St. Louis- Journalists, editors, and other staff at St. Louis Public Radio, KWMU, gives tour and offers inspiring advice to aspiring journalists at Saint Louis University.
Sixteen students, including their professor, Jean Whatley, were greeted by KWMU’s senior business
advisor Marquetta Wise on Thursday morning. Wise gave the students the tour of the facility starting with the terrace on the second floor that is used for different gatherings, the technical rooms where the audio is produced and edited, and the rooms that the host of St. Louis On the Air, Don Marsh and mid-day
host, Greg Monteanu, records in. In this tour, the students got exposure to both the technical and the broadcasting sides of radio.
The students also got to meet Greg Monteanu before his show began. Montaeanu described his journey to becoming a radio host and taught the students a lesson about having passion in this career field.
“I interned here [St. Louis Public Radio], and I made myself invaluable to the people here. I just wouldn’t leave after my internship. I asked them if I can come volunteer a couple days a week and they really liked that. They saw that I was passionate about the radio.”
The tour also included two guest speakers, Holly Edgell and Lindsey Toler.
Holly Edgell is the Race, Identity, and Culture Editor at KWMU. She discussed different aspects about being a writer and editor for St. Louis Public Radio. “At St. Louis Public radio, we write for the radio and we write for the web,” Edgell said. Edgell expressed how important it is to be able to write across different media platforms. At KWMU, they want to be able to write for the digital readers because many media consumers are not listening to radio broadcasts anymore, so they are writing to attract readers. She highlighted that it’s important to know what kind of information at an audience wants, and the goal is to touch the heart of the reader or listener.
Lindsey Toler is the digital engagement producer at St. Louis Public Radio. Toler is in charge of finding pictures that tell a story. “Big part of my job is trying to get people to engage with us who don’t usually listen to radio, and I try to do that by photography,” Toler said. Toler does however express her concerns about being on Instagram now that Facebook owns it. She believes that Instagram will not be as “cool” as it is now. Toler is trying to find other social media platforms to promote the work of the writers and editors. Toler then advises the students they should keep writing and that if they keep writing, they will be able to learn how to write for any platform.
Wise ended the tour by encouraging the students to come back to the station and apply for internships in
hopes of fueling their passion for journalism.
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