Jessica Ettinger is an American broadcast journalist and non-practicing lawyer. Ettinger joined

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

to create on-demand audio content in 2017, pioneering digital services including podcasts and business news for smart speakers. At

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

she created and launched the

TODAY Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

Show radio, an audio feed of the live TV show in 2014 in partnership with

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. She also served as the broadcast's cutaway anchor for three years, based at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's Studio 1A in

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

. Ettinger's recorded voice has been heard for nearly two decades in the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

, where it is used on automated announcements for the

IRT Lexington Avenue Line The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East H ...

(, and ) trains. Under the name Jessica Wade, she is one of the most-listened-to Female Country Radio talents in North America, and has been a personality on

The Highway (Sirius XM) ''The Highway'' is a commercial-free country music radio station on Sirius XM channel 56. It was created when Sirius and XM merged their competing hit country stations, "New Country" on Sirius and "Highway 16" on XM. The Highway can also be stream ...

's New Country channel 56 since 2004. As of Winter 2014, Sirius XM had 27 million subscribers.

Early life and education

Ettinger is from upstate New York. She graduated with a B.S. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and holds a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from

Fordham University School of Law Fordham University School of Law is the law school of Fordham University. The school is located in Manhattan in New York City, and is one of eight ABA-approved law schools in that city. In 2013, 91% of the law school's first-time test take ...

Career

Several weeks after graduating from college and leaving the Program Director position at WVBR-FM, Ettinger joined

to help change the music format of WYNY-FM, New York. She became an on-air personality and the Music Director for NBC's new "Country 97 FM." As the Acting Program Director and Music Director at

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

WPLJ-FM WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a non-commercial Christian adult contemporary music radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and broadcasts EMF's flagship programming service, K-Love. WPLJ's transmitte ...

New York, she up-ended the top 40 radio industry by playing a song she heard by an unsigned artist that was unavailable in the United States. By creating a "mystery artist" promotion; Ettinger was able to put the song on the air without naming the artist. Listeners guessed for weeks. Eventually, Ettinger had her air talent announce that the song " Soldier of Love" was by former child star

Donny Osmond Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, dancer, actor, television host, and former teen idol. He first gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and gol ...

, who came to the WPLJ studios for the live on-air reveal. Osmond was soon signed by

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

, which released the song as a single and asked radio stations to copy Ettinger's promotion idea nationwide. "Soldier of Love" reached #2 on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

in 1989 and Osmond credits Ettinger with re-launching his career by listening to the music and not pre-judging whether a song could be a hit based on the name or image of an artist. Ettinger met with

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

and returned to journalism to help build New York's first all-business news radio station,

Bloomberg Radio Bloomberg Radio is a radio service of Bloomberg L.P. that provides global business news programming 24 hours a day. The format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market up ...

, joining

Bloomberg, L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a ...

as an anchor for his newly acquired

WBBR WBBR (1130 AM) is a Class A clear-channel radio station licensed to New York, New York. It serves as the flagship station of Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg L.P.'s radio service. The station offers general and financial news reports 24-hours a day ...

-AM. In 1994, Ettinger helped launch

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...

and served as its weekday morning news anchor on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

. She anchored cut-ins on Fox 5 New York, and on CNN. An on-air still photo of Ettinger is included in "Bloomberg By Bloomberg," Michael Bloomberg's 2001 autobiography. She spent nearly 12 years at Bloomberg News covering Wall Street and the financial markets, and also anchored live coverage of the

September 11th terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

from Bloomberg's midtown Manhattan studios. While at Bloomberg News, Ettinger earned her J.D. from

. In 2005, Ettinger joined SiriusXM to assist in the creation and launch of

Howard 100 News Howard 100 News was a radio news team established by American radio personality Howard Stern. The group was formed in October 2005 following Stern's announced move from regular radio to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006. From January 2006 until Febr ...

ahead of the arrival of

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terre ...

, creating the first reality-parody news organization. Ettinger originally joined CBS News as a radio anchor for 1010 WINS in 2004, becoming the first female to anchor at the top-of-the-hour in mornings as a regular fill-in. In 2012, Ettinger created and hosted the 1010 WINS "Open For Business" reports; a post-

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

series. As a digital music journalist, Ettinger also contributes to

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

.com and

.Biz.

Awards

Ettinger has won a

Gracie Award The Gracie Awards are awards presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWM) in the United States, to celebrate and honor programming created for women, by women, and about women, as well as individuals who have made exemplary cont ...

for her anchor work, AP and

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

Broadcast Sports awards for her coverage of the

Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

Road to the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

and the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

Win, and several regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. In 2015, Ettinger won a

New York Press Club The New York Press Club, sometimes ''NYPC'', is a private nonprofit membership organization which promotes journalism in the New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from politics. While the c ...

Award for Excellence in Journalism in the Entertainment News category for her work at NBC's

, which was SiriusXM's first journalism award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ettinger, Jessica 1964 births People from Lansing, New York Living people American women journalists American broadcasters Cornell University alumni Fordham University School of Law alumni 21st-century American women