At the early hour of 5 a.m., before the sun has even risen, News Director Charlotte Reese of WBCB Radio arrives at work ready to start her shift.
Starting out in the Bucks County Community College Journalism program, then transferring and graduating from Temple University with a degree in Journalism, Reese quickly acquired a position at WBCB Radio in Levittown.
WBCB is a local radio station that features news, talk, sports, and music. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, to Bucks, Burlington, and Mercer Counties.
Reese’s daily responsibilities are endless.
Reese has the job of gathering video and audio content for the station’s website, writing stories, editing stories, maintaining the station’s social media sites, and in her free time producing a podcast called “Millennial Takeover.”
WBCB Radio caters to a primarily older demographic, but Reese’s podcast brings a youthful, modern feel to the station, attracting younger listeners.
“Millennial Takeover” discusses hot topics throughout the millennial generation. During her podcast, Reese confers with fellow employees and interviews the general public, in order to grasp all sides of the topic.
One of the most fulfilling parts of the job for Reese are the times when her stories fill readers with joy. She also really likes when her stories get under the reader’s skin, and make them really aggravated. A professor once told her, “If you aren’t pissing people off, you aren’t doing it right.”
Reese’s advice to future journalists is to always remain objective. Objectivity can be achieved by writing simple and pulling interviews from both sides of the story. Be sure to state the facts, and refrain from adding opinions.
And also, being a former Journalism student at Bucks, Reese recommends getting involved with the student newspaper as a way gain practice and learn the craft of writing news stories.
Reese says, “College was a good learning experience, although for me it took a while to click, realizing that you have to go out and do things like sticking your phone in someone’s face and interviewing them.”
Reese identifies court cases and trials as her favorite breed of stories to write. She says, “The atmosphere is so interesting and all the reporters are so pushy.”
Although she loves what she does, the profession of journalism can be very stressful at times. Deadlines, trying to amass the facts and interviews, and putting it all together to form a juicy story, can be extremely difficult. But Reese says, “Just stick with it, journalism is not an easy field, but if you love journalism just continue to tell yourself, I’m a journalist.” If you are willing to put in the work, you will get somewhere.
As for what she loves most about being a journalist, Reese says, “The stories are always different, and the job changes everyday.”