This is KGOU

I have a great admiration of journalists. I think it’s a fascinating profession, but more importantly, I believe it is necessary and noble work.

The ability to understand a subject, look at it from all sides and present it in a way that makes sense to the reader, listener or viewer takes skill and knowledge. 

Journalism is a public service dedicated to accuracy and truth.  It is vital for a free society to have reporters asking questions, verifying information and presenting it to the public. 

As a junior attending the University of Oklahoma in 1991, “self” was very much my focus. I had time for little else, it seemed. After all, I was working hard to finance my way through school (and life) and wondering what my place in this world would be once I graduated when an opportunity to actually gain some experience in broadcasting came about.

Yes, I'm really going to compare public radio to a suspension bridge. They're very similar, don't you think?

And not just in the obvious ways.

It's easy to see that like a suspension bridge, public radio is a connector between communities, a way to get from Here to There, a conduit for the free exchange between points -- geographic or intellectual -- that seemed forever destined to be separated.

I have a couple of young cats in my household and I keep waiting for them to grow older and become more sedate like the 8 year olds.  

My house is “cat-proofed” and still, I’ve had to replace lampshades and window blinds.  They are always looking for new things in their environment – rings from the milk bottle, a new box, a shopping bag and the moth hiding on the ceiling. 

But honestly, the myth of the curious cat is no myth.  And -- I like their antics, I think, because they mirror my own mind.

Following a “soft” launch in July, KGOU commits to full season of Backstage Jazz.

Hosted by resident jazz lover and independent producer Jeremy Gossett, Backstage Jazz is the culmination of Gossett’s three-year quest to create a radio program that showcases both regionally-admired and internationally recognized jazz artists. Gossett told the Oklahoma Gazette what he means by “Backstage”.

Now that the busy-ness has abated somewhat from April's membership drive, May's disastrous storms, and June's end of the fiscal year (where did June go?), I've had some time to look over the correspondence we've received from listeners and members.

It's no surprise that the bulk of it was regarding the programming changes brought on by NPR's decision to discontinue Talk of the Nation. Many listeners were saddened, and possibly even angry, just like Kathy:

The hosts of WNYC and NPR’s Radiolab took to the social media outlet reddit Wednesday to answer questions from fans and listeners as part of the “AMA (Ask Me Anything)” interview series.

Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich addressed the controversy surrounding the September 2012 episode Yellow Rain. Andrew Lapin writes in the public media trade publication Current that the program revisited the use of chemical weapons against the Hmong people in the closing days of the Vietnam War.

If you're familiar with KGOU's student-produced public affairs program Assignment: Radio, then you already know we have some talented student broadcasters taking the university course known internally as Radio News.

But to banish any doubts, here's proof: In the National Broadcasting Society (Alpha Epsilon Rho) annual student competition, Assignment: Radio reporters won national awards for their work in 2012.

A One-Word Prompt

On Jan. 1, 1983, KGOU became a non-commercial public radio station. I barely noticed.

I should have noticed. After all, I was working at KGOU as a volunteer student broadcaster, and for the past year and a half I’d been dragging my sleep-deprived self out of bed at 6 a.m. (an hour most college students deemed unthinkable)  to write and deliver two five-minute newscasts each morning. Still, I didn’t pay much attention.