KMOV St. Louis traffic anchor, Laura Hettiger, delivering the traffic report; Photo: Laura Hettiger/Facebook/KMOV
Most Taylor Swift fans fall into a certain age range, but every once in a while an older bird shows its feathers and professes their love for the pop starlet. Recently, St. Louis traffic reporter Laura Hettiger (of KMOV 4) grabbed headlines for incorporating Swift lyrics into her traffic report.
Hettiger, an obvious fanatic, wanted to celebrate the release of Swift’s latest album Reputation (Friday, November 10) by jamming as many lyric references into her report as humanly possible.
To her credit, Hettiger seamlessly drops the lyrics. She opens by telling viewers that if they’re feeling the traffic blues that they should “Shake It Off,” explaining that “there is a lot of ‘Blank Space’ out there because traffic is pretty light.”
Later in the report she explains “I don’t have to say ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ because traffic looks good all over the St. Louis area.”
It didn’t take long for Taylor Swift to catch wind of the report, and the 27-year-old pop star was more than happy to express her gratitude, sharing the video and tweeting, “I Love You.”
This isn’t the first time reporters have used song lyrics to help spruce up their segments. Most notably, Fred Blankenship and Mark Arum of WSB-TV Atlanta used rap lyrics in their reporting, referencing icons like Phife Dawg, Tupac and Migos.
It’s riveting journalism worthy of a Pulitzer Prize or at the very least a nod at the Billboard Music Awards.
