"A Creative Platform, A Consistent Presence"
What should be the lede?
To the extent I ever had a college nickname, it was “News,” as in Kurt “News” Meyer. That’s because during my junior and senior years, I was news director at the college radio station, KWLC, the call letters “LC” short for Luther College, in Decorah.
What brings this to mind is KWLC radio celebrated a centennial in late April. The station got an early start; Iowa’s first educational radio stations, in Iowa City and Ames, launched just four years before. I was at the station in the early-to-mid 1970s, the halfway point, although I don’t recall marking the station’s golden anniversary.
According to a statement issued by the college, “As one of the oldest operating radio stations in Iowa, KWLC serves as a creative platform for amplifying student voices and a professional environment for Luther students to gain broadcasting experience. On December 18, 1926, KWLC had its inaugural broadcast when Luther College President Oscar L. Olson read U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. While early programming aired only a few times a week, the station expanded to daily broadcasts in the 1930s and has remained a consistent presence on campus ever since.”
Learning about 100th anniversary activities prompted a weeklong rumination. Now, with the hindsight of fifty years, what did I learn during my college news experience? After all, it was something to which I devoted, hmmm, maybe 20 hours weekly for my last two years on campus. Five key takeaways come to mind.
FIRST, I learned to think and write on deadline. If a newscast was scheduled for the top of the hour (it was), someone would point at me, turn on my microphone, and I was “on the air,” ready or not. It was a valuable exercise in time and clock management. Because life often imposes such constraints, I’m glad this lesson took.
SECOND, I learned the importance of recruitment, training, and scheduling. I was happy to lead a team effort, but we were all students… with classes, papers, tests, etc. It was easier to fill newscaster slots if we had a large pool of (semi-)trained writers / readers to draw on. I sometimes approached friends to help fill out the schedule, several becoming much closer friends as we worked together.
THIRD, I learned the value of identifying and addressing unmet news-related needs. Decades before the internet, students were often naively unaware of events taking place in the world, both near and far. We sought ways to help them become at least marginally more informed. For example, we took news wire stories – first, late afternoon, eventually also early morning – summarized events in several sentences, then mimeographed a one-page “news capsule” for twice-daily distribution on cafeteria tables.
Mind you, these were headlines more than in-depth reports. Generally, “News at a Glance” consisted of a half-dozen news items, an abbreviated weather forecast, and sports scores involving Midwestern teams. Sometimes we tossed in “the concert band performs this evening” or “the Norse baseball game was rained out last night”… you know, important stuff.
FOURTH, it prompted my modest attempt to develop qualities like discernment, judgment, and perspective. So, in a day’s accumulation of news, what should be the lede? What’s most important? What should the community hear about first? And yes, I still regard greater discernment, judgment, and perspective as worthy pursuits.
FIFTH, I started grasping the importance of LOCAL news: what’s happening on campus, in Decorah, throughout various layers of government. I reported on meetings of the college’s board. We called area police and sheriff departments daily, asking if anything had happened we should know about. Occasionally, we attended city council and county supervisor meetings. My understanding of and respect for public service grew considerably.
During those years, I mused occasionally about whether I wanted a career in the news business, ultimately choosing to set off in a different direction. Ah, but KWLC was a terrific learn-by-doing experience that greatly advanced my maturation and transition into adulthood (for some of us, a rather lengthy process).
I’m eternally grateful for these lessons and fervently hope KWLC is part of a vibrant learning environment for many decades to come. Happy 100, KWLC!
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My column, entitled “Showing Up,” is published in the Nora Springs - Rockford Register. I’m also pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative… click on the underscored link to see a list of the talented people who make up this innovative approach to journalism. I’m always interested in your feedback and, if you aren’t already a subscriber, I’d be thrilled if you became one. Thanks much! —KM
Kurt “News” Meyer. What a great nickname! And I add my congrats to KWLC on its centennial.