Standing in front of a video camera in 100 degree weather with a triple-decker ice cream cone melting down her arm, Wendy Bell’s director told her to lick it and she did. It was that resume tape that began Wendy Bell’s career in Pittsburgh as a broadcast reporter for WTAE.
The same spunk and energy was visible as she spoke during a College Students in Broadcasting (CSB) luncheon on Thursday, Jan. 22 at Point Park University.
“You have to be in it to win it,” Bell said about getting a job in the news industry.
Bell’s interest in the news began at a young age in Calabasas, California, and drove her to seek a career in the industry.
“We were a news family, I remember watching the news with my dad, and I always thought it could be better,” Bell, who grew up watching the news in the 1970s, said. “It was so stiff. I thought, ‘Why are they so special?’ I can do this.”
Bell earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Upon completing graduate school, Bell got her start in television by landing a reporting job for the nationally-syndicated show, “American Journal.” She also worked for several years at KSDK-TV in St. Louis, according to WTAE’s Web site.
She began her career at Pittsburgh’s WTAE as the Consumer Watch reporter from 1998 to 2000. She then co-anchored Action News At Noon with Scott Baker from 2000 to 2004.
She began to take on additional co-anchor duties on Action News This Morning with Kelly Frey from 2002 to 2006. On June 12, 2006, Bell became co-anchor of Action News at 5 with Michelle Wright and at 11 p.m. with Mike Clark, according to WTAE’s Web site.
“It’s the best job ever and singular greatest life in the world,” Bell said.
Over the course of her career at WTAE she has won six Emmy awards but considers the rescue of the nine miners trapped in the Quecreek Mine her favorite moment of her career.
“When we found out they were all alive another reporter and I embraced, it was just such an emotional moment,” Bell said.
