Danae Bucci has a message for high-school students. “Sometimes your ultimate career goals feel super far off. But never put limits on yourself. If you told me two years ago that I would be back here, I probably would have laughed. But I worked hard, learned a lot, and ended up in my ultimate dream job.”
Bucci, a 2015 Bedford High School graduate, is 24 years old and is easy to find – she is on your screen as a reporter for WCVB-TV, Channel 5.
“I’m just so happy, trying to live in the moment and soak in everything I can,” she said. “Not everyone gets this opportunity. It’s very inspiring to be able to work at that station.”
Bucci compiled one of the best track-and-field resumes in BHS history. She won the state and New England indoor high-jump championships as a senior, and at one point was ranked third nationally. Bucci still holds school records in high jump, long jump, and hurdles.
As a Northeastern University undergraduate, Bucci’s track and field exploits continued until an injury that she calls “career-ending.” But she adds, “It all worked out perfectly.”
“From a young age I knew I always wanted to do something creative,” she related. That objective was narrowed into journalism in 2011 when she was an eighth-grader living on a military base in Japan with her family. An earthquake and tsunami in that country took almost 16,000 lives.
“The way our family knew was through the news. I wanted to help other people the way they were able to help my own family,” she said.
One major influence was Larry Sheinfeld, her photography teacher at BHS. “He was the one who really opened my eyes to the creative process. He helped me so much to keep believing in myself and not be afraid to take risks in my own work. I carry those tenets to this day. I think I had a great experience at BHS. As a military brat, I’m so glad I had a chance to go through Bedford.”
The decision to pursue a television career came during her freshman year at Northeastern, which didn’t have a specific broadcast program in its journalism major. “I was taking a rudimentary class and the professor told me I write like a broadcast writer. I said that’s definitely something I really like – I was always into more visual means of journalism,” including video photography and editing.
Cooperative assignments and internships are part of the landscape at Northeastern, and Bucci said the best work experience she had was as a third-year student news writer for Channel 7, where she learned to “deal with the fast pace in a real newsroom.” She also was an intern with the renowned program Meet the Press as well as with a paper in Colorado Springs and a website redesign firm, where she was a content strategist.
Her first job out of college turned out to be in the middle of the breaking-news universe.
It was May 2020, and she had been offered a reporter’s job at WJCL, the ABC affiliate in Savannah, GA. “It was the peak of the pandemic – nobody knew what was going on,” she related. “I was the last hire before a hiring freeze and I’m so glad. It was an amazing experience. I was able to get my feet wet with big national stories.”
Bucci covered the investigation of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and the subsequent trial, and spent a lot of time with the Arbury family, including every day of the trial. “It teaches you sensitivity,” Bucci said. She also covered some of the fallout from the 2020 presidential election and the special senatorial election in January 2021. Bucci was recognized by her peers with the 2021 “Best Reporter” GABBY Award from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters.
She made the most of some family advantages; a grandfather lived in Atlanta and she had visited there several times. Also, “growing up as a military brat you learn to roll with the punches. I was accustomed to living in different cultures.”
But she also knew she wanted “to make a big jump if I had the opportunity.” Friends and family were still in the Bostin area and “I knew what I would be getting into.”
Bucci sent a resume and a cover letter and a compilation of her best work to WCVB. The packages included not only spot news from Savannah but some of her college projects.
On March 30, she was introduced as the newest general assignment reporter on Channel 5. “Because it was such a big jump it was a bit of an eye-opening experience,” she said, “but there were so many more resources and so many reporters. It didn’t feel overwhelming.
“You walk into Channel 5 and you know that David Muir and Martha Raddatz worked here, and you have to live up to that legacy,” Bucci said. “I just know the quality of work Channel 5 has been able to put out and so grateful to be part of — and hopefully add to — that legacy.”
Her on-air accuracy relies on bullet points. Some reporters try to memorize a script, but “I’ve never been able to do that.” One slip and you can forget the whole thing. “I try to stay ‘clean’ on-air and not glance down. All I have to remember are the three bullet points.
“I went into this field because I want to do something different every day,” Bucci explained. “What I’m strongest at are stories that are more serious – and I’m generally a happy and bubbly person. The stories challenge me and make me feel I’m doing something important.”
“You never know what’s going to happen but that’s why I like this job. My experience has been nothing short of amazing.”
Mike Rosenberg can be reached at [email protected], or 781-983-1763
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