Dan Mannarino Going Beyond the Anchor Desk to Help Others

Steve Adubato goes one-on-one with Dan Mannarino, Anchor at PIX11 Morning News and Co-Founder of The Circle Up Foundation, to discuss his journalism background, his new role at PIX11 and the impact his non-profit organization is making.

2/7/18 #2110

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to welcome Dan Mannarino, Anchor, PIX11 Morning News, every weekday morning, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. - the pride of Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. How you doing? That's right. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Honored to meet you as well. Well I appreciate that. Yes. Now you've had an interesting career, as young as you are? Yes. You've been in this business from day one because you love it? Because I love it. I... you know actually, I went to college for pre-law. You did? [laughter] Yeah. It's funny how things work out. Where did you go to school? I went to Manhattan College in Riverdale. Okay. And a journalist came to our class, spoke to us about journalism, and from there on I had the journalism bug. I was like, "Okay, forget pre-law." What was it? It was the opportunity to hold people accountable in certain situations. It was the opportunity to reach out to communities that you were part of at one point, and serve, and bring a message of hope and positivity, but also to be... when that journalist came to us, it was about bringing members of the community in. Hmm. And getting them to be able to express their message that they can't get to a smaller audience. And that reach... that... it bit me. And here I am. Yeah. It's interesting. PIX, along with some of the other local stations... I mean the morning new, morning television, is so incredibly competitive. Mm hmm. What do you think differentiates your operation? I think... well, morning television is a beast. Because you have to really encompass everything. Not only are you up at 3 o'clock in the morning, which is a struggle...It is... ...and we're on the air starting at 5... 4:30. But I think it is the opportunity to not only give people their local news, world news, but the opportunity to give somebody, someone, something to smile about... Yeah. ...as they leave the door in the morning, to go to their job, to go to school, wherever they're going. They want to be informed, but they also want to be happy. Sure. And they want to smile. And be able to talk about something when they get to work. That's on you? That is on us. And your co-anchor is? Betty Nguyen. She is... Did you guys meet together first time? Did they say, "Let's try these two together."? Is that how it worked? You know, actually when they paired us up, we had met for lunch, but that was it. We never had an on-air screen test. It was, "You know, look at us there!" We were actually hosting the Veterans..."