Lisa Baden – Traffic Reporter and Radio Personality

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Lisa Baden on internal conflict of the overwhelming desire to be first to report, and the discipline to verify before:

So I had to confirm it and I was like chomping at the bit. We’re calling M Dot. We’re calling Transportation. We’re calling the police. Well finally we got confirmation. Yes. A tar truck just turned over and that was hours of cleanup. I mean hours but so although I would love to be first, I desire accuracy more.

Andy Ockershausen: This is Our Town. It’s Andy Ockershausen and what an absolute treasure and pleasure it is for Janice and I to welcome a very, very famous person in our life and a life of broadcasting. Miss Lisa Baden.
Lisa Baden: Aw. Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa, you know to see you in the flesh after all these years of watching you on camera, because I grew up in the business as you know and to see what you had you matured and all the good things you had done. I had the opportunity to hear I traffic reporter in Chicago and a policemen riding around in a helicopter. And I thought that would be a great idea. And it came back and with our program director we started, we got a policeman out of the DC police department, a sergeant, in the traffic division and put him in a helicopter. We paid for the helicopter. The city provided the cop and we did airborne traffic in like 1962 or 63 can you believe that?
Lisa Baden: Really?
Andy Ockershausen: That is many years ago. It’s 55 years ago. We were doing it and it started the whole traffic war because after we did it, Captain Dan came along.
Lisa Baden: That’s right.
Andy Ockershausen: You remember Captain…

On Captain Dan

Lisa Baden: Captain Dan. Sure. He landed his helicopter at my elementary school. And I’ll never forget it.
Andy Ockershausen: Was he great?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That was the beginning of your career. You said that’s what I want to be when I grow up.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, he originally was in a helicopter and then we had him in a fixed wing, he had his own airplane. But we always believe Lisa, when we could afford it traffic and how important it is. And you’ve epitomized the importance. You did yours, your big stick here at WMAL WTOP. I mean, the call letters are magic. So Lisa, we’re so happy to have you live and in color.
Lisa Baden: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here. Really is.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, you grew up in the business and you’ve been at it a long time and the changes you have incurred are unbelievable to me. And I’m a native born raised or maybe you’re not raised, but it’s certainly a native. The city is exploded now. I hate to go out and traffic cause there’s traffic everywhere.

On Evolution of Traffic Reporting in Our Town

Lisa Baden: Yes, it is everywhere. It’s a matter of fact. The thing I hate the most about my job is what pays my mortgage. And that’s the traffic. It’s just crazy.
Andy Ockershausen: And there’s no drive time. We had a drive time in radio, it was between seven and nine when it was really…and no, no, now it’s between five and 10 now.
Lisa Baden: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: Or more. And you’ve seen it.
Lisa Baden: That’s true. As a matter of fact, I was the first overnight traffic reporter in Washington, DC and that was for WMAL. Because they had the forethought. Thinking wait a minute we’re missing the boat here. Because
not everybody works nine to five. And there’s a lot of people who work overnight shifts, in the government and everything. And it was amazing. So they started with overnight and I remember doing that for WMAL years and years…
Andy Ockershausen: Was Bill Mayhugh still here? Was that what you were doing?
Lisa Baden: Yes. Absolutely.
Andy Ockershausen: Because when Bill first started, I found out through the grapevine, his popularity was with the military because there’s so many people work all night in a greater Washington area. And we had to do popularity with the bands or the service band. Because they were all listeners because his was the only jazz show all night. And Felix Grant did early…
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: And Bill did it late. They were music fiends.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: And the public responded to it, but traffic became such a big part in our life at WMAL. And then you were available and you were so sensational to get us started. Kickstart.
Lisa Baden: Thanks. Yeah, well I remember when I started, it was only morning drive and then the traffic reporters would go home and then they’d come back for afternoon drive and then the next thing you know, it’s all day. And then the next thing you know, it’s growing into overnights. And now here we are where it’s just constant, constant, constant.
Andy Ockershausen: And in all of your years you must have a ton of stories about it, but you became a character to people. If the traffic was bad, they were blaming you. But when the weather was bad, they blame the weatherman. The traffic was bad, right, they’d blame the traffic reporter.

Evolving as a Traffic Reporter into Radio Personality Who Reports Traffic

Lisa Baden: I’m so blessed because I’ve had great guidance and people who allowed me to just to be me. Instead of a cookie cutter boring traffic reporter. They just said, you just be yourself. Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: I love that.
Lisa Baden: Exactly because it’s boring. How do you talk about the Beltway every day for 27 years and make it, you know? Interesting. So I’m constantly trying to think of a different way of saying the same thing every day and make it compelling.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: It sounds like you’re having a blast.
Lisa Baden: I am. I really am.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Because you are creating stories and jokes and you could hear this little cleverness in this little conversation you’re having with yourself. It’s like you’re . . .
Andy Ockershausen: You’re staying awake.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: But it’s joyful to listen to you make it fun. You take the doldrum out of traffic. What in the heck is Lisa gonna say next? You know, you have this inner dialogue with yourself that comes across so effectively on the air, in your traffic reports.
Lisa Baden: Thanks.
Andy Ockershausen: Character babe. She established a character, which is so important. I believe you were just leads a debate and you lead Lisa Baden character.

Success: How You Perceive, and Approach, an Opportunity

Lisa Baden: There was a movie with Kevin Costner and he was a baseball player in this movie
Andy Ockershausen: Field of Dreams.
Lisa Baden: He was, he wanted to be a major league ball…
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, Bull Durham.
Lisa Baden: Player. Yeah. And yet he did was always in the minor leagues. And so he thought poorly about himself. And I remember in the movie he was like always down pessimistic and he’s like, oh, I’ll never make it to the majors. And somebody said, are you kidding me? People would love to be in the minor leagues. You know, how many people want.
Andy Ockershausen: Wow.
Lisa Baden: And that to me was a turning point in my broadcasting career. Because trust me, I didn’t grow up saying, oh, I want to be a traffic reporter. You know, you want to be a famous DJ or whatever. But then I thought, wait a minute, this is an opportunity. How many people get to be on the air in Washington DC and be in everybody’s life? Because traffic affects every body. It doesn’t matter what kind of car. I just passed a Jaguar and a Tesla and I’m in a little tiny Pinto, you know what I’m saying? But everybody’s stuck in the same thing, and so here’s an opportunity to be in the minor leagues or the major leagues. It all depends on how you look at it and how you approach it. Am I right?
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely. You’re living proof of it. You started that. You didn’t know how far this is going to go.
Lisa Baden: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: Who would have thought this 30 years ago, Lisa?
Lisa Baden: I know.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And I would venture to say that when program directors are talking to their traffic people, they’re saying, listen to Lisa Baden.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: She’s a good example of someone who can create a story. You know who else was like that? I think a little bit like that. Oh, she’s passed away since, but Stacey Binn?

Remembering Stacey Binn

Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, I remember Stacey
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You and Stacey, storytellers.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Entertainers.
Lisa Baden: Yeah. It was great listening to her and working with her and I got to learn from her. She was an amazing person. Yep.
Andy Ockershausen: So let me, well, where did this all start? Lisa, are you a native Washingtonian?

Lisa Baden: Native Washingtonian Born to be on Radio

Lisa Baden: I am. I’ve lived her all my life. Grew up with Harden and Weaver and the “joy boys of radio. We sling electrons to and fro.” I got to meet Ed Walker and Willard Scott and listen to Harden and Weaver and the little old lady, and the hymn of the morning and the march in the morning. And that’s what I loved about radio is I never had to look at my watch. I knew what time it was based on what was happening on the radio and what I could count on. And it was entertaining and fun, but informative. And I mean, I knew in the third grade, this is it. This is what I, I’m not kidding you…
Andy Ockershausen: What you want to be.
Lisa Baden: Third grade.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my God.
Lisa Baden: And so I was on the public address system at my school and did the morning announcements and I went to a high school reunion recently, and one of my teachers said, you’re still talking. I’m like, yeah, but I’m getting paid.
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa. You know one of the big discrepancies and misunderstanding I had with Harden and Weaver over the years, he incessantly gave the time. It drove me crazy. As soon as they, as soon as the spots Frank would give the time. Do you remember that, Janice?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I remember one time what you said, count how many times in a hour that Frank Harden says the time. It was incredible, 70 times. It was just, he did it because people, it was just a service that he provided and it was a way of, instead of saying ah or pausing or what, maybe he gave the time to think about what it was going to say next. But they would…
Andy Ockershausen: 105 WMAL time. Right. But he did it all the time. I said stop that. Let’s do a commercial. We need the money. But Lisa growing up here you went to grammar school here in northeast northwest.

On Growing Up in Our Town

Lisa Baden: I actually, I went and I lived in Maryland right outside the DC line and for elementary school. I think I went to Glendale Elementary and then I went to Ardwick-Ardmore Elementary.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my.
Lisa Baden: And then I went to Glen Ridge junior high school and that’s when I had a teacher pull me aside and said, you have a good voice.
Andy Ockershausen: Good for you. Prince George’s County.
Lisa Baden: You’re going to do the public announcements. Yeah, of course. Prince George’s county.
Andy Ockershausen: He went to University of Maryland.
Lisa Baden: I did.
Andy Ockershausen: Everybody, you know, you’d be shocked and Janice and I, the number of people we, we’ve talked to about 180 people. The University of Maryland graduate owns this market, which is great, I think. The school now is so popular as you know, you can’t get in it, it’s so good. 40,000 day students, but Lisa we would love to hear from you and I want to talk to you about your career in television and about traffic, but we’re going to take a break now and this is Our Town, Andy Ockershausen. You know, I keep saying Our Town includes Anne Arundel County, Vienna, Virginia, and include everything within our signal and our signal’s all over the world. This is Our Town.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
Andy Ockershausen: This is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town having a wonderful, wonderful, heart to heart conversation with Lisa Baden. Who she’ll be remembered forever as a voice of traffic for the greater town. Our Town. You are Our Town’s voice. Lisa, so happy to have you here.

Baden’s Signature and Radio Programming and Commercials

Lisa Baden: Your favorite radio station doesn’t play songs.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: I love that, that is your signature line as far as in my memory, that is a wonderful character of WTOP what their slogan and Promo was and really that you were instrumental in my mind for the changing of the whole radio market and the shift from WMAL superiority to really the growth of the new WTOP.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Well, absolutely. The only advantage WMAL ever had was the signal, which was, it’s nothing better than 630, 1500 you couldn’t hear it downtown Washington when we were both am stations. However, one of the things that happened over the years was commercials, which we believed in and you believed in as a commercial broadcaster that we would remember the radio station, which they have commercial free hours. Yeah, commercial free days. We did a time free. We did nothing but commercials for two hours one day. Got cited by the FCC had a big boo ha about it, but we just played commercials back to back to back to back to back. We were needling our fellow station Q107.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: They went commercial free.
Lisa Baden: Right.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: We went, we went the opposite.
Andy Ockershausen: Commercial all the way. That’s all we had with commercial.
Lisa Baden: Yeah it was fun.
Andy Ockershausen: They were great for two hours on a weekend. But Lisa, you have lived through a lot in this broadcast business, in the city of Washington, and some of your stories, you must be fabulous about them. What you did, you fly. Did you ever fly with Captain Dan?

No Bathrooms on the “Traffic” Plane and Metro Traffic

Lisa Baden: No, I’ve only been in the helicopter or the fixed wing just for grips, grins, you know what I mean?
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Lisa Baden: Just to get a different perspective of it. But I’ve stayed on the ground and that’s the first question people always ask you, oh, you’re a traffic reporter. Are you in the helicopter? And my answer is no. I get to go to the bathroom. Those people never get to go to the bathroom.
Andy Ockershausen: Tell me about it. But that’s a transition because at one time that was big now, did you ever work for Metro Traffic?
Lisa Baden: Oh yes. That’s where I…
Andy Ockershausen: I know that guy from way back when he was poor. He was from Baltimore originally.
Lisa Baden: Yes. David Saperstein.

Andy Ockershausen: David son of a gun. Honey, David Saperstein was a friend of ours. We — I made a deal with him so many years ago and to get him started in the march, because he started in Baltimore during this traffic where information and that was after we had given and we were giving up when a helicopter became very expensive. And then when we went to fixed wing with Captain Dan and then we said we couldn’t afford it, but this was the beginning of people really being concerned because the traffic’s change, Lisa. You know that.
Lisa Baden: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Andy Ockershausen: I mean, what we would consider drive time doesn’t exist anymore because every day is drive time.

Rush Hour Time Changes but Construction Start Remains the Same

Lisa Baden: Right. You know, that’s interesting because construction used to start at nine o’clock in the morning.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Lisa Baden: Which it does now, but that’s because the rush hour was over. Oh rush hour isn’t over at nine o’clock but all the permits say go ahead, pull out in the roadway at nine o’clock hello bing bing bing got news for you. Those days are gone.
Andy Ockershausen: And you could hear it all because your reports would say it’s messed up. So we got to do something about it.
Lisa Baden: Oh yes it is.
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa, what–
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: It’s the commentary that goes along with the traffic report is so wonderful.
Lisa Baden: Well, thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: When you got out of school, you didn’t just start in the broadcast business down in Maryland. Did you go to broadcast school at Maryland?
Lisa Baden: I did.
Andy Ockershausen: Work with the station.

University of Maryland Radio Experience Part of the Plan

Lisa Baden: Well, I didn’t have the money to go to college cause it was all on me and I found out that if you worked on campus, you got two classes per semester and I only needed two classes a semester to qualify to work at the campus radio station.
Andy Ockershausen: Wow.
Lisa Baden: That’s how I found a way to go to college. I worked full time. I took two classes and it was all because I wanted to get experience on the radio because nobody will hire you if you don’t have experience, but how are you going to get experience if…
Andy Ockershausen: If your not on the radio?
Lisa Baden: Correct.
Andy Ockershausen: I had faced that for my 50-60 years in broadcasting. My advice was not to say go west. I said go anywhere out of Washington. You can’t start at the top. You got to work your way from the bottom. Get a job in a little radio station somewhere where you can do everything and get out of town. And so many people did it and so many didn’t. But like Charlie Gibson. Charlie Gibson came to us and we worked with him and sent him down to our station in Lynchburg. We owned a station down there. I can give you some more names like that, but they all went everywhere and learned the business then came back. Some of the names are unbelievable. Male and female. Don’t try to start at the top. If you want to get in broadcasting, get into bottom and work your way up.
Andy Ockershausen: And some of them did it and some of them didn’t.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: But I think that’s true today.
Lisa Baden: It is.
Andy Ockershausen: I recall with Katie Couric and her opportunity to get there, she originally left. She was at WMAL as an intern. Can you believe that? Katie and her husband, I mean her father was a friend of mine named John Couric and if she wanted to really be on the air, be a performer, you know, do somewhere that works you all the time. I think she went to CNN first, like a street reporter.
Lisa Baden: Hmm.
Andy Ockershausen: But she had worked at a radio and television station and I don’t know what happened to Katie, she lost her CBS News Job. She’s not very well.
Lisa Baden: Yes, absolutely hard work will do that.
Andy Ockershausen: Tell me some your stories Lisa about…

On Washington DC Sniper

Lisa Baden: Well I was just thinking when you were mentioning about stories and how many different things we’ve been through in this market as far as traffic is concerned, like the sniper, you know.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, we’d covered all that.
Lisa Baden: Dealt with the sniper for so long and we would get phone calls. It was ringing off the hook. We had to hire people to help us answer the phones because at first everyone was looking for a white van. They thought the sniper was in van.
Andy Ockershausen: The white van story, I remember that vividly.
Lisa Baden: Yes, absolutely.
Andy Ockershausen: What years was that or was that the early nineties the white van?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: It was a box truck. Yeah, white box truck.
Lisa Baden: And people were calling us from all over the Washington area. Like I just saw a white van. I saw a white box truck, you know, and I mean, and everyone was afraid to go to the gas station and…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Good reason, right?

On 911

Lisa Baden: Absolutely. It was a frightening time. Everyone was on edge. They wanted the latest information. And then we went through 911 I remember being at work in the morning and somebody called and said, I see a plane flying low at the Pentagon. And then the next thing you know, I heard the person screaming on the phone. And that was when the signal dropped and Ooh, I get the goosebumps just thinking about it. And we have televisions on all around in the studio. I mean everyone knows where they were that day and everyone’s life came to a halt.

On Tar Truck and Journalism 101 – Journalistic Integrity

Lisa Baden: And then there’s the lighter side where I remember getting a call from somebody who told me a tar truck just turned over on the inner loop of the Wilson Bridge.
Andy Ockershausen: Wow.
Lisa Baden: But I couldn’t use it on the air because I’m Journalism 101 and old school journalism and you have to verify your source.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely, you got to have proof.
Lisa Baden: I refuse to be first, just to be first. I want to be accurate.
Andy Ockershausen: God Bless you.
Lisa Baden: So I had to confirm it and I was like chomping at the bit. We’re calling M Dot. We’re calling Transportation. This, that and the other. We’re calling the police. Well finally we got confirmation. Yes. A tar truck just turned over and that was hours of cleanup. I mean hours but so although I would love to be first, I desire accuracy more so, you know?
Andy Ockershausen: That’s because your experienced and you could have gotten experience unless you were on the air and existed. Isn’t that a shame? You can’t start with experience. Experience takes a little while doesn’t it.
Lisa Baden: Yes, it does.
Andy Ockershausen: Until you know you and then we give you the information, but you had to, you’re right, your verification.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: We went through that with the Florida crash and Florida air and unfortunately for us, Captain Dan was there when that airplane went into Potomac. But some of the stories of our traffic reports are unbelievable. We knew that young lady that hit the, she was the WWDC call letters where they hit the a power transmission. What was her name? Maria, like McDermott, the traffic reporter on WWDC…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Are you talking about in the helicopter?
Andy Ockershausen: In the helicopter, it hit a power line somewhere in the area and they lost her and lost them. I think the pilots survived, it was a strange, strange story, but that was in, it had to be in the Sixties.
Lisa Baden: Oh.
Andy Ockershausen: Long, long time ago. You were probably just a kid in grammar school.
Lisa Baden: Of course, look how young I am.
Andy Ockershausen: Both of you ladies.
Lisa Baden: Why are you laughing?
Andy Ockershausen: Your PG County ladies, PG girls and such a big part of our life. What happened in PG county as it did everywhere. So Lisa, do you regret never having been a pilot with the flying?
Lisa Baden: No, I think everyone.
Andy Ockershausen: Saperstein loved you.

On Loving Her Career Choice

Lisa Baden: Oh, thank you. You know what, I’ve been so blessed. I’ve worked with the same people for 27 years. I started with Metro Traffic, so I’ve worked for the same company all this time.
Andy Ockershausen: Right.
Lisa Baden: We’ve just changed names and you know, ownership or whatever. But I mean we have such a great team and I’ve worked for some incredible bosses and people who give me guidance and say, you know, reign that in, but go for that and just be who you are. And it’s been quite a journey. Let me tell you, you know, I always say I’m the only one moving, but traffic isn’t, it’s what is that?
Andy Ockershausen: But Lisa, you’re still young enough you saying this is this business from the inside and outside. It’s amazing. And this is Andy Ockershausen. This is Our Town and we’re talking to Lisa Baden and now I want to talk to you, Lisa, about what else you have accomplished, left to accomplish. This is Andy O.
Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen.
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Announcer: You’re listening to Our Town with Andy Ockershausen. Brought to you by Best Bark Communications.
Andy Ockershausen: This Our Town this is Andy Ockershausen having a wonderful conversation with, with one of my idols. I happen to be a lot older than she is, but I remember her beginning…
Lisa Baden: A lot.
Andy Ockershausen: I remember now.
Lisa Baden: Just saying.
Andy Ockershausen: She’s done a fabulous job for our radio in the greater Washington area and is now a mainstay on traffic reporting, which at one time was a cottage industry. Nobody did it. We were the first one WMAL with a cop and we even got him promoted, he went to Lieutenant from um, and he was the head of the patrol and we had the whole city helping us with this traffic reporter cause he was a policeman. But that was it wore out and wore out its welcome. It wasn’t necessary because he hit the point where they could see more on the ground that he could in the air. Fact. Because there’s so many people reporting in.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah. When did camera’s take over that? That became a big thing and that really helped. I think that the technology with the cameras was number one. Number two, I think the helicopters were, were so slow compared to…
Andy Ockershausen: Expensive too.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Expensive compared to, because you had a larger area to cover and then the fixed wing as Andy was talking about with the Captain Dan, that was another, a transition.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: So.
Lisa Baden: Man, you just brought up a lot of memories.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah.

Traffic Reporting: Evolution of Information Resources Over the Years

Lisa Baden: Because when I was hired with Metro Traffic, I was hired to do News Channel 8, which is still around as a matter of fact, but we didn’t, okay. I’m just going to make it real. Okay. They didn’t have cable. All right. So I couldn’t see the television station and there were no cameras or anything like that.
Lisa Baden: So I learned how to do air prompter right quick because the producer at the television station could see and was talking to V Dot. And telling me in my ear…
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Wow.
Lisa Baden: What the traffic was for me to say on television. And like for the first two years I never saw a thing. And she was telling me what to say. Her name was Joy Zucker. She was awesome. One of the best producers I’ve ever worked with. And she was really good at those one words like break out, you know, right lane. Oh, she was awesome as such a good training ground. But anyway, and then you’re right, it was airplanes at first, the Cessnas first and everybody had their own eventually. And it was a competing thing. Of course, if there’s a crash, everybody wanted to go to the big, you know, story, and then it went to helicopters.
Lisa Baden: But then see after 911, well wait a minute, let me back up a second because there’s so much restricted airspace in this town.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That’s another hell.
Lisa Baden: They had a lot of mobile units and everyone has mobile units. Okay, where you’re driving. But the trick is, and Stan Thomas, who worked for Metro Traffic for over 20 years and just retired at age 70 he had a youngster. He knew how not to get stuck. He knew how to look at traffic on the ground by going against it. He knew every back alley and back road. Because you can’t get stuck in it. You’ll never get anywhere. Right?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Was he the human wave ways. Woo. There you go.
Lisa Baden: So anyway, but then after 911, the restricted airspace became huge. I mean, it just spread out. We were literally the last market who got clearance to fly again in the United States was Washington, DC.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah. They shut the airport down for two months, didn’t they?
Lisa Baden: Absolute everything. I mean, it was amazing. But in the meantime, you’re right, they added cameras and big brother is watching and we can see so much now you wonder how did you do it for so long without being able to see. We started with ADC maps and everything was the maps and everybody had like a big catalog of maps on their desk and you got really quick at knowing which page and where to go and how to look up a map. Now you have the first test was how to fold it.
Lisa Baden: Sorry
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa.
Lisa Baden: I had to go there. But now it’s all about Google maps and the sensors reading every ones cell phones and you go by the colors green, you’re moving yellow, you’re in congestion. Red, you’re in stop and go and black – nobody’s moving honey, nobody. So it’s fascinating now how you can read it so quickly, but yet nobody’s moving.
Andy Ockershausen: The world is changing.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: What are they pitching you for the future of traffic?
Lisa Baden: Dude. I mean, just to get home. No, I mean just get it, you know, just make it through the day.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: What was the other, you know, there was a two kind of schools of traffic and one was a time clock. Like it’s gonna take you 15 minutes to get from, you know, Memorial Bridge to Georgetown. But there’s a school that’s against that too. You know, sometimes you do that.
Lisa Baden: I do. Okay. So for Chicago for example, they had sensors in the ground. I mean they actually had sensors so they’re traffic reporters for a long time were giving timestamps. Right?
Andy Ockershausen: Right there, right.
Lisa Baden: Using the Google and reading how long it gets from here to here. Also the company that I work for now, iHeart radio. Love you. Thank you for signing my check. Just saying. They have employed people who drive for a living and they are using their signals to read, how long does it get from here to here? So professional trucking companies and people who are constantly on the road. So that is the backup or the accuracy of those timestamps. It’s actual ping off of all of these phones to the satellites. Yeah. Easy.
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely amazing. Of course. The, what is it? Wrist radio. Everybody’s got a something in their hands or transmit or be transmitted to.
Lisa Baden: Right.
Andy Ockershausen: The world changed so many times, Lisa.
Lisa Baden: So they really are keeping track.
Andy Ockershausen: Great. Absolutely, they are. They’re watching you.
Lisa Baden: It’s scary too.
Andy Ockershausen: Your secret is you’re an entertainer and that’s how people like to be entertained with their news, weather, traffic and sports.
Lisa Baden: Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: I learned that many, many years ago. Entertainment is more important than anything in news.
Lisa Baden: Thank you.

Lisa Baden: A Radio Personality Reporting Traffic

Andy Ockershausen: They got to feel good about it. That’s entertainment to me.
Lisa Baden: On my tax return, I don’t put traffic reporter. I put radio personality.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Excellent. And so you should.
Andy Ockershausen: I would put entertainer.
Lisa Baden: Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: Well again, I don’t like to brag but I do all the time so why not? I was a witness. Eyewitness witness almost at the Pentagon 911 I was there when an airplane went right over and I knew something was happening because they had this big black smoke and I got on the scene within, within a minute, I got on the air immediately to ABC and they put it on the network an eye witnessed report that I knew where the airplane hit was, where they had just reinforced that side of the Pentagon.
Andy Ockershausen: You know the five side.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: That side had been reinforced. That really cut down on if that airplane that had gotten in the middle, that whole complex, it would’ve been because that airplane was loaded with fuel. That’s why they picked it because it didn’t get very far before they put it in the Pentagon. But we lived through that Lisa, and it’s a terrible thing, but I remember hearing that flight in and you probably heard it too when they went, it would have a cap of flying around the nation’s capitol all night. 24/7
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: The F14’s.
Andy Ockershausen: Yes, 24/7 they flew around, but you were on the air then. You got back and you did the whole thing. The traffic was unbelievable then. But…

Reporting Traffic on 911

Lisa Baden: Yeah. It was confusing.
Andy Ockershausen: How is everybody going to evacuate? They’re not.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: No.
Andy Ockershausen: There’s no way to get everybody out.
Lisa Baden: Say there’s a plan. Nobody’s showed me the plan.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You would think you’d be one of the first people that knew of the plan.
Lisa Baden: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know.
Andy Ockershausen: Communication.
Lisa Baden: Right. And people were running across the bridges. Everybody abandoned their cars. Remember?
Andy Ockershausen: Absolutely. It was there time, but we learned something. We learned that you can’t evacuate a city very easily. It’s a, this is son of a gun, but it’s in transition and the whole warning system has changed, but you’ll be there all the time, Lisa I hope.

Making it Personal to Listeners

Lisa Baden: I certainly hope so. And it’s an honor. May I say, I’ve met some wonderful people. I’ve met doctors, I’ve met people who are on their way to the hospital because their wife’s in labor for her first baby and they want to get there quickly. I mean, I’ve even had, I had a man who was on his way to meet his wife, who was in labor at the hospital. He was stuck in a backup on the Beltway. I talked about him on the air. I’m like, he’s in a blue car, get out of the way. And they sent me pictures of their kid up to age three every year on the birthday. I am not making that up.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: They name it Lisa?
Lisa Baden: No. Bless his heart. They didn’t.
Andy Ockershausen: You know, everybody knows. You don’t have to say Baden. You say, Lisa, we know who the traffic is from Lisa. That’s great. You are to be proud of that Lisa.
Lisa Baden: Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: 27 years. You’ve been doing it too, right?
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: That ain’t easy.

Up at 2:30AM to Avoid Traffic

Lisa Baden: But to do it, I have to get up at 2:30 in the morning.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Wow.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh my. Why-
Lisa Baden: Because you have to beat it so you don’t get stuck in it. And I live an hour away.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Oh my goodness. They did-
Lisa Baden: When there isn’t any traffic. See, so it’s amazing.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s all night. No wonder you listened. No wonder you listen to Bill Mayhugh and nobody else was there when you first started. You know we had a program and it was on WTOP radio and they canceled it or they didn’t want it. And we had it for a while called Music Til Dawn sponsored by American Airlines, the whole three or four or five hours of music, no talk, just commercials and music. And they got rid of it and we ended up with Bill Mayhugh. So good things happen from bad things, Lisa. But is your family still in the great area?

Family

Lisa Baden: Yes. My mother lives in, in Asbury Solomon’s and I live out-
Andy Ockershausen: Solomon’s Island?
Lisa Baden: Yes. Right outside of Solomon’s Island. Near the crazy Thomas Johnson bridge.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah.
Lisa Baden: Near Pax River.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: That’s where Janice used to go to school down there.
Lisa Baden: Beautiful. Nice.
Andy Ockershausen: Over the bridge.
Lisa Baden: Boy, has that changed, hasn’t it?
Andy Ockershausen: Oh.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Well we, my senior year at Saint Mary’s college was the year they put the bridge in.
Lisa Baden: Oh Wow.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: So that’s 40 years ago
Lisa Baden: About that.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yeah.
Lisa Baden: And remember when the Amish would bring the tobacco?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes.

The Amish | Tobacco and Traffic Reports

Lisa Baden: That was a report. That was a traffic report that we looked forward to every year. Remember?
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Yes.
Lisa Baden: And they would bring the tobacco in and now all of that is gone.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That was Mechanicsville.
Lisa Baden: Yes. Into Mechanicsville.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And the tobacco, tobacco barns.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And Hughesville.
Lisa Baden: And they would go to the auctions and it was, yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa, it’s American.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: Didn’t that tie up? That tied up traffic.
Lisa Baden: It did. Absolutely.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: That’s horse and buggy.
Lisa Baden: Yes. Yes. Wow.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: You are just full of . . .
Andy Ockershausen: The great part about life though, that still exists. Now I see him down there. There’s some, some horse and buggies occasionally. Yeah.
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: No longer the tobacco.
Lisa Baden: Correct.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah. And that tobacco, they did it by hand. It was special tobacco, correct?
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: See what we have in Our Town, we started Camels, we didn’t have camels, but we had Camel cigarettes. But Lisa, you’ve seen it all. But having, having your people in town and your life in the greater Washington area is a great benefit to your work as a traffic reporter because you can visualize some of these pleasures when you get to report.

A Passion: Always Learning | Can’t Imagine it Ending

Lisa Baden: Yes. And what’s sad is in my off time, I drive and because things are changing all the time. So you’re right for a living. I describe things and if you can’t close your eyes and visualize it, which is the most beautiful thing about radio, is it a great theater of the mind? You want to take people there, so if you can’t describe something, then you’re not doing anyone a service. But you know, people don’t know the names of the roads. They know it’s a right at the 711 and a left at the post office, and if you don’t drive around and know their neighborhoods and know it’s the big blue house on the corner, you know? That’s what’s helpful.
Andy Ockershausen: Lisa. You’re so right because you’re an entertainer. You’re informing and entertaining-
Janice Iacona Ockershausen: And communicator.
Andy Ockershausen: Oh, she’s a great communicator. Getting up at 2:30 in the morning. I used to think Janice was when we were first married. She was still at WMAL. She was up at four o’clock to be with Harden and Weaver when they got on the air. But it’s not easy, but it’s a new life when you do that.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: Because Janice would not only, she would come early, she’d stay late. She’d say six to six o’clock at night. I said, you can’t do that. You started at five o’clock this morning. You can’t be working that much. She said, I got work to do.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: But that’s gets you ahead too, Lisa. And people notice that.
Lisa Baden: Yes.
Andy Ockershausen: And you worked hard. You did morning and evening shifts.
Lisa Baden: Thank you.
Andy Ockershausen: Did you sleep during the day?
Lisa Baden: Yes, I sleep anytime I can. I sleep on the way home. No.
Andy Ockershausen: You have your own car and driver.
Lisa Baden: Oh yeah right.
Andy Ockershausen: iHeart provides that to you. Lisa, that having your family here though is important to you. I know, but what do you look forward to for the future? You can do this forever, but you might not want to, but you can.
Lisa Baden: I just can’t imagine it ending. I mean, I’m just gonna ride the wave to the beach and as long as they’ll have me, I’m all about it.
Andy Ockershausen: Yeah. Who else is there that that’s what’s happened to our world. Is when Lisa, and I don’t know any other traffic reporters, but that’s because of endurance and your ability to entertain and inform is unparalleled, I think, and we’re so happy. You’re in Our Town.
Lisa Baden: Thank you. I’ll come back anytime with all this praise.
Andy Ockershausen: We just love to talk to you and you know, we’re radio freaks and you are too, and thank God we have it. Like you said, the theater of the mind, what a wonderful thing for the wonderful world. This is Andy Ockershausen with Lisa Baden, the world’s foremost traffic reporter. You can hear every morning on the great WMAL radio.
Announcer: You’ve been listening to Our Town, Season 5, a Hometown favorite with your host Andy Ockershausen. New Our Town episodes are released every Tuesday. Special thanks to Ken Hunter, our technical director, and to WMAL Radio in Washington DC. Follow Our Town on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you haven’t yet, go to Apple Podcasts and subscribe and don’t forget to rate and review our podcast. Join us next Tuesday for another Our Town conversation. Thanks so much for listening.