By Ian Kearns
This may sound overly simplistic to say, but in life there exist two types of places you encounter in your personal and/or professional journeys. In the one case, there are the places where you merely spend time, where nothing about you is changed and no impact has been made whatsoever. They are bridges to bigger and better. In the other, there are the places where you well and truly blossom, where you are fundamentally altered by your environment and its people, and you will fondly look back on the hours, days and years spent there for quite a long time. WRGW District Radio, in all facets of the definition, fits the latter category.
From a board perspective, I was Operations Director before my final position as News Director, and thus I got the view of the station from both sides of the spectrum of duties that the WRGW board undertakes. As Operations Director, I became intimately familiar with the technology of the station, and put myself always on standby, often fielding tech issues at late hours of the night. It was my aim to make sure everything worked as it should: to become an unchanging technological constant with limitless potential, akin to a blank canvas upon which the average show host could express themself through words and music. To a large extent, I achieved this goal, but at the same time I feel I became a better problem-solver, a better strategist even, in the process. As News Director, I engrossed myself with the content creation process within the station and its trials and tribulations, kickstarting and contributing to initiatives that underscored current affairs and the world at large. In my personal opinion, my crowning achievement is and will remain the founding of PINDROP, a completely intern-driven news show which touches all corners of the globe, focusing on one issue in one country at a time.
Nevertheless, my development as a board member was only part of the overall experience that allowed me to blossom. What really made, and makes, WRGW District Radio stand out is its diversity of membership. As a show host, I have had the chance to interact with an absolute wealth of interesting people whose perspectives varied tremendously. I interned in the fall of 2020 with Dylan Sapienza, a like-minded musician who always strove to dive deep into the nuts and bolts of the tracks which he enjoyed, blending personal interest and significant music theory knowledge in a pitch-perfect show called “M7#9.” After the COVID isolation period, I was able to finally host in-station with others, beginning my in-person tenure with “Let’s Get Trippy,” a music show which covered the local scenes in a given country every episode. Here, I was highly fortunate to work with Isa Lopez, Apurva Joshi, and Zayon Cordova Febres, who brought a rainbow of perspectives and insights to the show, a diversity which raised the content quality substantially. I got the same experience in the spring, teaming up with Olivia Eda Thompson on the show “It Came From”, which fostered a heavy degree of banter as well as an exchange of ideas and perspectives unique to the Music Department. PINDROP proved to be the pinnacle of it all, as working with Francisco Camacho, Taylor McKinnie, Wajeeha Amir, Kate McKown, and Grace Fyfe created a truly one-of-a-kind working environment of collaboration and adaptability. The result can’t only be considered a news show, but I think instead a well-oiled news-breaking machine.
I know my writing runs long, so I want to put in one final word on the community at the station. I came into this university at an odd time, especially considering the fact that it was the COVID era, and I was on campus with not many people to get to know. Since then, I have found a group which has welcomed me with open arms and made me feel seen and heard in all the right ways. Fellow board members are more like friends, and I always felt like an equal, not a lesser or an other. Respect was maintained within the board and (largely) between station members, and I can say in my experience every voice was heard and every opinion and perspective weighed just as much as that of the next person. Inclusion, true inclusion, is very rare to find in this life, and I can say I’ve found it in the community of WRGW District Radio.
I have moved a lot in my lifetime, thriving on change, and I feel that WRGW District Radio joins an extremely exclusive list of places in my life where I have blossomed. I consider myself heavily lucky to have been in the company of a group of such amazing people, and will remember my time at this station with fondness and everlasting gratitude.
Ian
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