About Erica Brennes
A Real Mom, Who's Real Tired
Hello, I'm Erica, I'm the morning traffic anchor on KXAN, the NBC Affiliate in my hometown of Austin, TX. I also cover all things Austin Transportation.
A little about my career: It started in 2005, as a news anchor and reporter in Wichita Falls, TX and then spent three years as weekend anchor/reporter in Waco, TX (*before* Fixer Upper). In the Fall of 2009, I moved back home to Austin to start a video content production company with my mentor, Whitney Casey.
After a few years working with Whitney, creating content for Austin area businesses, I got back into TV to do the morning traffic at the CBS station in Austin. While there, I totally fell in love with helping Austin residents on their morning commute. I never thought I'd become a bit of a traffic nerd, but I did! While reporting on Austin transportation stories, I met an entrepreneur named Joseph Kopser, the founder of the app company RideScout. RideScout was a ground transportation aggregator app that was acquired by Daimler Mercedes-Benz in 2014.
Joseph ended up recruiting me to join his team as the Director of Interactive Content in January of 2015 where I spent the next two years creating content that supported the brand team, the PR, marketing & social media team, the product, sales and c-suite teams. I hosted, produced and wrote an online show called Transit Trends that covered all things trending in the world of transportation. Unfortunately, following a merger and acquisition, the Austin RideScout office closed in the spring of 2017, when I was 6 weeks pregnant.
Since then I had my daughter and worked as a freelancer for many different brands creating thoughtful content for their marketing needs.
I worked as an on-camera spokesperson for a variety of companies and spend a few months in early 2019 filling in for the morning traffic anchor on KXAN. That was the first step in joining the KXAN team full time! In August, 2022, I joined KXAN as the morning traffic anchor and Austin transportation reporter.
You might have noticed some pictures on my website of BEVO.... here's why.... My husband, Ricky, is in charge of BEVO XV, the mascot for the University of Texas in Austin. He handles all things logistics, fundraising, marketing and scheduling. Most people don't know that BEVO is privately owned and the University doesn't actually give any money toward BEVO - so someone's gotta bring in the funds! The owners of BEVO, Mr & Mrs Baker, are actually who we named our daughter after. So yes, we're very close to the BEVO program!
If you're still reading... wow... that was long. But thanks for hanging in there! Follow me on social media for daily life and work updates!