3: you know, thinking about our future. We're at retirement age.
Speaker 3: And she said, I want to do this for our family.
Speaker 3: And since it was her house, it was her family's house.
Speaker 3: She mortgaged the house in Brooklyn. Never knew this, Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so, and it wasn't easy because, don't forget, my
Speaker 3: mom had no track record as a businesswoman. So when
Speaker 3: they found various places, nobody wanted to do business with
Speaker 3: her because she had no track record as a bit
Speaker 3: business woman. And we went to one place which is
Speaker 3: now the Monkey Bar. It's Charles, that Charles Steakhouse in Midtown, Okay,
Speaker 3: And we wound up not taking that place, and we
Speaker 3: found Fresco by Scotto on fifty second Street two blocks away.
Speaker 3: So when they were doing the negotiations for the restaurant,
Speaker 3: the real estate person said, I'm going to bring the
Speaker 3: old owner of this restaurant in here, and I'm going
Speaker 3: to tell him if the Scottos can't make it, he
Speaker 3: just gets the keys back. Like in other words, like
Speaker 3: I don't really believe that you're going to do this.
Speaker 3: So I'm just going to give the keys back to
Speaker 3: the other guy who was failing in that spot.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: And this is always a good thing to go back to,
Speaker 1: is people who doubted you. It makes you work extra
Speaker 1: hard to prove them very wrong.
Speaker 3: I know. And it's so funny. So my mother and
Speaker 3: I went to a clairvoyant and the Claire Waran said,
Speaker 3: you are going to have politicians, You're gonna have royalty,
Speaker 3: you're gonna have presidents. And my mother totally believed it.
Speaker 3: She's like, this is gonna happen, and what were you thinking?
Speaker 3: And I was thinking, is this guy a whack or whatever?
Speaker 3: But seriously, we've had presidents Clinton, Biden, Trump, We've had royalty,
Speaker 3: Princess Beatrice and Princess Fergie. We've had celebrities Elvis Duran
Speaker 3: sliced the Loane Jennifer Aniston. I mean, just crazy.
Speaker 2: We're always rolling through there, and.
Speaker 3: You know, of course all our favorite food influencers as well.
Speaker 3: But we've had it all. That clairvoyant was absolutely right.
Speaker 3: Mama's right to believe it.
Speaker 1: So not knowing anything about business, not knowing especially not
Speaker 1: knowing anything about a restaurant. Everyone says, don't open a restaurant.
Speaker 1: It's the worst idea ever. You guys have been doing
Speaker 1: this for thirty years. Fresco by Scatto still is the
Speaker 1: hottest seat in town.
Speaker 3: Thank you. But it takes a lot of massaging. As
Speaker 3: you know. There are times where we go out and
Speaker 3: I go I have to go back to the restaur
Speaker 3: So and so is going to be there. I have
Speaker 3: to show my face. It's you have to nurture that business.
Speaker 3: It's it's not easy doing, you know, business in New York.
Speaker 1: Well, and keep in mind, Rosanna is doing this while
Speaker 1: she's hosting a TV show every morning on Fox five
Speaker 1: in New York City. So this is a long, many
Speaker 1: long days for you. And we've been together at many events.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh my god, let's go to sleep.
Speaker 3: I know. He and I are like, well, you started early,
Speaker 3: a little earlier than I do. An hour earlier. I'm
Speaker 3: on the air from seven to ten. You're six, right,
Speaker 3: I know. But you have to look this great. I
Speaker 3: don't have to look I can look like shit. No,
Speaker 3: you always look great. I mean I think it's easier
Speaker 3: for guys, you know, for women, we have to kind
Speaker 3: of really get ourselves together, put on some kind of makeup,
Speaker 3: make sure that we have colors on, you know, so
Speaker 3: that we don't look, you know, kind of blah.
Speaker 2: Well, you always look so beautiful every day.
Speaker 3: Thank you have black on. I have New York black on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're wearing your knee on black for summer. All right,
Speaker 2: So let's talk about where you're taking us.
Speaker 1: You are taking us to men versus women as far
Speaker 1: as getting up and having to look a certain way
Speaker 1: for being on TV. So I I must assume since
Speaker 1: you started way over thirty years ago, Uh, where was
Speaker 1: your first job?
Speaker 2: And said? Atlanta?
Speaker 3: Atlanta, Atlanta?
Speaker 2: What did you do there? So?
Speaker 3: I started off really, you know, as a beginner, I
Speaker 3: was doing the chirons that you see up on the
Speaker 3: screen when you watch TV, like the sports scores and
Speaker 3: stuff like that. I was really terrible. I couldn't type
Speaker 3: that fast, especially with the sports scores. But they then
Speaker 3: promoted me to researcher and I kind of worked my
Speaker 3: way up. Very different back then, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: it was very much guys did like the hard news
Speaker 3: stuff to men's club, Yeah, Woyn's club. And it followed
Speaker 3: me really like up until you know Fox five, and
Speaker 3: then I had to like flex my muscle a little
Speaker 3: bit because you know, even in the beginning Fox five,
Speaker 3: all the guys were getting the great assignments and I
Speaker 3: was kind of getting the lifestyle stories until the preppy murder. Trall.
Speaker 3: Now I bring this up because he's made news again
Speaker 3: just recently. Bring everyone up to okay, ninety something, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So what happened was this good looking guy in New
Speaker 3: York City going off to college, is accused of killing
Speaker 3: a woman in Central Park and they were friends. He
Speaker 3: wound up using the rough sex defense. He wound up
Speaker 3: taking a plea deal in the case, got out of
Speaker 3: jail fifteen years later, and then gets in trouble with
Speaker 3: drugs and winds up going away again for a heroine.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it was distribution or something. Anyway,
Speaker 3: he just got out of jail on parole just the
Speaker 3: other day, just the other day anyway. So that was
Speaker 3: one of the first stories that I was not on.
Speaker 3: I was not assigned to that story, but I knew
Speaker 3: the victim's family, and I went to my boss and
Speaker 3: I said, another eleven family, and I think they'll talk
Speaker 3: to me. And he said, well, if you get an interview.
Speaker 3: The story's yours.
Speaker 2: So there you go, and there you go.
Speaker 3: And that's how I broke through. And it went, you know,
Speaker 3: it kind of like one one thing leads to another, right,
Speaker 3: I did a lot of trials back then. Woody Allen
Speaker 3: me a pharaoh custody case.
Speaker 2: Well, you were almost personally involved in that as.
Speaker 3: Well, because in a strange way, somebody believed that Woody
Speaker 3: Allen was going to get away with the initial accusations,
Speaker 3: and so they brought the tape of his daughter, Dylan,
Speaker 3: making these accusations that he inappropriately touched her. He was
Speaker 3: afraid that Woody Allen was such a big store in
Speaker 3: New York City at that time, Beloved Beloved, he was
Speaker 3: New York right, that this would completely get swept under
Speaker 3: the rug without being looked at. So we got the tape,
Speaker 3: we looked at it, we had our lawyers luck at it.
Speaker 3: We could never put it on the air, but I
Speaker 3: went on the air and paraphrased what Dylan said, and
Speaker 3: we made international news. In those days, there was no
Speaker 3: social media. We had people calling from all over the world.
Speaker 3: They wanted me on the show. And at that point everybody,
Speaker 3: my bosses were like No, she's ours. That's it.
Speaker 2: Oh so now you're like the prize possession.
Speaker 3: Prize possession. You're not allowed to talk to anybody. All
Speaker 3: information will be disseminated on Fox five and a current affair.
Speaker 2: Oh if I was your boss, I'd say the same thing.
Speaker 3: And so, I mean we covered that story for over
Speaker 3: a year.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So Rosanna, you know, doing your thing in the boys club,
Speaker 1: in the newsroom, and you start to get this traction right,
Speaker 1: did the men treat you differently? Did things change a
Speaker 1: little bit a little in a good way or a
Speaker 1: bad way?
Speaker 3: No, in a good way. First, I think there was
Speaker 3: a little jealousy. And then you know, it's funny. I
Speaker 3: look at some of the pictures with the guys back then,
Speaker 3: like you could see they're giving me the sly you know,
Speaker 3: the side eye. But I think then I, you know,
Speaker 3: I worked it over. I was always like, you know, unassuming,
Speaker 3: humble Brooklyn girl. Oh my god, pinch me. I can't
Speaker 3: believe I'm doing what I'm doing right now. This was
Speaker 3: my dream to be doing this in New York, you know.
Speaker 3: And I think they came around, but there was always like,
Speaker 3: you know, a little snide comment, like you know when
Speaker 3: I'm about to go on the air, they'd be like, oh,
Speaker 3: don't embarrass me. Like, why would you say to somebody
Speaker 3: before they go on the air, don't embarrass.
Speaker 1: Me because you're you're good at getting the truth out
Speaker 1: of people or getting to what's happening.
Speaker 3: And I mean, I take such a different approach when
Speaker 3: people come on our show or like just starting off,
Speaker 3: and I'm always like, so you know you're going to
Speaker 3: be great, You'll be fine. Pretend you're talking to your friends,
Speaker 3: don't think about you know how many people are listening.
Speaker 3: I would never say don't embarrass me.
Speaker 1: Never, Well, it's well, that's the sign of nervousness. If
Speaker 1: someone says that the thing is Rosanna is. I've seen
Speaker 1: you do some interviews on Good Day New York of
Speaker 1: late and you will you are not embarrassed to go
Speaker 1: after a question looking for or go after an answer
Speaker 1: that you believe no one else is getting out of
Speaker 1: this people person you're interviewing.
Speaker 3: I can't talk, so no, no, I totally I know where
Speaker 3: you're going with that. And yes, we have, especially the
Speaker 3: first two hours of Good Day politicians on and I
Speaker 3: have to say I equally don't trust any of them,
Speaker 3: and when they come on, I am trying to get
Speaker 3: through that spin. I'm a New Yorker and I'm not
Speaker 3: going to take it. I live here, I was born here,
Speaker 3: I was raised here, and you can't pull the wool
Speaker 3: over my eyes. I'm not going to take it. So
Speaker 3: I'm going to keep asking the questions until I think
Speaker 3: you're going to give me the answer.
Speaker 1: You see, it takes years of experience, years of mileage,
Speaker 1: to get the courage to conduct that sort of interview. Yes,
Speaker 1: this is why people love watching you, because you're not
Speaker 1: afraid to go in there on their behalf. Someone is
Speaker 1: sitting in their living room watching you do these interviews.
Speaker 1: They're thinking, Rosanna is asking these questions of my politicians
Speaker 1: on my behalf. They trust you to be there for them.
Speaker 3: That's my job.
Speaker 2: It is your job. There's a job, but with that
Speaker 2: job comes some pressure.
Speaker 3: I make some enemies.
Speaker 2: You make some enemies. Yes, you're a list of your inemyes.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well the first one right now, the MTA, the
Speaker 3: Metropolitan Transportation Association. They run the subways, the buses and
Speaker 3: everything in New York. As you know, it is an abyss.
Speaker 2: It's dangerous.
Speaker 3: Now, No much no matter how much money you give them,
Speaker 3: they don't have any money. Right, Okay, the going to
Speaker 3: raise fairs this week. They screwed up. The fair doesn't
Speaker 3: go into effect for another month, but they started charging
Speaker 3: the new fair yesterday. Okay, we expose that. Second of all,
Speaker 3: they want to do congestion pricing. They want you to
Speaker 3: pay twenty three dollars to drive your car into a
Speaker 3: certain area of New York. Why because they need that
Speaker 3: money to fund the subway. Because why nobody wants to
Speaker 3: take the subway. They're scared out of their mind. They say, Oh,
Speaker 3: it's so much safer, we have police there. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: you know what, there are so many mentally unhinged people
Speaker 3: on a normal day New Yorkers. We're so used to
Speaker 3: going down there seeing some crazy person, you know, either
Speaker 3: taking a crap on the side of the subway station
Speaker 3: on the train, rolling a joint in your face, asking
Speaker 3: for money. It's like, this is every day. This is
Speaker 3: what every day New Yorkers sees.
Speaker 2: And see.
Speaker 1: This is why you know Rosanna is so trusted here
Speaker 1: in New York because you're looking you're looking out for us.
Speaker 3: And the thing that this is why thet MTA is
Speaker 3: met at me because I will say exactly what I
Speaker 3: see and what I know.
Speaker 2: You're not the only one that thinks that, and they
Speaker 2: know that.
Speaker 1: But you have such a loud microphone. But okay, to
Speaker 1: other enemies are Tory spelling? Oh going from the MTA
Speaker 1: of New York City to Tori spell Tory.
Speaker 3: So this is the thing with Tory. I feel sorry
Speaker 3: for Tory. I do. I mean, she was living in
Speaker 3: a dollar motel, right, not necessary when her mother has
Speaker 3: like she's sitting on muddy mountain, right, why won't the
Speaker 3: mother give her money so that she can les stay
Speaker 3: in a nice hotel with her one hundred kids? Like,
Speaker 3: what's the what's the story there? Okay, So she comes
Speaker 3: on her show with Jenny Garth. They're a little bit
Speaker 3: mean girls. So first, you know, they're giving me a
Speaker 3: look like oh this is gonna whatever. They come on like, oh,
Speaker 3: everything's fine, and then they start talking about BS and
Speaker 3: I go to Tory, how are things like financially with you?
Speaker 3: She's like They're fine. I'll go really Now, meanwhile, I
Speaker 3: know she asks somebody I know for money. She said
Speaker 3: she had no money, like not even like fifty So
Speaker 3: I go, really, I'm like you're paying your bills. All
Speaker 3: hell broke loose. The husband starts tweeting the husband at
Speaker 3: that time, are they still together? I don't know, saying
Speaker 3: nasty things, calling me the sea word.
Speaker 2: You called you the sea word?
Speaker 3: Yeah you know that word?
Speaker 2: Yes I do. OK. But she didn't she go off
Speaker 2: on you on air a little bit, went.
Speaker 3: Off on me a little bit, and then I apologized
Speaker 3: because I was like, oh, that was so rude. I
Speaker 3: don't really like to talk about somebody's finances on TV
Speaker 3: because you know, listen who everybody has a problem with
Speaker 3: checking and balancing right on their checkbook. But hers are
Speaker 3: part of who she is right now because she goes
Speaker 3: from one house to another. She's got five kids. She's
Speaker 3: living in a dollar motel. Her father was like a
Speaker 3: big many had a hundred room mansion in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2: The largest mansion at that time, right in Beverly Hill.
Speaker 3: Why is she living in a dollar motel? There's something
Speaker 3: I'm missing.
Speaker 1: As a journalist. Rosanna, you have that that gene you
Speaker 1: need answers. You can't sleep at night.
Speaker 3: I know, but if you're coming on my show, you
Speaker 3: can't pretend like you know everything's Okay, you see.
Speaker 1: But do people come onto your show Orsanna thinking you know,
Speaker 1: she's got a little bit of a background and like
Speaker 1: going for the jugular sometimes, right, And that's why they
Speaker 1: say things like, don't embarrass me because you have you
Speaker 1: have this.
Speaker 2: Well, people know who you are.
Speaker 3: They do, they do, but they also expect that they
Speaker 3: are going to have a good time.
Speaker 2: Well, look, you know I have not honed that craft
Speaker 2: as well as you have. I need to. I'm not good.
Speaker 1: I don't go to for the jugular with people. I'm
Speaker 1: super nice. I want them to come back.
Speaker 3: You are so kind, you do, but you still elicit
Speaker 3: the same information. You just have a different approach.
Speaker 1: Well, one approach that you and I both have is
Speaker 1: disarming our guests, making them feel at home, making them
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. If they feel comfortable, then they're more likely
Speaker 1: to open up to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean you have some of the people that
Speaker 3: I like, Oh my god, I love the Jonas brothers.
Speaker 3: They come to you know, Elvis like it was like
Speaker 3: their their cousin. They're here all the time, they go
Speaker 3: to his bedroom, they wake them up. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is a crazy stuff.
Speaker 2: You know that was all pre planned by the way
Speaker 2: they didn't really break into my apartment.
Speaker 3: They didn't, darn it. That was my fantasy anyway. But
Speaker 3: everybody trusts you, Elvis, and they know that you're gonna
Speaker 3: ask the right question.
Speaker 2: You're turning this around.
Speaker 3: This is my job.
Speaker 2: This is I know. I know it's hard being an interviewer,
Speaker 2: being interviewed.
Speaker 1: This is one of the most difficult things I've ever done,
Speaker 1: being interviewed, But interviewing you is easy.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go back to something.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about your ambition to get into this business. Right,
Speaker 1: you were ambitious. You moved away from New York all
Speaker 1: the way to Atlanta. I mean, did you go to
Speaker 1: college there or something?
Speaker 3: No, I went to college in DC. I went to
Speaker 3: Catholic University.
Speaker 2: So Atlanta was the only place that would hire you.
Speaker 2: So you took a job.
Speaker 3: But when I started there, it was nineteen eighty Ted
Speaker 3: Turner had just started CNN. It was the most fun
Speaker 3: place to work ever. We used to call it the
Speaker 3: Turner School of Broadcasting. Everybody out of college was just
Speaker 3: starting there.
Speaker 2: So what was it like like? The hallways must have
Speaker 2: been just full.
Speaker 3: Of FES's just so much fun. Oh, you never knew
Speaker 3: who you were going to meet and then on a Saturday,
Speaker 3: because of course, you know, as a you know, a rookie,
Speaker 3: you work Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday, you would walk
Speaker 3: through this big studio that was doing wrestling on a Saturday.
Speaker 3: Could you imagine Atlanta wrestling back.
Speaker 2: In those days, so that you didn't see in New York.
Speaker 3: Something you didn't say. I was like a mom, this
Speaker 3: is not Kansas anymore. It was wild. And then he'd
Speaker 3: be like, really fun. People like Maria Shriver was just
Speaker 3: starting off and she had a little bit of a
Speaker 3: show there, and I just learned so much, you know,
Speaker 3: I just learned the business there. They would very kind.
Speaker 3: I then got on a show called Nice People and
Speaker 3: Winners and we would follow people all over the country.
Speaker 3: My boss would say, find three people in any state
Speaker 3: you could go. So I interviewed Malcolm Forbes on his
Speaker 3: ranch in Wyoming. We went ballooning with him at his
Speaker 3: home in New Jersey. Right, I mean, just crazy fun
Speaker 3: things that you wish that you I sat on Aspen
Speaker 3: Mountain with John Denver and the head of Celestial Seasonings Tea.
Speaker 3: There's the Superstar, Okay, I mean, could you imagine that
Speaker 3: this is a kid twenty two years old.
Speaker 2: I know, but you know, it's really funny.
Speaker 1: Celestial seasonings tea something that everyone loves or everyone is
Speaker 1: at least it's like Staf, It's like interviewing.
Speaker 2: Duncan Duncan.
Speaker 1: He I don't know, but Rosanna, I mean, obviously what
Speaker 1: you do being a journalist has become different things for
Speaker 1: you over over the years. So getting into the business
Speaker 1: as a young lady to now where you are truly
Speaker 1: the queen of morning TV here, the king of morning
Speaker 1: TV here in New York City, and everyone knows that
Speaker 1: people here in New York love you. And if you
Speaker 1: don't live in New York understand she is like the
Speaker 1: god of morning TV.
Speaker 3: Hey, listen, you can stream us on the Fox five
Speaker 3: NY app. It's absolutely free.
Speaker 2: And she's great a promotion.
Speaker 1: So how has journalism in your heart changed from being
Speaker 1: a rookie to now?
Speaker 2: What is so important to you?
Speaker 1: I think, to get accomplished every day and what makes
Speaker 1: you feel satisfied at the end of every day?
Speaker 3: Interesting quality of life? You know, in the beginning, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: you want to interview the President of the United States,
Speaker 3: and of course the mayor and the governor but quality
Speaker 3: of life you live in New York. It's a time
Speaker 3: where we're seeing so many changes. Crime, things are dirty.
Speaker 3: I just want things to be better for my children
Speaker 3: and possibly grandchildren down the road. And so if I
Speaker 3: can work my little magic every day to make New
Speaker 3: York City a better place to live, that's my focus.
Speaker 3: You know. I don't want to come on TV every
Speaker 3: day and be an a sayer and you know, hit
Speaker 3: up all the wrong things that are happening in town.
Speaker 3: But maybe that's what we need to do to improve.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You, of course, are owning New York City. Have you
Speaker 1: ever wanted to be the National Journey?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, and why aren't you doing that?
Speaker 3: In the beginning, everybody said my accent was a problem.
Speaker 2: You do have a New York accent? Really, you do?
Speaker 3: What do you mean by that? You was talking to me,
Speaker 3: you know?
Speaker 2: Okay, So Danielle on our show has a bronx accent.
Speaker 3: I never noticed, and we.
Speaker 2: Were told that our show would.
Speaker 1: Not work on a radio station in Portland, Oregon because
Speaker 1: of her accent. We have proven that theory wrong across
Speaker 1: the country through the Midwest, where we're number one in
Speaker 1: Des Moines and number one and these other cities where
Speaker 1: we never thought we'd be number one. It's her accent
Speaker 1: that lets people know she's being herself, She's being her real,
Speaker 1: true self. And I think they all made a stupid
Speaker 1: mistake and thinking your accent would have been a problem.
Speaker 3: It was a real detriment because you are yourself. So
Speaker 3: in the beginning, they sent me Channel seven, sent me
Speaker 3: to a speech coach, Lillian Wilder. Oh, do you remember, Lilyan.
Speaker 1: No, but just the fact that they wanted to change
Speaker 1: something that really is the backbone of who is And
Speaker 1: then I understand that, right.
Speaker 3: Right, so interestingly enough that you say that. So then
Speaker 3: when I moved to Channel five, I was fired and
Speaker 3: moved to Channel five. They continue with the speech lessons,
Speaker 3: and finally the teacher said to me, I give up.
Speaker 3: So I said, fine, because I can't be myself. I
Speaker 3: can't be because everybody kept saying, you know, you're not
Speaker 3: Rosanna on the air, and I kept saying, well, because
Speaker 3: you want me to sound like somebody I'm not, and
Speaker 3: my personality is tied up with my accent.
Speaker 1: You, by the way, when you watch Rosanna Scotto, she
Speaker 1: is Rosanna Scotto on camera and off the camera. Thank
Speaker 1: you you still get enthusiastic. You hear it in your voice,
Speaker 1: and thank god they didn't change that about you.
Speaker 3: Thank you. No, I have to say, and the same
Speaker 3: thing with you. We love what we're doing, and you know,
Speaker 3: there's a certain amount of curiosity that we come into
Speaker 3: our jobs with every single day, and I think once
Speaker 3: we lose that curiosity and that enthusiasm, then it's something
Speaker 3: to hang it up. But right now we still got it.
Speaker 2: Amen's sister.
Speaker 1: You did say one reason why you aren't national it
Speaker 1: could be because of your accent.
Speaker 2: What else is on that line?
Speaker 3: I think you know, at the beginning, when they gave
Speaker 3: me the anchor job, they said to me, I don't
Speaker 3: look like you don't look like our typical anchor.
Speaker 2: So I think, what does that mean? What they mean
Speaker 2: by that?
Speaker 3: I think that I was not a good old American,
Speaker 3: classic beauty, you know, I looked like an Italian American,
Speaker 3: And in the beginning, that kind of colors your judgment
Speaker 3: on how far you can go.
Speaker 2: Wow, I don't like hearing this.
Speaker 3: No, it's it's true, it's true.
Speaker 2: Has it changed at all? I think that's how.
Speaker 3: I think that we totally embrace ethnicity now, which I'm
Speaker 3: so happy you don't have to be a classic beauty
Speaker 3: to be on TV anymore. You can have that jewish nose,
Speaker 3: you don't have to go to to get effected. You
Speaker 3: can look like your Puerto Rican. You can have that
Speaker 3: crazy hair, which I did. I did have in the beginning.
Speaker 3: I did look like Roseanne Rosanna Downe.
Speaker 2: With you had crazy hair.
Speaker 3: That was the only thing. And by the way, that
Speaker 3: was a reporter, you know, being in the anchor spot,
Speaker 3: you had to be quaffed, you had to have, you know,
Speaker 3: I guess a classic beauty. I WoT them down, wore
Speaker 3: them down.
Speaker 1: No, what about some of the people you have worked
Speaker 1: with at the anchor desk over the years.
Speaker 2: I know you recently lost a really dear.
Speaker 3: Old friend, John Roland.
Speaker 1: John Roland, and John Roland was just an institution here
Speaker 1: in New York City, and you did a very very
Speaker 1: beautiful piece about him. It looked as if you got
Speaker 1: a partner to help produce and direct it, and you
Speaker 1: did that piece.
Speaker 2: It looked like it came from your heart.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I knew that John was not well,
Speaker 3: but I did not want to face that John was
Speaker 3: not well and not going to make it and so
Speaker 3: I had talked to my producer, Jose Salvador, and he
Speaker 3: started compiling some of the video and the Sunday that
Speaker 3: John died. That morning, I woke up like six o'clock
Speaker 3: in the morning and I'm like, I really need to
Speaker 3: start jotting down some ideas. And then I got the
Speaker 3: phone call from his wife and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: going into work. Really need to put my big girl
Speaker 3: pants on. And I wrote it.
Speaker 2: From was it rough for you? Yes, very you're getting
Speaker 2: You're getting choked up now see see when it was
Speaker 2: that it cries. I cried both. It's a little combination
Speaker 2: thing we have. We've got to connected at some court
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 3: But we respect the people who taught us exactly.
Speaker 1: I agree, I wholeheartedly agree, which brings me to this thought,
Speaker 1: this question.
Speaker 3: Here's some clear thank thank you, thank you, and thank you, Andrew.
Speaker 2: And cry.
Speaker 1: I'll turn the mica on me for a second. The
Speaker 1: day after a school shooting, we have to come in
Speaker 1: here and do a show. On September twelfth, two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, we had to come in and do a
Speaker 1: show during oh god, crazy awful, awful times during you know,
Speaker 1: when black lives matter became such an important, important movement
Speaker 1: that we need to be a part of. But in
Speaker 1: those stories were also stories of awful murders and assassinations
Speaker 1: of citizens by the hands of police.
Speaker 2: We also, uh, there's the list. You know what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 1: These are the things you had to tackle as a
Speaker 1: trusted journalist or a goofy guy on the radio to
Speaker 1: deal with the day after.
Speaker 2: Does it affect you?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, talk talk.
Speaker 2: To me about like things that have totally affected you
Speaker 2: in the news stories that you have to.
Speaker 3: Do so you know, I realized part of my job
Speaker 3: is normally giving out information, but you have to be
Speaker 3: a voice of comfort. And in those times like you
Speaker 3: talk about nine to eleven devastating as a New Yorker
Speaker 3: walking to work, hearing the city absolutely quiet, that you
Speaker 3: could hear pin drop, starting to see people's Do you
Speaker 3: remember walking in New York and seeing people putting posters
Speaker 3: up a missing loved one?
Speaker 2: Yes, the chain link fence down in the village down Tribeca. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they never came home.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Things will never forget COVID being locked down. We
Speaker 3: were scared. We were just as scared as anybody else, right,
Speaker 3: And then what then took place? With, you know, the
Speaker 3: Black Lives Matter movement, watching it outside my window, learning
Speaker 3: about what I didn't know as a white woman their journey.
Speaker 3: So was it difficult to do, absolutely, But I also
Speaker 3: knew my job was comfort that no matter how unsettling
Speaker 3: the times were, I needed to bring comfort that we
Speaker 3: were going to get through every single one of those
Speaker 3: events together.
Speaker 1: I remember you actually it was during COVID and you
Speaker 1: called me while you were walking I think it was
Speaker 1: after you got off the air yours. I had the
Speaker 1: feeling you were kind of walking aimlessly around the city. Yes,
Speaker 1: you walked over to your restaurant, which was closed at
Speaker 1: the time. Everything was closed, and you I was on
Speaker 1: the phone with Rosanna when she walked up to the
Speaker 1: front door and she's like, well, here it is, here's
Speaker 1: our baby, and she's all shut down, and you were
Speaker 1: very emotional about that, you know, and I was thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, not only is she giving us the news,
Speaker 1: she's actually a part of the news.
Speaker 3: Living it like everybody else.
Speaker 2: And look what we do.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be a part of the news,
Speaker 1: I know, not at all, but sometimes I am.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, you know, closing down the restaurant was
Speaker 3: very traumatic. It was something that you know, who's our baby,
Speaker 3: who was our labor of love, it was our second
Speaker 3: and all the people, the family, the people that you
Speaker 3: know worked with us. I mean, we have people who
Speaker 3: were there from day one that Fresco opened its doors.
Speaker 3: And at that point when I was talking to you,
Speaker 3: I said to you of us, are we ever going
Speaker 3: to open this restaurant again? Didn't know the future?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 3: And we did. We did, and we reimagined it. It
Speaker 3: took a few it took a few starts, but we
Speaker 3: were reimagined it. And it's better than ever and so
Speaker 3: much fun. And you've been there where we've been dancing
Speaker 3: in the streets.
Speaker 2: I danced. I'm dancing with these ladies, all these ladies
Speaker 2: with tight face, lips wearing black leather pants. Crazy people.
Speaker 2: Well look, you know, what do you want to say
Speaker 2: to young women who are thinking?
Speaker 3: God?
Speaker 2: You know, it's not like it was.
Speaker 1: When Rosanna started in the business. It's a different playing
Speaker 1: field now, it's a different thing. But they want to
Speaker 1: follow in your footsteps. They want to do what you do.
Speaker 1: What do you tell them?
Speaker 3: You know, Listen, young people have challenges too, some of
Speaker 3: them I don't understand. It's a different world. You know,
Speaker 3: when I started on TV, we went to a smaller
Speaker 3: station and kind of work our way back to the
Speaker 3: big station. Now there's social media. You can be online.
Speaker 3: You can start your own little station on social media.
Speaker 3: You're an influencer. You can come in every big back
Speaker 3: door there is. Just be passionate. Don't let people tell
Speaker 3: you can't do it. You can do it. If this
Speaker 3: is what you love, just go for it and may
Speaker 3: take a few times to finally achieve it, but it
Speaker 3: could be yours. Just stay with it.
Speaker 2: What's your legacy?
Speaker 3: Oh, my legacy.
Speaker 2: There's a hard one to answer.
Speaker 3: Oh, honesty, honesty. I hope my legacy is honesty. That
Speaker 3: people know that I was the voice of New Yorkers everywhere,
Speaker 3: that I no matter what background, where you lived, what borrow,
Speaker 3: that I was going to say what you wanted me
Speaker 3: to say.
Speaker 2: Rosanna, thank you for being here today.
Speaker 3: I love you, love you, thank you for making me
Speaker 3: laugh And.
Speaker 2: Sorry about that.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you know, sometimes the range of emotions, the
Speaker 1: spectrum of emotions is a very important thing, this podcasting thing.
Speaker 1: You know, you're my She's my fifth interview, maybe interview five.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: Are you yeah, because you know, when you're doing live
Speaker 1: TV or live radio, you see these clocks in the walls.
Speaker 2: They're always ticking down.
Speaker 1: There's always someone circling their finger in the air saying,
Speaker 1: you gotta wrap it up when you know there's so
Speaker 1: much more you want to say. There's there's it's further
Speaker 1: you want to drive. And I love being able to
Speaker 1: do this. So I told you at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of this we're going to talk about things we've never
Speaker 1: talked about, and we just did.
Speaker 3: I know, thank you.
Speaker 2: See, I didn't ask any buried bones questions.
Speaker 3: We'll do that later.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was my favorite podcast so far. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Rosanna. I love you incredible insight into the
Speaker 1: world and a lot of personal things you'll never hear
Speaker 1: anywhere else. So outside of being one of my best friends,
Speaker 1: she truly is a New York icon and we're so
Speaker 1: thankful that she could share some of her stories with
Speaker 1: us on our podcast. Coming up, We've got a lot
Speaker 1: of special guests lined up, so you need to like
Speaker 1: and subscribe to Thinking out Loud wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and leave us a review too. I love reading those
Speaker 1: the good ones anyway, follow me at Elvis Duran on
Speaker 1: all socials and DM me if you have any other
Speaker 1: guest ideas as well, because you and me we're in
Speaker 1: this together. Thank you for listening. Thinking Out Loud is
Speaker 1: hosted by me Elvis Duran. The podcast is produced and
Speaker 1: edited by Mike Coscarelli. Executive producers are Andrew Paglsi and
Speaker 1: Katrina Norvel. Special thanks to David Katz, Michael Kindheart, and
Speaker 1: Caitlin Madore. Thinking Out Loud is part of the Elvis
Speaker 1: Duran podcast Network on iHeartRadio. For more, rate review and
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show and if you liked this episode,
Speaker 1: tell your friends.
Speaker 2: Until next time, I'm Elvis Duran.