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

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

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 corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

she created and launched the ''Today 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 Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

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

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's Studio 1A in

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

. 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 in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

, 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 (New York City Subway), A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhatt ...

(, 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 stre ...

'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 university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and holds a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

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. According to Fordham University School of Law's ABA- ...

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. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

WPLJ-FM WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, licensed to New York, New York. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), based in Franklin, Tennessee, it broadcasts EMF's Christian adult contemporary formatted p ...

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

, 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), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

, 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 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 and politician. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., and was its CEO from 1981 to 2001 and again from 2014 to 2023. He served as the 108th mayo ...

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 ...

, joining Bloomberg, L.P. as an anchor for his newly acquired

WBBR WBBR (1130 kHz) is a Class A clear-channel AM 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 ...

-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 diversified information and media private company Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, re ...

and served as its weekday morning news anchor on the

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

. 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, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

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 Feb ...

ahead of the arrival of

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1 ...

, creating the first reality-parody news organization. Ettinger originally joined CBS News as a radio anchor for

1010 WINS WINS (1010 kHz) is a commercial, all-news AM radio station licensed to New York, New York owned by Audacy, Inc. The station brands itself "1010 WINS", with its call sign phonetically pronounced as "wins". WINS's studios are located in the ...

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 large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...

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 advertis ...

.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 contr ...

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 ce ...

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 ...

Road to the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

and the

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

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () 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, and the International Ic ...

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 nonprofit membership organization that promotes journalism in the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. It is unaffiliated with any government organization and abstains from ...

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