By Zenya Molnar, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Ana Bottary will be a familiar face to anyone who watches Worcester News Tonight on Charter TV 3, the local television station in Worcester. Bottary, a Shrewsbury resident, joined the news team as a general assignment reporter in March 2014 after working as a news reporter for WAGM-TV in Presque-Isle, Maine.
Bottary, who said that she “always loved acting” and who was accustomed to performing in front of an audience as a gymnast, became interested in news reporting as a freshman at Curry College when she was attracted to their strong communications program. Even in her first year, Bottary was able to work on-air.
“I really became interested from then,” she said.
Throughout college, Bottary, a communications major, completed seven internships with local TV stations, which she cited as “a really great experience.” While at college, she also anchored Curry TV – CC8, the school newscast.
Bottary said that she was “really excited” when she saw the reporter position open with Charter TV 3 in Worcester. She described her role as a “one-man-band reporter,” as she finds, shoots, writes and edits her own news stories. She interviews subjects in the field and then once back in the studio, she rewrites the script and creates the voice-over.
“I love where I am and doing local news,” Bottary said. “We do everything ourselves, and that’s a challenge within itself.”
Despite the difficulties, Bottary explained, “It’s rewarding at the end of the day when you’ve put out a product that you did and it was all you.”
Sometimes a story does not develop as she has planned, but there is still a deadline to meet every day. The Worcester News Tonight show starts at 5:30 p.m., and Bottary goes on air when the show goes live. Bottary said that it is difficult if she has not completed a story until the mid-afternoon, but she enjoys the adrenaline rush that comes with the challenge.
“It makes you want to work harder,” Bottary said.
Reporting on human interest stories are Bottary’s favorite.
“I love finding out about people’s lives,” she said.
She enjoys enlightening the public on community members’ activities and achievements.
“It’s all about storytelling. It’s not about me. It’s about telling someone else’s story, and that’s my favorite part about it,” said Bottary.
Bottary said that the type of news story that she covers depends on the day, whether there are more pressing issues or it is a slower news day. For example, a fire or a murder becomes her priority over a human interest story. Bottary likes all aspects of her position as reporter.
“It’s a job where you wake up every day excited to go to work,” she said.
She believes that the community benefits from watching local programming because Charter 3 TV localizes news stories. Bottary said that they present stories about people that wouldn’t be known otherwise, and they inform the public about the latest happenings in the area. She mentioned that the sports program gives community members an opportunity to watch local high school and college football games.
“You don’t really get that everywhere so I think it’s really special that the station can cover people and things that are happening in their neighborhood,” she said. “For [news reporters], we want to come to work and get out there and inform the public.”
According to their website, Charter TV 3’s Worcester News Tonight is the sole local newscast in the Worcester area. Charter TV 3 broadcasts to about 185,000 households in Central New England, which includes towns in northeast Connecticut and southern New Hampshire.
Bottary dreams of going to New York and working on Good Morning America or hosting her own talk show. She is inspired by television journalist Katie Couric, who Bottary has watched since she was young.
“[Couric] has stayed passionate about telling the news and being a reporter her whole life which I really admire,” Bottary said.
After graduating from college in 2013, Bottary had to make decisions that would affect the future of her career. Originally from Hull, she explained that taking the reporting job in Maine was “the best decision I ever made” since she doesn’t know where she would be now if she had not taken the opportunity and moved far from home.
Bottary said, “Don’t give up a dream if you really want to do it just because you have to move away.”