Eileen Frere Spotlight By Writer and Contributor Amy Bergant
A journalists job is to report on informative, important or impactful news, where they shine the spotlight on someone or something other than themselves. However, in some cases, the journalist is just as interesting, if not more, as the news they cover. One of these journalists is Eileen Frere, Rancho Palos Verdes resident and veteran TV news reporter, most recently seen on ABC7, here in Los Angeles.
Eileen was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, outside of Toronto and grew up in a small town called St. Ann’s. Her childhood was for the most part idyllic, with her family living next to her grandparents and cousins on a strawberry farm. Summers were spent picking berries, riding our bikes on dirt trails, and climbing trees, while winters were typical of a New York winter, being an hour from the Niagara Falls border. Snow days were common, which meant time to skate or play hockey on the family pond. This activity paid off, as she was the only girl playing hockey at a time before leagues. She was also an all-around athlete in school, with her best sport being cross country. She held the 1500 m record (4:57 min) for many years. Her family travelled a lot; visiting the Philippines where her mother was born and raised, and flying to provinces in Canada in her recreational pilot father’s plane.
Not all of Eileens childhood was idyllic, however. On July 9, 1978, sha and her parents survived a plane crash. Allegheny Airlines Fl. 453 from Boston to Toronto had a stopover in Rochester and overshot the runway. The plane didn’t come to a stop until it crossed a field and hit a huge ravine, causing tremendous damage to the plane. Eileens seat came unbolted from the floor and she recalls her dad trying to hold her down. Once they evacuated the plane, they were told to “run as far away as possible, for fear of a fire or explosion”. Only one passenger was seriously injured, but Frere still thinks of the incident whenever she flies: “I view it in a positive way though, in that, the chance of ever being in another plane crash is astronomically low’.
Listening to Eileens vivid recall of the crash, it became clear why she became a journalist.
“I always loved to write and tell stories. My mother said I had the ‘gift of gab’. However, I also saw myself as an attorney so when it came time to decide what to take in university, I combined the two things that I was passionate about—journalism and law”.
She graduated from high school as an Ontario Scholar, which is reserved only for those who achieve an average mark of at least 80% in any six Grade 12 courses, then earned a combined degree in Journalism and Law with honors from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.
“I was not always sure about broadcast journalism. During university I was heading in the direction of law when I accepted a summer internship with the Ontario Ministry of Labour. I knew the Employment Standards Act from front to back as I helped workers and employers facing problems in the workplace”. After graduation, she was offered a four-month contract with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). “I was hooked on reporting. The four months in Fredericton, New Brunswick turned into several years with CBC that took me across Canada reporting in radio and television”.
After starting as a news reader on an Ontario radio station during university, she applied to various broadcast positions with no success, she caught her lucky break, “I was one of a handful of journalism grads selected from across Canada to work on a temporary contract with the CBC.”
Her work on a segment called Buyer Beware (which involved hidden camera investigations, looking into consumer scams and product comparisons), “caught the attention of a news director in Seattle, Washington, who hired me to work in their investigative unit at KOMO TV (an ABC affiliate)”
She met her husband there who had accepted a job in Los Angeles, so she decided to move with him and got a job at KABC, where she eventually became the Orange County Bureau Chief.
One Los Angeles story that made a large impact on not only Southern California residents but Eileen herself was the mass shooting at The Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks in 2018. “I remember I had just finished the 11 p.m. show on ABC7 Eyewitness News and was halfway home when I received a call from my executive producer who said I needed to head back to the station. There had been a mass shooting”
“When we got to the scene. I remember families who were frantic to find their loved ones. We were reporting live through the early morning hours. That night I met Aidan Dingman who was searching for his 21-year-old brother, Blake. We later learned Blake was among the 12 people shot and killed that night”.
One year after the tragedy, Eileen sat down with Aidan and his parents, Dan and Lorrie. and they “shared Blake’s life story and talked about how they view things differently”.
“They talked about how they don’t sweat the small stuff. “The guy who cut you off on the freeway, doesn’t matter”, Dan said. Another lesson learned: Take a lot of pictures because you can never have too many pictures of your family”. Eileen recalls how the family hoped the tragedy would encourage parents to teach their children compassion, because Lorrie said her son was killed by somebody who didn’t care about others.
Frere clearly cares for others. During the pandemic, she left KABC after nearly 20 years to help her parents, which also “allowed her young daughter to spend more time with her grandparents in Canada, to attend school and begin learning French”.
Presently, they live full-time in Rancho Palos Verdes, where her husband owns a business, The Company Doctors, which helps other businesses survive and thrive. Eileen works part-time as a media coach and writer, while also serving on a couple of boards. “I like being able to spend more time with my daughter, who takes part in various sports and activities, in addition to school. love to run (trails more than streets) but I find it’s a great way to stay in shape. I also enjoy spending time with my daughter. I love to bake and paint (not at the same time)”.
The Peninsula is special to Eileen and her family, even after travelling to and living in many other places. “We’ve lived in Rancho Palos Verdes for more than 15 years and love our neighbors. Out of all of the states, provinces and cities we’ve lived in, RPV is among the few places where our neighbors have shown such kindness, they stop to say hi or wave and we all watch out for one another”.
Amy (Barber) Bergant grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes. She attended the University of Southern California, getting her Bachelor of Arts in Communications from The Annenberg School for Journalism, where she was also a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. She currently lives in South Redondo Beach with her husband of almost 25 years, twin 14 year old daughters, and their 2 cats, George and Henry. When not chauffering her kids around, she enjoys hanging out with friends, eating good food, listening to great music, watching ridiculous television shows and going to the beach.
