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 Whizzing through the airwaves on a destination into the unknown, Eleanor Schano’s longtime career in television has been a Technicolor experience of historical significance. “All this fuss about Katie Couric,” she scoffs in that rich, familiar throaty voice of hers. “I had to start as a weather girl in a negligee.”
As the first solo female news anchor in Pittsburgh, Eleanor paved the way for women to work in broadcasting. And in her self-published book, “Riding the Airwaves: The Life and Televised Times of Eleanor Schano,” she’s telling the world what it was like to be “the only chick in the newsroom.”
After 54 years of broadcast experience, Eleanor says that the writing of her memoirs was a voyage of discovery. “I discovered a lot of things about myself and about what it really was like to be a woman in another era,” she says, adding, “when you were raised to be a nice little girl and to sit quietly and grow into a nice woman who would not make any waves or break any rules, then get married, have babies and live happily ever after.
You could be a secretary, nurse, or teacher, but a career was nothing you took seriously. You would do all the hard work and the men would get the glory.”
Her passion for her career, life and family will resonate with a wide audience, not just women, says Eleanor, explaining, “My book is about a culture; a society that has changed so much in the past 50 years.”
Currently the host of “LifeQuest” on WQED Multimedia, Eleanor says that becoming an author is the hardest role she’s ever played.
“I have always been on the other end of an interview, I had control,” she says, finding it difficult to refrain from interviewing me. “This is uncharted territory for me!”
A former Scott Township resident, Eleanor recalls her first home at 2076 Rockfield Road. “It was a brand new house in 1955,” she says. “Back then, they had a ‘Parade of Homes,’ which was where builders would go into a [suburban] neighborhood and build their best little house. No two houses were alike.
“That’s where my babies were born, and those were wonderful days, living way out in Scott Township,” says Eleanor, noting that her former neighbors provided a good balance in her life. “At work I was Eleanor Schano, and at home we did like everyone else, and I was a wife and mother. I walked babies in strollers, and I was a Brownie leader.”
“Everyone knew that I was on television, but my kids grew up believing that everybody’s mom was on TV. I took them to Channel 4, and they would sit on the bleachers and watch Paul Shannon’s Adventure Time. Then we went home and had dinner, and I put them to bed before going back to do the 11 o’clock news.”
For more information about Eleanor’s book and upcoming events, visit www.ridingtheairwaves.com. •
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