Finding a job you love so much that it's not really a job is one of those situations that doesn't come along all too often. I had it last year.
I watched President Barack Obama win a historic election. I witnessed a community rebuild after a severe windstorm. And I learned more than I've ever learned in a classroom at Miami University.
I worked for WMUB, Miami's National Public Radio station for 58 years, until it fell victim to budget cuts March 1.
Miami transferred management of the station to Cincinnati Public Radio (CPR), ceasing local production, but retained the license to broadcast. It now simply parrots the WVXU broadcast signal out of Cincinnati. So when I heard the WMUB news team received 17 awards from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists last week for its on-air work, it was like one final twist of the knife.
I read through the news release, seeing that WMUB's former News Producer Tana Weingartner was named best reporter with former News Director Gary Scott as runner-up. The entire news team won first place for "Best News Operation."
These are on top of 11 awards from the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters and the seven awards the Public Radio News Directors, Inc. gave them back in June for work from 2008 - more than any other public radio station in Ohio. Sure, operating the station cost Miami more than $500,000 a year in direct costs and another $300,000 indirectly - but it was a venue to represent the university to the entire region of southwest Ohio and southeast Indiana and to keep those listeners informed, educated and involved in the community.
Besides the public education aspect, it was an amazing educational opportunity for students hoping to pursue broadcast journalism or public radio after graduation. Along with two other students, I was part of a team of student producers who interviewed people daily, wrote several stories a week and helped produce scripts for a weekly call-in talk show on timely issues affecting the Oxford community and beyond.
One of those students graduated last spring and the other will graduate in December, so I will soon be the last remnant of WMUB's 58-year history of training future journalists. At a public forum in February on WMUB's transfer to Cincinnati Public Radio, I ran into Tom Strock, a Miami alumnus who now works at WHIZ-TV in Zanesville. He worked at WMUB from 1981-82 and told me there couldn't have been better preparation for what he's doing now.
Only 16 students worked at the station when it ceased local production in March, but the work they were doing was significant, relevant and extremely valuable to prepare them for the future. And it was all right here in Oxford. I could leave class in Upham Hall and be working in the Williams Hall newsroom five minutes later. Students who want to pursue internships or get experience in radio now have to drive almost an hour to Cincinnati or Dayton.
Miami Treasurer David Creamer said in April that Miami has no intention to sell its license but mentioned Miami's agreement with CPR leaves them the option to buy it five years from now.
I fear the worst - that Miami would give up its license, losing all the educational opportunities a public broadcast station has to offer.
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Richard Campbell, director of Miami's journalism program, had a fantastic idea to establish a public news bureau out of the WMUB station that would provide Oxford-based news for the WVXU signal.
WMUB will never be the same - the people who made it what it was are gone - but this bureau would be the next best thing. It would keep the opportunities for learning the ins and outs of broadcast journalism right where they belong - at an institute of higher learning.
I can say without a doubt that working at WMUB was the most valuable experience I have had in my time at Miami University. I worked closely with professionals who became more than just my supervisors. They became my advisers, my mentors and my close friends. I can only hope for the sake of future aspiring journalists that the university will hold on to that license and continue to find ways to guarantee students have opportunities to get involved in radio right here in Oxford.
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