Eric Spillman is part of the original crew of the KTLA Morning News, having started on the program in July of 1991, when the show debuted.
He began reporting the news while attending UC Berkeley at the student-run radio station KALX. While there, in between shifts spinning records as a DJ, he sold a stringer story to AP radio about a Berkeley professor who won a Nobel Prize in physics. That report, for which he was paid $25, was the beginning of his professional broadcasting career.
Having graduated with a degree in English Literature, and possessing no other marketable skills, he got his foot in the door by working as a call screener for an on-air psychologist at KCBS Radio in San Francisco. There, he learned basic journalism skills from a few veteran broadcasters, and managed to get his first job as a full-time radio reporter in Sacramento.
Later, he worked for TV stations in San Luis Obispo and Las Vegas. There was also an 8 month period of time spent traveling (and not reporting on anything at all) in Southeast Asia.
Then in 1991, on a lark, he applied for a job as a reporter at KTLA, after reading an LA Times blurb that said the station was starting a morning show. He was surprised to learn that he had been hired.
What followed after that was a great adventure that has lasted 33 years and counting.
Just after the show went on the air, Southern California experienced a cycle of major news events that included the Rodney King police beating trial, a riot, a devastating earthquake, a massive brush fire, storms and flooding, and the OJ Simpson case.
Eric covered all those stories and literally thousands of others, beginning as he does every weekday, with an alarm clock that goes off at 2:30 AM.
He has been a witness to history, reporting on major disasters, crimes, political conventions, elections, inaugurations, Super Bowls, World Series, countless storms, quakes, and just about every news event you could imagine.
But to him, developing a connection with the audience is at least as important as providing information.
That could mean making a live “snow angel” when he gets sent to the mountains or “shaking the fist” at something that seems absurd. Or it could also mean visiting families in their kitchens on Thanksgiving morning, or handing out flowers to total strangers on Valentine’s Day. It means not being afraid to poke fun at yourself, and finding humor in a topic when warranted.
Eric is most proud to have helped KTLA Morning News viewers get out of bed and face the day with the news they need… and sometimes maybe even a smile on their faces.
His greatest accomplishment is his family. His wife Lynne has put up with his difficult schedule for the last 27 years, for which he is extremely grateful. They have two adult children, Ben and Sara.
