Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1355320
92 would be John F. Kennedy. "I feel we have many connections…Cape Cod, the same birthdate, and love of the water. My mother was Joe Kennedy's nurse at the compound and she knew that Bobby Kennedy was going to announce his run for president the day before the world found out." Despite his alarm going off at 2 a.m., Meehan likes the comradery of the morning. "We get to be a little looser with our personalities in the morning as people are getting ready to start their day," he shares. "People can get their information anywhere they want today," Meehan notes. "There's an incredible amount of trust involved in coming into someone's home every day, especially in the mornings. I work hard to earn that trust and it's nice when people tell me they start their day with a smile because of our newscast." OLESSA STEPANOVA Olessa Stepanova is a traffic anchor/reporter at NBC10 Boston and NECN. Working alongside Matt Noyes, her job is to help people get up and out the door every weekday morning. Born in Russia, Stepanova and her family moved to New York in 1992. She began her broadcasting career reporting traffic for News 12, covering New York and Connecticut. From there, she went on to News12 Long Island and NY1 before moving to Hartford for a morning traffic reporter job where she also reported for a lifestyle show. Stepanova made the move to Boston, where she spent over five years on the EyeOpener at WCVB before landing her current gig, where she also contributes to LXTV, a lifestyle and entertainment program that airs on NBC stations nationwide. The shift is tough, but she feels it is important. She wakes up by 1:45 a.m. to get to the station at 2:45 a.m. to go live on air at 4 a.m. "We are on the air before any other station because people get up early and need to be informed," says Stepanova. "Weather and traffic are the first things people look for in the morning and we need to be ready. I get tweets all the time from people asking what their commute is going to look like." While sleep is always a premium for anyone working in morning news, it is especially challenging these days for Stepanova, who lives in North Reading with her husband, three-year-old son, and twins that turned one in November. Returning to work in April 2020, after her twins were born, also coincided with the early days of the pandemic. "Beyond my traffic reports I wanted to cover stories on people doing good things during this difficult time," Stepanova says. One story I did that stands out was about a young girl from the North Shore who was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder who started a crafting business with her mother to make toys and t-shirts to donate to kids in local hospitals." "They were already quarantining prior to the pandemic because of her illness and haven't left the house since it started," Stepanova adds. "Being so young and so sick, but still wanting to focus on helping others was so impactful to me." A.J. BURNETT A.J. Burnett is a meteorologist and weather producer at WCVB, Channel 5. Like, Doug Meehan, he grew up on Cape Cod, and like Meehan and Kim Carrigan he spent several years working at FOX25. He also spent some time at TV stations in Maine and New PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG LEVY Doug Meehan Olessa Stepanova A.J. Burnett