2004 Honoree

Toni Senecal

Host, WB11’s Toni’s Time!

Written by Angela Leali

Meet Toni Senecal, of the WB11’s Toni Time. She’s that rare type of energy that makes everybody tune in for the latest ‘in-the-know’ events around town.

And it is Toni’s style that keeps viewers tuning in. Her fun, outgoing personality is truly a breath of fresh air for local story reporting. She is now producing her own specials out of house. Toni just recently returned from Antarctica where she spent two weeks filming her latest special: Toni on Antarctica. She has several other projects in the works, including producing both a wedding special and a Broadway special.

Fans are fiercely devoted to Toni Time, particularly because of her notoriously honest reporting. “I never wanted to be a part of a celebrity butt kissing joint. If I interview a jerk, I get to show it. Over and over and over again.” It’s no wonder why we love her.

She just recently moved to Brooklyn to become a total Brookylnite. “I’m a Pub girl, I’m not into the Sex and the City stuff. I don’t have that kind of time.”

Since getting her start, Toni Senecal has worked on several hit shows including Extra and E!, but she finds her show on WB11 to be her favorite working experience. “Well, this is my first local type of show ever. I started off with large budgets, half a million dollar a week shows. The national level exposure creates huge pressure.” While she had no problem managing the pressure of national broadcasts, she found she didn’t love her work. “There was also a pressure not to make waves. You could never be quite vanilla enough.” But in her home on the WB, she really found her niche. “You don’t have to pretend to be a reporter. You have the freedom to find and produce your own stories in your own style.

Toni had no intention of going into television, but it seems as though fate had already chosen her. She was working for Jean Paul Gaultier as a showroom model when a producer friend asked her to do a fashion report for the Joan River’s Show. “I said that I would have no idea what to do. The offer came completely out of the blue.” But Toni quickly won over audiences and became a regular on the show.