KTSW’s 30th Birthday: Interview with Alumni Amanda Dugan

By Preethi Mangadu
Web Content Contributor

While we celebrate KTSW’s 30th anniversary, we want to honor our past KTSW alumni. Amanda “Mandy” Dugan is one of them.  She worked as a host and producer as part of KTSW’s production team from Aug. 2009 to May 2010.

Dugan’s experience started off on the morning show Orange Juice & Biscuits (OJ&B), as a co-host and assistant producer, with Jonathan Valdez. The show was a CBI Finalist for “Best Regularly Scheduled Program” which provided Dugan and Valdez many opportunities like covering SXSW.

“He really introduced me to how to produce a fun and energized morning show, and also gave me my first opportunity covering SXSW was being part of OJ&B,” said Dugan, “I would say my favorite part with OJ&B was getting to cover SXSW. That was a pretty awesome experience.”

After beginning to grow her skill set on OJ&B, She went on to host, write, and produce another morning entertainment show for KTSW called Rise N Shine.

“With Rise N Shine, my favorite part was that we got to be on three days a week, so I got to have all different kinds of guests on my show, from students to faculty of Texas State, to local bands and artists,” said Dugan. “It was really cool getting to meet different people that were part of the Texas State community.”

After graduating, Dugan had internships with the Bobby Bones Show and Entercom Comm. Corp, before being selected as the 2011 CW Austin Star. As the Star, she was the face and voice of The CW for an entire year and conducted interviews with many influential figures such as Jodi Foster, Will Ferrell, Perez Hilton, and more.

Afterward, Dugan was hired at KXAN-TV in Austin as an Anchor and  Traffic Reporter, where she has worked for just over ten years. She is on air for five and a half hours split between three segments a day and writes transportation and community-based stories from time to time. While her days are structured the same, Dugan’s job continuously changes with what is going on in the community.

“It is different every day. It is always the same in a sense,” said Dugan. “It’s always like a recipe you follow but the ingredients are always different every day. So you’re always mixing it up.

Dugan stated being able to work in KTSW was a great experience in college, especially since she was able to foster the skills that have helped her in her current career.

“Being able to master speaking on radio, speaking clearly, articulating or point, articulating your ideas, your opinions, and still having fun doing that, you know, getting your humor across were huge,” Dugan said. “They really transferred well into my career in television news.”

While speaking about how KTSW is beneficial for aspiring journalists, Dugan said that it is a good way to get experience and figure out what you want to do.

“You can be part of a news team; you can be part of sports reporting; you can do so many different things there like promotions or even just learning how to run an office,” said Dugan. “I think it is a great place for you to get in there and get your hands dirty and figure out, ‘this really wasn’t my vibe but I think I’m more into this.’ They just have all these different branches out in so many ways there.”

To learn more about Dugan, visit her profile on KXAN. Make sure to tune into her segments on-air as well at 4:30 am, 7:00 am, and 12:00 pm.

Featured Image by KTSW Multimedia