There is a time in one's life when you ride in the car and then there is a time when you drive the car. Decisions and choices made from the driver's seat are not always readily apparent or appreciated from those in the back seat. What goes around... comes around.
And so it was the sad circumstance of a certain young man growing up in our family that the rule is: The drive controls the radio and all other instruments on the dashboard. Both parents were almost exclusively accompanied on trips to soccer practice, after-school jaunts and family errands by the disembodied voices of Noah Adams, Linda Worthheimer, Robert Segal and a host of other Nation Public Radio luminaries. With a disapproving huff, "Can we please listen to something else?" pled the embodied voice from the backseat. No, NPR is good an informative stuff [in my heart-of-hearts, I hope that one day you will grow to appreciate being informed].
Fast forward. The young man in the back seat now posses the technology to plug in his earbuds while riding in the front passenger's seat and listen to tunes of his own choosing. And so he did last summer as dad and son rushed back across the country after his sister's graduation in Oregon to get him off to Summer Term at the University of Missouri. He had an internship at the Missourian as a cub reporter for his print/digital emphasis of his Journalism major. That internship at the newspaper convinced him that he'd rather focus on a career in broadcast, so he switched over to Broadcast courses. The mid-college career change put him out of synch with the required coarse work to graduate in four years.
The new plan was to take the needed Broadcast 2 and 3 in back-to-back summer sessions this year to place him back on track to finish in four. It'll be a grueling summer, but it will then set him up for a relatively pressure-free Senior year to enjoy.
Broadcast 1 emphasized TV, but included radio skill development as well. A renown broadcast professor with three decades of experience in the field, told Grant, "you have a great radio voice", affirming his choice to move from print to broadcast. However, as part of B1 last semester, the students were required to do 'stand-ups'; the introductory part of a broadcast story where the reporter holds the microphone, looks into the lens and with poise delivers the memorized introduction to the story. Grant's first attempt was flawless, poised and delivered strongly; he noted his two professors on the sideline shoot one another a glance and a nod of approval, both thinking this kid has what it takes. After B1, the students select whether they will work at the local TV or radio studio for their B2 course. Grant chose to go the radio route. However, on two separate occasions, the head of the department remarked to Grant, "Too bad you're not going into television broadcast".
Now the self-acknowledged irony is that the radio station Grant has been working at this summer is the local NPR affiliate: KBIA, Columbia, Missouri. LOL :-) Grant pitches story ideas to his editors, writes the story, splices in audio from interviews, edits the content to fit the specified time allowed and then reads it on air. How cool is that?
We long-time listeners of NPR can now audio stream on our computer, KBIA on Wednesday afternoons and hear the flagship news program, All Things Considered, and after Robert Segal finishes his interview on unraveling Iraq or IRS Scandal, they then break for the local affiliate to cover some of their stories, and then we hear the news from Central Missouri with the sign off, "For KBIA, I'm Grant Suneson". Yes, right there on the very same radio dial as Linda Worthheimer et al.
I just hope that the kid in the back seat on his way to soccer practice at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, appreciates what good parents he has to allow him to become a broadminded and informed citizen by listening to NPR.
And so it was the sad circumstance of a certain young man growing up in our family that the rule is: The drive controls the radio and all other instruments on the dashboard. Both parents were almost exclusively accompanied on trips to soccer practice, after-school jaunts and family errands by the disembodied voices of Noah Adams, Linda Worthheimer, Robert Segal and a host of other Nation Public Radio luminaries. With a disapproving huff, "Can we please listen to something else?" pled the embodied voice from the backseat. No, NPR is good an informative stuff [in my heart-of-hearts, I hope that one day you will grow to appreciate being informed].
Fast forward. The young man in the back seat now posses the technology to plug in his earbuds while riding in the front passenger's seat and listen to tunes of his own choosing. And so he did last summer as dad and son rushed back across the country after his sister's graduation in Oregon to get him off to Summer Term at the University of Missouri. He had an internship at the Missourian as a cub reporter for his print/digital emphasis of his Journalism major. That internship at the newspaper convinced him that he'd rather focus on a career in broadcast, so he switched over to Broadcast courses. The mid-college career change put him out of synch with the required coarse work to graduate in four years.
The new plan was to take the needed Broadcast 2 and 3 in back-to-back summer sessions this year to place him back on track to finish in four. It'll be a grueling summer, but it will then set him up for a relatively pressure-free Senior year to enjoy.
Broadcast 1 emphasized TV, but included radio skill development as well. A renown broadcast professor with three decades of experience in the field, told Grant, "you have a great radio voice", affirming his choice to move from print to broadcast. However, as part of B1 last semester, the students were required to do 'stand-ups'; the introductory part of a broadcast story where the reporter holds the microphone, looks into the lens and with poise delivers the memorized introduction to the story. Grant's first attempt was flawless, poised and delivered strongly; he noted his two professors on the sideline shoot one another a glance and a nod of approval, both thinking this kid has what it takes. After B1, the students select whether they will work at the local TV or radio studio for their B2 course. Grant chose to go the radio route. However, on two separate occasions, the head of the department remarked to Grant, "Too bad you're not going into television broadcast".
Now the self-acknowledged irony is that the radio station Grant has been working at this summer is the local NPR affiliate: KBIA, Columbia, Missouri. LOL :-) Grant pitches story ideas to his editors, writes the story, splices in audio from interviews, edits the content to fit the specified time allowed and then reads it on air. How cool is that?
We long-time listeners of NPR can now audio stream on our computer, KBIA on Wednesday afternoons and hear the flagship news program, All Things Considered, and after Robert Segal finishes his interview on unraveling Iraq or IRS Scandal, they then break for the local affiliate to cover some of their stories, and then we hear the news from Central Missouri with the sign off, "For KBIA, I'm Grant Suneson". Yes, right there on the very same radio dial as Linda Worthheimer et al.
I just hope that the kid in the back seat on his way to soccer practice at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, appreciates what good parents he has to allow him to become a broadminded and informed citizen by listening to NPR.
"You can't fool me! I listen to Public Radio" - Squidward
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