Heather Zara Gets Dream Job at Ch. 4
By Terry Foster
The Detroit News
Heather Zara loves sports so much, she still has pieces of confetti from the night the Pistons won the 2004 NBA title.
And when her alarm rings at 2:30 every morning, the television is usually tuned to “SportsCenter” or a replay of the previous night’s Tigers game.
Zara, WDIV’s morning traffic reporter, is a passionate sports fan who used to scramble around the Lions dressing room looking for stories.
This weekend, Zara moves to the sports desk, anchoring Channel 4’s weekend show.
“I feel like I have my dream job, but I am not the kind of person to stand still,” said Zara, who grew up in Warren and attended Mott High.
“Down the road I would like to get a job in sports. Right now, I work with some amazing people. If my career ended at Channel 4, I would be very happy. I love working in the city, and you have some of the best sports teams around whether you are a fan or a reporter.”
Zara is a risk taker.
She left a full scholarship at Wayne State and transferred to Michigan State so she could study broadcast journalism.
“I don’t think I’d be here if I didn’t do that,” said Zara, who won an Emmy her junior year and appeared headed toward her career in sports.
But WDIV held a contest for a traffic person in December 2007, and she decided to take a shot at coming home. She had just left a small Maryland station for a behind-the-scenes job in Chicago. The audition was a hit. The day after Super Bowl XL, Zara was on WDIV doing afternoon traffic.
Not bad for someone who played volleyball and softball, but was cut from nearly every basketball team she tried out for. What she coulddo was dance, and she landed gigs with the Detroit Fury, the now-defunct arena football team, and Automotion, the Pistons’ dance group. That’s how she celebrated the Pistons’ title — confetti and all.
