When I got my start at WERU I was a soft-spoken sixteen year old with a growing CD collection in need of filling her high school community service requirement. So, along with my best friend, Emmett Watters, we embarked on the journey that became Late Night Blend, an alternative rock show that aired every Wednesday from 10 to midnight. If you weren’t awake to hear any of our after-hours banter over the two years or so that it aired, it was a lot of prolonged chatter along with mixes colored by the bands that defined our teenagedom on the peninsula – The Flaming Lips, Belle and Sebastian, Beck… Around this time I was also pummeling towards early adulthood, applying to college and asking myself what exactly I wanted to do with my education. When Late Night Blend’s run concluded and I moved to Chicago for school, I was overwhelmed by the lofty aspirations of hyper-focused peers. While they set off on tracks towards jobs in medicine, finance, and law, I was still enamored by the idea of learning for the sake of learning, of talking to people and gathering new information.
In my moment of frustration, I thought back to the experiences I had in high school working in the food service industry, writing for my local paper, and volunteering at WERU. How could I harness the gratification I felt in these roles into some sort of direction or purpose in a new era of my life? When I really thought about it, I realized that in all of these places I valued so much I had taken part in creating a product I really cared about with people I loved, whether that be a pizza, a news article, or two hours of late night radio. It also dawned on me that all of these things I was putting out into the world were able to be accessed and shared within the community I cared about. Showing up for and servicing this place that we call home can mean so many things, from building bridges to harvesting to produce to volunteering at a tiny radio station in Orland – and, at least in my eyes, that’s why so many people keep coming back.
This summer at the station I’ve subbed on music shows, received a crash course on audio production, gotten comfortable aiming a shotgun mic, and interviewed a lovely handful of Downeast locals. I’ve hosted and produced for NextWave radio hour, facilitated conversations for our partnership with One Small Step, and gotten to participate in a short-form audio production workshop at Torchlight Media in Belfast. I’ve collaborated with local DJs and seen their processes firsthand, which are often wildly different from mine.
What I love about working in media is that it leaves room to learn all the time from people who are different from you, people who know more than you, and people who genuinely want to share what’s important to them, no matter how big or small it may be. Over the past three months I’ve spoken to flea market vendors, folk musicians, policy coordinators, and educators out in the field. While not all my material may make it on air, with each conversation I’m seeing a project through from start to finish, and becoming a better speaker, writer, editor, and citizen as I grow more knowledgeable of other people’s experiences in the world I exist in. WERU has taught me that impact is not defined by just one career or interest. Someone’s always out there to receive what you’ve created, and hopefully pass it on to the next listener.
On that note, I’m still learning everyday how powerful and far-reaching our listener support really is. I felt it this August when donations came pouring in and I thanked listeners from California, Georgia, and even Ireland on air. And of course I feel it everytime someone calls in with a song request and a story to accompany it. So, thank you!
Sophie’s internship is made possible by a grant from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.