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No matter how far he travels from Reno or how remote his destination — from Fiji to Dublin, Ireland — when Dave Mulligan goes on vacation, his work always finds him.
Or, rather, he finds his work.
Mulligan is the producer and host of “Great Getaways,” a 30-minute travel show that airs on NBC Bay Area, and is about to expand to a new digital sister network called NBC Nonstop, which will broadcast to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Miami, Dallas, Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“Great Getaways” has taken Mulligan Fiji; Puerto Vallarta and Cancun, Mexico; Oahu, Maui and Kauai, Hawaii; and Dublin, Ireland.
“It’s a fun job, it really is, and I do realize it,” Mulligan said Wednesday in a phone interview from Deery, Ireland, where he’s doing part of his “Great Getaways” travel segment for Tourism Ireland. “I don’t take this for granted, trust me. I always have to remind myself this is how I make my living.”
Mulligan attended college at the University of Oregon and San Diego State University. He moved to Reno in 1990 after spending a year travelling abroad.
Mulligan, who started out in radio advertising sales at KWNZ 97.3 FM in Reno, has show business in his blood. His father, the late Jim Mulligan, was a television producer and comedy writer.
“He started on ‘Rowan Martin’s Laugh-in,’ then he did ‘The Sonny Cher Comedy Hour,’ and ‘The Smothers Brothers Show,’ and ended up he was a producer on ‘M*A*S*H,’” Mulligan said.
In 2009, Mulligan laid the groundwork for “Great Getaways” with a show for Tahoe Quarterly that aired in the Bay Area.
“It was called ‘Reno-Tahoe Great Value Getaways,’” he said. “We thought the ‘value’ thing might touch a nerve because of the economy, but we found some of the higher-end properties didn’t want to touch it if it had the word ‘value’ in it because it would cheapen the image. We found ‘Great Getaways’ was the way to go.”
Family time
Like a vacation, Mulligan takes his family along for fun and work.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t come along,” he said. “I’d be too depressed.”
