October's End

I’ve been bad about blogging this month. There has been plenty to blog about – the topics just stack up. But my new job as KSTK’s reporter has been keeping me quite busy. With two deadlines every day as opposed to one weekly deadline on Tuesday, I realize I have to adapt a new work ethic – working harder, a lot harder.

With that said, my new job also allows me to do something I’ve never done before – I get to go on my first work related trip.

(This isn’t exactly one-hundred percent true. When I worked in the English Department at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, I, along with the other visiting tutors, got to go on a department trip to Macau. The visiting tutors worked hard lying out by the pool while the professors worked hard in meetings all day.)

Tomorrow I’m getting on the jet and heading to Anchorage for two days of Statewide News Training.

Day One, November 1:

9:00-10:15 am – First Session
“Life After Ted and Don: Next Generation Alaska Leadership” (Joel Southern & Dave Donaldson – APRN)

The swirl of the corruption scandal and the advancing ages of Ted Stevens and Don Young have many buzzing about who will come after them - who are the next generation of Alaska's national leaders and what will Alaska's political landscape look like in the post Stevens/Young era.

Join APRN's Washington, DC Correspondent Joel Southern and APRN's State Capitol Correspondent Dave Donaldson for a discussion of who's in the wings.

10:30-Noon – Second Session
Science Reporting Panel (Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska, Steve Heimel, APRN, others TBA)

Science and Alaska: Alaska is a science reporter’s dream, but how do you do great science reporting without being a scientist yourself. How do you find credible experts -- understanding the culture clash between journalists and scientists -- making science reporting understandable and interesting -- avoiding tech talk -- including impacts on daily life -- process vs. conclusions -- who funds research

Join CoastAlaska's Ed Schoenfeld, APRN's Steve Heimel, and other guests
to discuss the ABC's of science reporting.

3:15-4:45 – Third Session
The Art of the Interview - How to Get Great Tape (Martin Kaste- NPR)

Great "tape" is the secret to any compelling radio story...but how do you get it? What do you ask? And how do you know when you've got it?

Join National Public Radio Correspondent Martin Kaste to learn the techniques and tricks of the trade.

1:30-3:00 – Fourth Session
Journalism and Ethics (Alisa Barba – NPR)

Journalistic ethics are a sine qua non for Public Radio Reporters and Editors. Without a clear understanding of our ethical boundaries, we risk losing our most important asset - our credibility.

Join National Public Radio's Western Bureau Chief Alisa Barba for a session guaranteed to help you answers to your ethics questions.

6:30 @ APTI
Food, Drink & Fun Event. APRN
Social 3877 University Drive, Anchorage

In addition to meeting Alisa Barba and Martin Kaste from NPR, you'll also have a chance to meet APRN's Dave Donaldson and Joel Southern and APTI's new President/CEO Steve Lindbeck. We will be carpooling from the conference to APTI and back.

Day Two, November 2:

9:00-10:15 – First Session
10 Pitfalls of Tedious Public Radio (Alisa Barba/Martin Kaste -NPR)

How do you make your work sharp and compelling? How can you grab the listener's ear and keep it? One answer is to know what not to do – what mistakes not to make.

Join NPR's Alisa Barba and Martin Kaste and find out how to make your piece sing by learning what to avoid.

10:30-Noon – Second Session
Large Group Listening Session (Alisa Barba/Martin Kaste - NPR / Duncan Moon -APRN)

Bring your best stories on CD and get positive feedback on how to make them even better. Individual attention and critiques from two of NPR's finest is a rare opportunity you will not want to miss.

1:30-2:45 – Third Session
Online News Panel Discussion (Mike Sechrist, former General Manager and web innovator at WKRN-TV in Nashville; John Proffitt, APRN Director of IT Services; Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska Regional News Director )

Options for presenting news online with limited time and staff, including a look at/critique of some public-radio news websites.

3:00-4:00 – Fourth Session
Small-Group Listening Sessions

Get your stories critiqued in a more intimate setting.


I’m fairly excited, as well as nervous. I think in equal amounts.

Happy Halloween.

Becoming

My twenty-seventh year will be remembered as the year I got offered a job to be the radio news reporter. It’ll be remembered as the year I left my first job in writing to take it. It’ll be remembered for these momentous events, because I’ve never felt what I’ve been feeling the past couple of weeks.

I wanted to write about it so I wouldn’t forget the series of events which have unfolded and how I became part of the movement of things.

To be fair, Steve set it off. He’s the one that arrived in Wrangell a little over six months ago from Columbus, Ohio, where he left behind a girlfriend and, I guess, his life. Because he never quite found a new one in Wrangell. He came, with a U-Haul full of belongings, to be the news reporter at Wrangell’s only radio state, KSTK. He’s leaving in essentially the same fashion, only this time with a smaller U-Haul.

Like everything else in Wrangell, word got out that he was leaving. When Maria first told me, I recall feeling excited but also reserved because I didn’t want to get my hopes up that the rumor could be truth. In hindsight it seems like it was then that the seeds had been planted – the seeds of departure, or the seeds of a new beginning.

A day or two later, it did become known as truth – Steve was indeed planning on leaving. He’s moving back to Ohio tomorrow to live with his girlfriend and write for a weekly newspaper. I found this out the night of September 14, the night that Rayme’s Bar had its grand opening.

Steve had hinted that Peter wanted me to fill in, but, again, I tried to quell my excitement. I also had hope, though, and there was no suppressing that. The idea was in my mind and I discussed the possibility of working at the radio with a few people but never made any decision about how I would approach it – would I talk to my coworkers, Kris and Beth, first, or talk first to KSTK’s general manager, Peter, to see if I even had a shot?

I never did make the decision. Peter called me at the Sentinel office later the next week and asked if I would like to meet with him and discuss moving into the reporter’s position at the radio. We met the following Wednesday.

I allowed myself the weekend to think about it. There were no pros and cons lists made. For as much thought as I put into it, I never came to anything resembling decisive. I was wishy-washy about it until the moment I called Peter that Monday and told him I wanted it. It was an odd sensation and realization. I was making firm decisions with an underlying layer of uncertainty. My gut knew it to be true, that taking the job with KSTK was the right thing; it was my heart that was, and remains, lagging.

Beth had said, and she was correct, that I had already made my decision days before I actually told Peter. I was just in denial of its certainty. I knew the moment that Peter called me at the newspaper office that I would take the job.

After I informed Peter of my decision, I told my coworkers the same day. The very next morning, after a tremendous amount of anguish and stress, I told my boss. It was painless. He made it easy. The only word he said throughout my scripted speech was “okay.” He repeated it a few times, but that was all that came out of his mouth.

And already, in less than a week after I gave my two weeks notice, a new writer for the Wrangell Sentinel has already been hired. And the reshuffling is complete. Steve moves back to Ohio to write for a weekly newspaper. I leave my weekly newspaper job to work at the radio. And some guy by the name of Ryan Long will be making the journey from Spring Lake, Michigan to Wrangell, Alaska to be the next newspaper reporter.

***

I have just attended my last city council meeting as the Wrangell Sentinel reporter, which in itself seems like its own entity to mull over. I’ve sat with that council for, I can’t even begin to count how many hours, and now I’ll be listening to the meetings from the KSTK studio where they are broadcasted live. Will I be able to still make sense of the council’s nonsense without seeing their expressions, without seeing the audience’s reaction?

Tomorrow, I will begin my last week at the paper. Thinking about it seems harder to grasp than just doing it.

Writing for the Wrangell Sentinel will probably stand out to be the most romantic job I’ll ever have. I’ve fallen in love with so many people in this community in terms of admiration, respect, and wonder. I have been allowed to observe various aspects of this town and listen to so many voices, sometimes loud, sometimes angry, sometimes polite, but always passionate.

And I hope to continue this love affair through my work at the radio station as the new reporter for KSTK. .

Free Money?

I don’t want to gloat or anything but I just got free money.

That’s right. I just looked into my bank account and saw that I have more money than I’ve ever had in my entire life. I looked at the activity detail to see the source of this swell and there it was – my 2007 Permanent Fund Dividend. $1,654 from the Alaska state government that I get for free.

Well, it does get taxed, so it’s not totally free.

In order to get the PFD, a person must live in Alaska at least one full year starting on a January. That’s the only qualification. There’s no age requirement. This is the first time I’ve ever received a PFD, so it’s brand new to me. One day the money wasn’t there, and now, today it is, and all I had to do was fill out an online form.

My co-worker Beth has nine kids and is constantly getting hounded by the PFD department about fraud. She’s even been accused by some individuals in town that the PFD is the only reason she has so many kids.

The whole of the $1,654 will be spent wisely in a country 90 miles off the tip of Florida.