Falling in love with public radio

In 2017, I gave a speech on the civil impact of public radio and local NPR member stations before KPCC’s Leadership Circle. I’m no public speaker, but writing this speech helped me reflect on why and how I came to this profession:

INTRODUCTION

Thanks John (emcee), and thank you to everyone again for being here. Hope you enjoyed the buffet! My name is Jacklyn and I’ve been a news apprentice on AirTalk for about nine months now. And just a note, giving speeches isn’t on my list of favorite things to do so I’m a bit nervous… but I am excited to be here to share just a little bit about the impact that public radio has had on my life.

MY START IN JOURNALISM

To be honest, I’ve completely avoided the news — and especially politics — for as long as I can remember. It was just never appealing to me and I never wanted to be a journalist. I was much more interested in becoming a musician. Until one day in college, during one of my classes, we were talking about the Boston Marathon bombing that had just happened. Toward the end of class, a student sitting about five rows in front of me stood up, burst into tears, and she said, “Why is it that when two or three people are killed in this country, the whole world knows about it. But thousands are dying in my country Syria and no one even seems to care?” This was back in 2013… at the height of the Syrian Civil War.

NPR OPENED UP A NEW WORLD

It was so painful to watch her tears. I remember Googling “Syria” and for the first time, intentionally trying to understand the news. And long story short, seeing life through a completely different lens and being exposed to completely different views eventually grew into a deep sense of responsibility to know what was happening in the world. I knew I couldn’t fix a lot of the world’s problems, but at least I could help people try to understand them. I switched my major to journalism and heard about this awesome radio station called 89.3 KPCC. I was hooked! Whether it was NPR, PRI, the BBC — I even liked how the promos sounded. And of course, all the SCPR-produced shows including AirTalk with Larry Mantle.

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED

Public radio helped me to make sense of the world, and after graduating I was lucky enough to land an internship with All Things Considered at NPR headquarters in DC. But this was the summer of 2016, the year many of us called “the worst year ever”… and I had absolutely no idea how vicious the news cycle would be. Even before learning how to pitch a story in a news meeting, I had to learn resilience… resilience… resilience. On my very first day at NPR, news came in about the death of our photojournalist David Gilkey and interpreter Zabi Tamanna. They were killed in a Taliban ambush while reporting in Afghanistan, and were very close to our All Things Considered staff. The next week, a massacre at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Not long after, three straight days of police shootings… Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Dallas. The week after that, a truck attack in Nice killing 86 innocent people on Bastille Day, and literally the day after that, an attempted coup in Turkey. When I saw veteran journalists break down in the newsroom, I often wondered if I chose the wrong year to pursue the wrong profession. And combine all of this with the stress of following a presidential election for the very first time… yeah… 2016 was the first presidential election I followed. But I also witnessed how extremely supportive, close-knit, and kind we were to each other as journalists. We took care of one another, and it reflected in our coverage. Despite our exhaustion, we continued to provide polished, smart stories for listeners every day. NPR not only taught me resilience, it taught me what it was like to work as a family in the newsroom — an indelible lesson I wasn’t expecting to learn.

COMING TO SCPR

But at the end of it all, I really missed California. So I was thrilled to accept a position at a show I also really missed listening to: AirTalk with Larry Mantle… what would we do without Larry Mantle?

Since joining SCPR, not only have I assisted the show, but with the help of our amazing senior producer Fiona Ng I’ve also been given the opportunity to direct, start reporting on my own stories, and lead produce our most downloaded podcast, FilmWeek. The biggest thing I’ve learned coming here: we do a lot, with very little. To put things into perspective, All Things Considered is a two-hour show with a staff of four hosts and around 20 producers and editors. On AirTalk with Larry Mantle, we’re also a two-hour show, but with one host, four producers, no editors. Respect! I also saw a big difference in the kinds of guests we booked. They were local voices. People who reflected the Southern California I love, and voices that national networks will often miss. Especially on AirTalk where you have listeners calling in every day, many of whom are just as smart as our guests. Or they just want to say “Hi!” to Larry and make our producers scream… we literally scream in the studio when that happens. 

CONCLUSION

At SCPR, we work hard. Journalism is tough, and I’m reminded every day through this apprenticeship that public radio is a service. And while NPR headquarters has all the resources in the world, it’s because of people like you that a member station like SCPR can turn on the lights every day. I feel so blessed to have become a part of this family, and know that Southern California is a much better place because of this station. A station that helped turn an inspiring, but naive musician, into someone who cares more about the world, and the stories of the people who live in it.

Thank you so much.