How Reanna Rosenthal chased 106 “No’s” to earn her first anchor desk

 Before Reanna Rosenthal ever appeared on a television screen, she became very familiar with something far less glamorous: rejection. Not the dramatic kind with slammed doors or tense phone calls, but the quiet kind. The kind that shows up as unread emails at 2 a.m., or as another row added to a spreadsheet. The kind that stays with you enough to make most young journalists wonder whether they’re cut out for the trade.

Rosenthal counted hers one by one.

“One hundred and six,” she said. “Exactly 106. They’re all on that spreadsheet.”

The number isn’t the headline of her story, but it is the backbone. Because what finally landed her a job as a morning anchor and producer at WVVA wasn’t a lucky break or connection. It was a drive – to keep applying, keep interviewing, keep adjusting, and keep showing up.

Rosenthal, a 2025 High Point University graduate, applied to stations across the country, learning more about herself each time. Early interviews shaped her. She wasn’t yet sure how to package her skills or answer questions with clarity. But something shifted when she sat down with WVVA’s news director.

“With my earlier interviews, I wasn’t completely sure how to answer some of the questions,” she said. “But when I got to WVVA, something clicked. I knew how to answer everything, I knew how to present myself, and I knew not to sell myself short.”

For the first time, she didn’t feel like she was auditioning, she felt right. She lightened up, made him laugh and walked out feeling good. When he invited her to visit the station, she didn’t overthink it.

“It was a two-hour drive from High Point, so I just said, ‘Friday,’ and went.”

That second visit brought tougher questions. The general manager pressed her with questions that caught her off guard.

“The general manager came down hard with all these personal questions,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘I really hope I’m not butchering this right now.’”

She wasn’t. Her future boss later told her the GM liked her and believed she would do well in the role.

But Rosenthal’s hiring ultimately relied on something as ordinary as it was unexpected: lunch.

“One of the things that determined me getting hired was going to lunch with my boss. Lunch. It felt so ironic after being a walking ad for High Point,” she said.

When she accepted the offer, her first out of 106 applications, she stepped into a morning schedule that only a passionate journalist could survive. Her day begins at 11 p.m., long before her viewers’ alarms. By the time she walks into the station, the building is still, empty and dim.

“I’m the first one in the building. It’s basically abandoned. Luckily they leave the lights on, so it’s not creepy,” she said.

She produces four shows before the sun rises: the 5, 5:30, 6 and 6:30 a.m. newscasts. At a small station, there is no makeup team and no separation between roles. She writes, builds, times, applies makeup, fixes her hair and anchors.

“My first few weeks, I’d turn to my co-anchor during breaks and ask, ‘How am I doing? Does this rundown look right?’” she said.

Now, she doesn't often ask. Her confidence has settled in with the routine of the morning show.

“Now it’s been a long time since he’s had to give me a critique, and that feels good.”

But the most rewarding part of the job isn’t the technical growth, it’s the personal one. Rosenthal grew up in theater, constantly auditioning and performing. Anchoring, she discovered, feels like the opposite.

“Having a theater background and being on television, it feels like I’m connecting with a younger part of myself,” she said. “As an actor, you audition constantly and play all these different parts. As an anchor, I only get to play myself, and that’s the greatest gift.”

Viewers have embraced her authenticity quickly. She has been stopped in grocery stores by people who recognize her face, sometimes with a simple, “You’re the TV girl!” It still surprises her.

“There are thousands of people in a state I never thought I’d live in who see my face every day and like me for me,” she said.

For someone who nearly let early rejections deter her from her goals, the reminder is grounding. Her news director confirmed that sentiment on her first day, after her cold read.

“He told me, ‘This is exactly what you were meant to do.’ I’ll never forget that.”

Rosenthal gives the same message now to students hoping to follow her path, with fewer spreadsheet entries, if possible.

“You cannot fear rejection,” she said. “If I had stopped after a few directors said no, I never would’ve gotten to the WVVA application. It’s the butterfly effect.”

Today, as she builds newscasts in the early quiet hours, the 106 rejections feel less like defeats and more like stepping stones. Each one pointed her toward the place she was meant to land, even if she has to drive there at midnight every day.

“No day looks the same,” she said. “But every day, I feel just as good about what I’m doing.”