Nick Roman of KPCC Speaks at SPJ Meeting

     Nick Roman, a managing editor at KPCC, spoke at the SPJ meeting on Wednesday night in room SSPA 007 to contribute his real world experience to the group discussion on radio broadcast journalism.

     As a managing editor, Roman explained his role as essentially being in charge of the reporters. His duties consist of ensuring the reporters are handling their stories efficiently by getting the right angles and writing for the correct media platform, Internet or broadcast.

     KPCC is a public radio station, which is run much different than commercial radio. Roman explained the main difference is public radio has no commercials as it is funded mainly through listener donations and government grants. Money is carefully spent as sources and funds are limited and much is needed to run a radio station.

     Roman also shared the advantages and disadvantages radio broadcast has compared to other mediums. With web, a reporter can implement a variety of media, from videos to the written word, to report a story. Television has the advantage of visuals to show the reporters and the event as it’s happening. And in newspapers, readers have something solid and concrete that they can hold on to and reread.

     But in radio, a reporter must use much more clear, descriptive language as they have no video to assist them and they only get one shot at the scanning-through-stations listener. “Radio is the fastest of all mediums,” Roman said, getting the story to the public quickly, at times, can be more important than the use of images or the written word.

     To cap off the night, Roman advised the aspiring radio broadcast journalists that KPCC looks for self-motivated, flexible people who are confident of how they sound on a microphone. The ability to go out there and find a story, write it quickly and be able to articulate it over the airwaves is key to success.

     Radio broadcast might not be the most inviting industry for new comers, but Roman advises that one must be skilled in broadcast journalism and truly have the drive to work in this field to even be considered as a candidate.

A Meeting and a Field Trip for SPJ

     The Society of Professional Journalists will have Nick Roman of KPCC, the Pasadena-based public radio station operated by Southern California Public Radio, speak at this week’s meeting Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in SSPA 007.  Later that week, a tour of KPCC radio station in Pasadena is scheduled on Friday, Oct. 28.

     Roman, managing editor for Southern California Public Radio, experience consists of more than 20 years of radio news in the Southern California area. He has served as a producer, anchor, and news director for various stations. He also assisted in creating CALNET, the daily statewide news program. Not only is Roman a fixture on the radio, for the past 15 years he has been teaching broadcast journalism at Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Fullerton.

     The purposed topic of discussion for Wednesday night’s meeting will be radio format journalism. Radio format, or programming genre, describes the overall content broadcasted over a radio station. The different formats are geared to reach a certain niche of radio listeners based on specific demographic criteria. Some popular formats are news, talk, sports, and adult contemporary music.

     The field trip on Friday, Oct. 28 to KPCC will contribute to the students’ further understanding of radio format journalism and give them an experience on how a radio station works. The KPCC station is located in Pasadena, and members are coordinating carpools that will be meeting at the Outpost on campus at 10 a.m. The sign up to attend the field trip will be at the meeting on Wednesday.