You hear her Saturdays on the Fox World Travel show, but how did Rose Gray get into the Travel game? She sits down with WTMJ’s Libby Collins to discuss her wide variety of previous jobs, how she got her start in the travel industry, her favorite destinations, and what’s next for her. Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
ROSE GRAY: A couple walked in, and I remember this so distinctly, there were clearly fireworks. By the smell, they had just come out of the bar, and they wanted to go to Las Vegas. I looked around at the staff that I had, and every single person was on the phone, or maybe picked up the phone and pretended they were on the phone because they didn’t want to take this customer.
So, I said, “Let’s see if I can maybe help you. What is it you’re looking for?” They knew exactly what hotel they wanted to stay at, the old Westward Ho, that isn’t even there anymore.
“We go three times a year, this is exactly what we want.” I thought, well, how hard is this.
I booked them and I took their deposit, and I went into the manager and I said, “I hope I’m not in trouble, but there was nobody available and I helped this lovely couple realize their dream of going to Las Vegas for the third time this year. Here’s the money, and here’s the deposit. What’s my next step?”
LIBBY COLLINS: How did the radio show come about?
ROSE GRAY: So, the host of that show, she wanted to take a WTMJ/Fox World Travel listener trip, but it was a three-week Mediterranean cruise. And at that point in time, I was still doing little spots for Manitowoc, because we had an office in Manitowoc, and Sheboygan
radio, ten-minute spots weekly where we basically did what I do every week on TMJ, we just did that for ten minutes. We didn’t take calls, but the radio personality and I would just talk travel for ten minutes.
So, my boss at the time was the vice president of Vacation Travel, he said, “Do you think you can handle Jean’s show?”
And I said, “I think I could, I’ll give it a try, you know, we’ll see what happens.” And I did it. It was well received, and I phased into that and have been doing it now for 13 years.
