Today, I did not start an internship — I started an experience. I understood this the moment I walked through the doorway. At KPBS, you are not anonymous. Everyone smiles, and everyone has to meet you. You do not slip into the background; you are a new face to be identified. I must have met 30 people today.
The KPBS staff is smart, professional, passionate. Ego is a foreign word and the standards are high by default.
The first member of this staff whom I got to know is Erik Anderson. I traveled with him for a brief assignment at the University of San Diego at mid-day. Erik is serious but secretly hilarious, veggie-munching, gas-conscious, crackerjack and dead-on, with an easy mind. I confessed he’s the reporter whose voice I have imitated the most — dry and lethargic but compelling and competent. (“I’m Er-ik An-der-sonnnn.”) I also told him he looks as he sounds, and he was not quite sure how to handle that. He was one of few people I met whose appearance didn’t shatter my longtime mental image of him. We all do this, but we’re usually way off. It’s kind of like re-reading a great novel but in a new edition with illustrations — and you feel uneasy and betrayed after ruining your mind’s eye with an artist’s interpretation.
Anyway, back to the newsroom. I got a bag with a state-of-the-art Nagra, a mic, a pair of monitors, and some other cables and goodies. New tools for a man of printed words. I figured out the AP wire software and sound editing software at (sort-of) my cubicle. It’s a treat to have easy access to the best technology — not to mention professional journalists. I feel I have a lot to gain and a lot to contribute.
This morning I also realized that I now work for a metro news station — which means I have to know what’s going on in San Diego to generate story ideas. Don’t get me wrong; I’m pretty up-to-date on local news, but in my infatuation with national and international news sources, I have a lot of catching up to do. Yup, this means reading the San Diego Union-Tribune, your favorite newspaper and mine. Oh, I was kidding. I hate to dis the institution that is Copley, seeing as I received a $500 scholarship from Copley and KPBS received even more money than that — but the U-T, well, sucks. No matter. Interesting stuff is happening in San Diego. And interesting stuff is happening in my world. Want to learn more? Come back tomorrow.
I’m Andrew Phelps, K-P-B-S News.