Francene Cucinello was born in
New Jersey and led a life on the stage before discovering that broadcasting was her true calling. A professional dancer with a regional ballet company at age 14, Francene developed her work ethic early, touring with Shakespearean and musical theatre companies before she was 21.
But it was during college at
West Virginia
University when Francene’s fate was sealed. She called a radio station to answer a trivia question and the station’s program director heard her voice and hired her on the spot to be a disc jockey.
After college Francene began writing, producing and appearing as an on-camera talent in commercials and industrial films. This included work for MCI, Major League Baseball and various branches of the
U.S. government. At the same time she established herself as an accomplished voice-over artist and recorded an award-winning series for The Discovery Channel and audio books for The Library of Congress.
A few years later that voice work led Francene to
Charlotte,
North Carolina, and to a career as a television news reporter. Francene then continued reporting at WBAL-TV in
Baltimore and at a national news bureau in
Washington,
D.C., where she covered Congress and the White House. Following next was investigative work and anchoring at WSMV-TV in
Nashville. There Francene broke numerous stories of local and national significance and got nominated for several Emmy awards in the process.
However, radio once again beckoned and Francene’s next step was a talk radio station in
St. Louis where she was the station’s first female solo talk show host.
In 2002 Francene was awarded an international journalism fellowship and left the country for study in
Berlin,
Germany and at NATO and the European Union.
Francene joined 84WHAS in October 2003. In addition to listening to her talk show, you can catch Francene's news reports on WXIX-TV in Cincinnati, see her on
The Fox News Business Channel where she's a regular guest, and read her newspaper columns weekly in
The Voice-Tribune.
© 2008