Newscaster Finds New Home in Real Estate

0

Talk about a career change: Longtime local TV newscaster Laurel Erickson, who used to do hard-hitting stories on housing developments, is now showing houses for a living.

After more than 30 years as a newscaster – most of them for KNBC (Channel 4) – and multiple Emmys, Erickson has just received her real estate agent’s license. She’s hung out her shingle as an agent for Coldwell Banker’s Sunset Boulevard office. Her territory is much the same turf she tread as a newscaster: from Los Feliz and Toluca Lake all the way west to Brentwood.

The 60-something Erickson said she had long been interested in touring homes in various L.A. neighborhoods, and over the years had bought and sold several houses.

After her career ended at KNBC five years ago, Erickson had a brief stint at local public TV station KCET and then did some media consulting. But she said her heart wasn’t in the consulting job and that’s when she decided to train as a real estate agent.

In the few weeks she’s been on the job, Erickson has already had to make one adjustment: As a newscaster, she sought out and tried to get comments from celebrities; now she has to treat them as any other client.

“The other day, I was shocked to see Dee Dee Myers in one of the homes I was showing,” Ericson said. The former Clinton administration spokeswoman was house-hunting after landing a job as head of corporate communications for Warner Bros.

Erickson, who had previously interviewed Myers, immediately began chatting her up. Afterwards, another real estate agent gently told Erickson that famous people cherish their anonymity when looking for homes to buy.

A few days later, when a “well-known” actor showed up, “I had to act as if I didn’t know who he was. That was hard,” she said.

Rough Sailing

For a few nervous minutes last week, it looked as if months of planning night have become about as valueless as ballast water.

Mayor Eric Garcetti had long been planned to be the featured speaker at the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association’s annual lunch, held Tuesday at the Doubletree Hotel San Pedro. But as the luncheon was about to begin, Garcetti was 26 miles away in downtown Los Angeles, presiding over a hurried press conference that followed the lifetime ban announced for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling that morning. In fact, many of the luncheon guests were listening to Garcetti on the radio as they pulled up to the hotel.

A few minutes after noon, the association’s president, John McLaurin, stepped up to the lectern and looked over the expectant crowd of more than 300 – the largest gathering ever for the annual luncheon – and acknowledged that the featured speaker, ahem, could be late.

But not to worry, McLaurin told the crowd, mostly executives of shipping lines, freight forwarders and other businesses that rely on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. If Garcetti is a no-show, McLaurin said he was prepared to make a presentation on the promise of shoreside ballast water treatment technologies.

“Always a popular topic!” McLaurin cracked.

Luckily enough, Garcetti was able to rush to the hotel, scarf a quick lunch and make an inspirational speech on the importance of enhancing the port complex – without once mentioning ballast water.

Staff reporter Howard Fine contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

No posts to display