South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
‘Deco Drive’ brings a Miami native home
Reporter to take over for Van Vliet on WSVN show
Growing up in Kendall, Alex Miranda watched Belkys Nerey, Lynn Martinez and Louis Aguirre deliver celebrity news and pop culture stories about South Florida and beyond on WSVNCh. 7’s infotainment show “Deco Drive.”
Dishing about red carpet events, movie premieres and fun things to do in South Florida seemed like a dream job for Miranda when he was a budding broadcast student at Miami Sunset High School.
“‘Deco Drive,’ it was like, ‘Oh, you can do that too? You can actually have fun and be on TV?’ ” he recalled.
That interest in entertainment journalism led Miranda to study broadcast journalism at Boston’s Emerson College. And now after 10 years of holding a variety of TV jobs from Tucson to Tampa, Miranda has come full circle. He finally gets to be part of the “Deco Drive” team.
This week, Miranda joins the show as its newest entertainment reporter. He steps into the flashy neon pink and blue virtual set at the North Bay Village station where he replaces Chris Van Vliet, who is moving on to TNT to cover wrestling.
“I love meeting people. I love interacting with people and I love having fun and exploring,” said Miranda. “I love figuring out and understanding where people are coming from and why they do the things they do.”
At 23 years old, “Deco Drive” is the longest-running, locally produced entertainment program on South Florida TV. Anchored by Martinez and Shireen Sandoval, who are known for their snarky, breezy banter, the show typically tops national entertainment competitors “All Access” and “Entertainment Tonight” at 7:30 p.m., in the advertiser-friendly demographic of ages
25-54. The show also rebroadcasts at 11:30 p.m. weeknights.
WSVN officials thought Miranda would be a perfect fit for the show.
“Alex has extensive experience interviewing the stars and covering the red carpet. When Deco Drive sits down with a celebrity, we ask questions you won’t see on any other entertainment show,” said Alice Jacobs, vice president of news and programming at WSVN. “We like to have fun, create moments, and take a few risks.” She added, “Alex is upbeat and witty, which is exactly what Deco Drive is.”
“Channel 7 was always my station,” said Miranda, 32, in his Kendall home surrounded by framed photos of his early days in broadcasting in college and his gigs. “To me, Channel 7 is Miami and ‘Deco Drive’ is Miami and to have been selected by Ch. 7 and ‘Deco Drive’ to be a part of that, to me is an immense amount of pride. I get to be part of the story of Ch. 7 and ‘Deco Drive.’ ”
The road back to the
305 has taken Miranda more than 10 years.
At Emerson where he studied broadcast journalism, he anchored the college’s newscasts. During the summers, he interned at WHDH-Ch. 7, WSVN’s sister station in Boston, NBC’s “Today” show, CNBC and WPBF-Ch. 25 in West Palm Beach.
After graduating in 2009, he continued plugging along on his entertainment TV career track. His first stint was hosting and producing New England travel segments called “Travels with Nixon,’’ where he and a miniature schnauzer named Nixon explored pet friendly hotels and businesses.
Eventually, Miranda landed at KGUN Channel 9, the ABC affiliate in Tucson. He co-hosted a live, one-hour morning talk show called “The Morning Blend.”
“It was an amazing learning experience, the most important job I ever had,” recalled Miranda. “I was awful when I got there but by the end, I had really figured it out. I had so much fun.”
After two years in the arid Arizona heat, Miranda went to Los Angeles to host a summer reality dating show on CBS called “3.” Unfortunately, the show, which competed against ABC’s “The Bachelorette” and NBC’s summer Olympics in 2012, was cancelled after two episodes.
But then, the Big Apple came calling. Miranda got a job as a co-host and reporter for “OK! TV,” a syndicated entertainment program and an extension of “OK!” magazine. That led to another job hosting 30-minute daily segments about celebrities and news of the day at HuffPost Live, the video streaming site run by The Huffington Post.
“I got to talk to so many celebrities and interesting people. I got to sit down with them for 30 minutes of uninterrupted conversation which is a skill you have to develop because there is no break, there is no time to gather yourself,” Miranda recalled of the New York-based show. “You can’t wing an interview when you are talking to someone for 30 minutes.”
In one interview with Mike Tyson in 2015, the former heavy weight boxer shared his support for then presidential candidate Donald Trump who then Tweeted the news. The story went viral and landed Miranda on news programs across the country including a clip on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“This was the very beginning. This was the first major celebrity endorsement of Donald Trump as he was running for president,” said Miranda.
Another one of Miranda’s favorite interviews was with legendary broadcaster Barbara Walters on her last day of “The View,” the all-women daytime talk show she created.
“The first thing she told me when I sat down next to her was, “’Well, you’re handsome,’” Miranda recalled with a smile. He added, “she’s also an example of someone who didn’t quite fit into the traditional news world and I’ve always related to that.”
Looking to build up his hard news chops, Miranda wanted to work for a traditional news station. So after New York, he headed to Tampa’s WTSP-Ch. 10. He talked about the viral news stories of the day on the late afternoon and evening newscasts and hosted Facebook Lives. In 2018, he became the coanchor for the station’s morning show “Great Day Live.”
He describes his two years there as a big learning experience.
“I felt that local news made me sharper. I had already been very hardworking and enthusiastic and passionate but there’s nothing like local news to make you pay attention to the details,” he said.
And now he’s back in Miami, where his CubanAmerican parents and grandparents live and where he and his two older sisters grew up.
He remembered the excitement he felt the day he visited WSVN for his “Deco Drive” interview and audition earlier this summer.
“When I walked into the building, it felt like home. When I walked into the newsroom, it felt like home. When I sat on the desk, it felt like home. Everything felt like home. I felt like my whole life was leading me to this job,” he said.