Traffic Reporter Nancy Reamy

Traffic in the New York metro area is notoriously bad, but it has been very good to Nancy Reamy. A veteran traffc reporter for over 30 years and a SAG-AFTRA member for nearly as long, Reamy says she realized shortly after her graduation from Montclair State University that this could be a pretty good gig.

“I was born in New York and raised in New Jersey, and I always knew in this area, traffic was going to be a type of job security. It never gets any better. Only worse. And it’s always going to be there.” Reamy started out as a news reporter, but after a layoff, a friend told her that her voice sounded like a traffic reporter on the radio, so she gave it a try. She’s been at it ever since. And she has certainly seen some changes over the years.

“When we first started, we didn’t have cellphones. We’d supply people with radios or they used CBs. Early on, we actually had a man in a car who would drive up and down Route 1/9 in New Jersey, gauging how bad the backups were at the Lincoln Tunnel. Now we work with Google Maps, Waze, computer models and helicopters. There are
also cameras everywhere. Anything we can use, we use.”

Reamy isn’t just an expert in merging traffic, however. She’s also an expert in merging companies. Her former employer, Shadow Traffic, blended with Metro Networks, which was taken over by iHeart, which has now been re-branded as Total Traffic and Weather Network. And all of those shops have been represented by SAG-AFTRA, thanks in part to a generous gesture by Reamy back in 1990. In fact, it was so generous that Associate Executive Director Richard Larkin still talks about it.

“The station where Nancy worked had been sold in a bank auction and the new owners were under no obligation to keep it union. Members wanted to talk about it, but there was no place to meet. So Nancy invited everyone to her home in Montclair. She even baked chocolate chip cookies. The discussion was really beneficial and, by sticking together, they were able to get a great contract with the new owner.”

Reamy, who was shop steward at the time, doesn’t remember it quite that way. “I had a toddler at home and I couldn’t stay at the station, so I suggested that everyone come to my house. I saw it as them doing me a favor, not the other way around. It did help that we were able to sit down and talk, and we did get a good deal. But the cookies were oatmeal — I’m sure of it, because it’s all I had in the house.”

Reamy knows that radio sometimes isn’t the most lucrative of careers, especially when starting out. In fact, her father, a banker, was so shocked by her first paycheck that he Xeroxed it and told her to keep a copy because she’d look back later on how little money it was ($108.05). She still has the copy. The income has improved, certainly, but that’s not the most important element of SAG-AFTRA membership.

“When I was shop steward, I would tell everyone, ‘You’re not just working for your pay, you’re also working for your benefits.’ And it’s true. The benefits have always been fantastic. Without union representation, we wouldn’t have them.” What’s a typical day like for a New York/New Jersey traffic reporter? Reamy wakes up at 4 a.m., and she’s on the road by 5 a.m. She arrives at the Total Traffic headquarters in Rutherford, New Jersey, by 5:30 and is on with five different stations throughout the morning rush. She delivers reports to one station on Long Island, one in the Hudson Valley and three in New Jersey. She’s also a part of the morning show on each station.

“My favorite part of the job, without question, is getting to interact with the hosts. Some can be silly, but they’re good people, and if you get to work with good people, that makes all the difference.” In the past few years, Reamy has started a side gig officiating at weddings up and down the Jersey Shore and throughout the state.

She’s also just become a grandmother, or “Nan” as she prefers, to 8-month-old Oliver.

Since he and his parents live in Silver Spring, Maryland, she’s become known as “Amtrak Nan” because she’s always checking the train schedules. For someone who knows better than all of us how bad traffic can be, why would she want to drive?

Photo: Traffic reporter Nancy Reamy