Liane Su: Station To Station

It’s a career begun in the front seat of a Buick Riviera.

As a kid growing up on the edge of Orange County, future MTV News producer, Liane Su, commandeered the stereo in her mom’s car, endlessly toggling between: pop, rock, and hip-hop, Wham, Jane’s Addiction and Wu-Tang Clan, on KISS, KROQ, and POWER 106.

When a chance postgraduate PA assignment at KTLA led to the MTV Beach House, Liane Su knew she was home. Within hours, she was on the phone with MTV’s LA Office, and back in the Riviera, switching station-to-station as her mom drove her to a last-minute interview with then-L.A. Bureau Chief Heather Parry.

“We were just talking about Wu-Tang and Rage and had a lot of the same music tastes,” Liane remembers. “We just hit it off.”

Liane got the gig, and stayed for seven years from 1997 to 2004 in both the L.A. Bureau and New York Headquarters. 

In this episode of YHIF, Liane talks mic flags, mult boxes, and pd-150s; junkets, award shows, and red carpets; rehearsing with Pearl Jam, flying private with Korn, and sparring with J-Lo. She dodges stereotypes in the studio with Raekwan, and rubber bullets at the RNC with Rage Against The Machine.

And she talks about fleeing the out-of-control, nu-metal-fueled arson of Woodstock ‘99.

“We had the best view in the house: high up, straight down the middle. And you can just feel the power of that crowd getting bigger and more aggressive,” Liane remembers of the fiery music festival. “Standing up there with Kurt, I say, ‘Is it me? Or is this tower swaying!?!'”

“You can see the audience starting to tear down scaffolding and pull things down, so I say, ‘We’ve got to get off of this tower before it falls!'”

“We’re a different breed!” she says.

So keep your hands on the wheel, and your eyes on the 605, and listen to Liane Su’s You Hear It First episode on Apple or Spotify now!