Whitney Reynolds Stays Loyal as Host of Evanston's 4th of July Parade

For years, Whitney Reynolds has had two career goals. To one day host an episode of Saturday Night Live and to host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

But until Macy’s comes calling, the PBS star will stay loyal to only one parade: the one the city of Evanston puts on for the Fourth of July.

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“I started my show in Evanston, and I’ve had it there ever since,” Reynolds said of The Whitney Reynolds Show, which she has hosted for a few years now.

According to its website, the show “educates, motivates and makes a difference, one topic at a time.” It’s now aired on PBS stations in Chicago and the Quad Cities, but made its debut on Evanston’s ECTV Channel 6 and still films episodes there.

Reynolds will again serve as host the city’s 4th of July Parade this year, which she says will be an even better show than in years past.

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“Every year it has gotten stronger,” she said. “This year we’ll be doing interviews after they see the judges instead of before so we’ll be able to get more in depth with the parade.”

After serving as an intern for Good Morning America and later as a morning anchor for stations in Texas and Oklahoma, Reynolds’ current show began only online on ECTV. It was soon picked up by NBC, among others, and can now be watched or listened to on PBS.

With closed captioning now taken care of, the show is expected to soon hit some other markets as well.

But remaining in Evanston through the rise in popularity is a tribute only to the show’s beginnings, but to the city itself.

“We film at the ECTV studio base on Asbury Street,” she said. “We have our own crew, but the studio space there is absolutely amazing. ECTV is the reason our show took off. It’s in our blood.”

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It’s also a convenient “halfway point” for guests coming in from out of town.

“They like it because it’s on the way to Chicago from O’Hare and the studio is in a central, safe location. They are always excited to come here.”

The city of Evanston is unique, she adds. Unlike the “cookie-cutter” feeling she often had while anchoring in the south.

“Across the board it is an amazing city,” added Reynolds, a nearby resident of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. “When people ask me where home is, I say Evanston. My head at night may lay in Lakeview, but my heart and 90 percent of my time are in Evanston.”

The show’s growth can also be attributed to “maintaining a healthy work-life balance,” she said.

“When we started it was all work and no balance. But about a year in, we figured we had to make it sustainable long-term and to do that we had to keep pushing but understand where to back off.”

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Helping Reynolds achieve that ideal balance is her husband, David.

The two are known as “The Coffee Couple” because of both where they met and first became engaged.

“We met in a Caribou coffee shop in Chicago. We knew right away we wanted to be engaged, but I was selected as a top Chicago single in an upcoming magazine,” Reynolds explains.

Having to hold off on a proposal, David was patient in waiting until the magazine came out, highlighting Whitney as officially “single.”

“So he proposed the day after the magazine came out. Right at that same coffee shop,” she said.

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When Caribou closed that location and a Peet’s Coffee opened in its place, the two were naturally the new owner’s first customers.

David is a big supporter of his wife’s involvement with the Evanston parade, providing help mostly behind the scenes. As he will when Macy’s comes calling.

But until then, Reynolds is firm in her Evanston loyalty. No other parades.

“Macy’s has always been the dream, but Evanston is giving me some really good practice,” she said.