SAUGUS — Catherine Parrotta always knew she wanted to be involved in the news. Now, she can be found giving the traffic report and filling in at the anchor desk for Boston 25 News.
“Growing up, I always watched the local news with my parents. I grew up in Saugus, so I always watched the Boston newscast,” Parrotta said. “Sometime in middle school, junior high, we had one of those writing prompts to write about what you want to be when you grow up.”
Parrotta said that she thought being a news reporter sounded like an interesting job, and she ran with it from there. It was watching major events unfold on TV through high school that showed her this was her true path.
“I just watched it all unfold on TV, and I realized that to be a news reporter, to be a journalist, is a profession where you can help people by being their eyes and ears into what’s happening,” she said. “You provide them with context and details about what’s unfolding.”
Parrotta said 9/11 is the story that truly stuck with her, and it became a driving force for her to land where she is now. She said that so many Americans felt helpless or just a range of different emotions, but journalists who were there on the scene were delivering the news to everyone.
“I realized that that was something that maybe I could do someday to help people who needed to know about the world around them,” she said.
Parrotta said she was fortunate to receive a job at WGME-TV in Portland, Maine about a month before graduating from Emerson College.
“I was there for just shy of five years…I was just thrilled when I got the call that I was going to be able to come home and be able to come here to Boston 25 News…This is just where I always wanted to be growing up,” she said. “I didn’t have dreams of going to New York City. I had dreams of being a reporter here in my community of Massachusetts and bringing my friends and family and people from my town the news of what was going on in the day. So, this was a dream come true, to be able to come home.”
Parrotta also touched on her time at Emerson College and how it gave her real experience.
“Emerson College was the perfect place for me. It was right in Boston, so I didn’t have to go very far, but it was just such a tight-knit community,” Parrotta said.
She continued that you got to know everyone in your department and that she’s very thankful to all those who mentored her there.
“I’m thankful to one in particular, Dr. Marsha Della Giustina. She launched so many journalists into their careers, and she passed away within the past two years or so. But she was just such a wonderful mentor to all of us and helped us realize what we needed to do to be in this job,” Parrotta said.
She said Della Giustina didn’t sugarcoat anything as the job included missing Christmases or Thanksgivings occasionally. She said that Emerson was a great place to be because they were able to get real-world experience as they were right in Boston.
“When news was happening in Boston, you grabbed your camera, and you went. I remember one time we were in Marsha’s class, and a shooting and a car chase broke out in Chinatown,” Parrotta said. “Somebody grabbed a camera, and I grabbed the microphone, and we went. We were right alongside all of the stations in Boston.”
This was one of the reasons she loved the business, with every day bringing something different, and that you had to be able to learn quickly. “You have to learn about it quickly and thoroughly so that you can bring that news to everybody and help them understand,” she said.
There was no telling what would happen until it happened, but you had to be ready for it. “One day, you’re measuring snow because there was a blizzard, and the next day, maybe you’re reporting on a court case, and next, maybe you’re reporting on the Patriots. It never gets old,” she said.
A key event she reported on that stuck with her was the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
“You grow up with people running the marathon. It’s a celebrated event in our community every year. For something so horrific to happen there, it was horrifying to everyone in the area,” she said.
Parrotta was there the very next morning in the closed-off section near Copley Square where the investigation was happening.
“I just wanted to be able to bring information to my community, to be able to tell them about what was going on in that moment to show them the work that was happening to track down those responsible,” she said.
With the manhunt still ongoing and people being asked to stay inside, Parrotta wanted to be the one to bring them the images, show them what was happening outside their window, and keep them aware of the developments.
On the flip side of hard-hitting moments that stuck with her, Parrotta also remembered a story that reminded her of her roots growing up in the area.
“One live shot I really enjoyed was during a blizzard in 2013. I was sent to Revere Beach to cover the storm, which might make most people shudder. But I grew up going for walks at Revere Beach with my mom, so I was absolutely thrilled to be out there. I remember during that particular storm, Kelly’s stayed open,” she said.
Parrotta now goes to the Boston station at 5 a.m. reporting traffic. Even there, she finds a connection back to Saugus.
She said that her whole history is in Saugus, from working at the Square One Mall to working at Prince Pizza. “When I do traffic, and I have our Route 1 camera in Saugus, I’m able to pick out every landmark,” she said. “I don’t say that it’s near Lynn Fells Parkway. I say, ‘Oh, the crash is over by Prince Pizza, or it’s over by the orange dinosaur,’ because that’s how I grew up.”
But another reason why Parrotta loves the job is because the news industry is always on the move.
“It’s constantly evolving, just in the amount of time that I’ve been involved. I came into this career in 2007, and just in that time, we’ve seen a lot of evolution in terms of digital media,” she said.
“So, you know us an industry and us as a station, we’ve continued to evolve because we want to be sure that we are at the forefront,” she added. “We want to make sure we’re thinking about what’s next. How can we best deliver the product to our viewers in the way that they need it right now?”
When asked what tips she’d give to young people looking to get involved in the news industry, she said, “Do your research and watch the news or read the newspaper. So much information can be found online, or you can send an email and ask for advice.”
Parrotta remembered that when she was in high school you just went to your guidance counselor and looked at schools that would be well-suited for your chosen career. But now she would tell people to reach out to somebody with a role you envision yourself in.
Personally, she loves it when she gets an email from somebody who’s looking to get into the industry. “I’m more than happy to talk to them a little bit about what the job is like or what the next steps are,” she said.
