Walking into the hotel that Radio Row was hosted at, I felt a mix of uncomfortable, overwhelmed and excited. Never before have I felt all three of those emotions at once before, which was an interesting feeling. The event was heavily male populated—extremely male populated. At one point in the room my show was in, I counted. 53 males and six females. I was the youngest there, a student producer for the "Jeff Santos Show" (held on Revolution Radio Network 1510 AM).
Oddly enough, our show was put into a room full of well-known conservative talk shows, so we were the odd dogs in the house. Our show was actually considered to be in the top three for most liberal/most left wing, so that was fun to deal with. The youngest female and probable one of the most liberal at the center of the room, filled with middle-aged men in pressed suits.
But regardless of how weird I felt most of the day, I strangely enjoyed being there. I was in a building filled with people that understood my passion. Everyone was running around mad, but I understood fully why. Visitors staying in the building would look at the reporters and cam-teams frantically running around with confusion, but I looked at them with content. I understood.
I saw many outlets I knew; AP, WGBH, MSNBC, Reuters, Boston Herald Radio, Iheart Radio and many more. But I also saw, mostly, stations I was not familiar with. There were outlets from up and down the East Coast—pretty sure I even saw one from Ohio.
The second I got into the room and started helping my boss set up equipment, I felt that those around me knew that this was my first rodeo. Probably because I was smiling. A lot of people there had their game faces on even at 7a.m.; the event didn’t even start until 11 a.m.
After being introduced to a few journalists and radio show hosts around my general area, every time they learned I was a student producer, they would all say something along the same lines: “Welcome to chaos.”
It was extremely chaotic—they didn’t lie about that. But then again, how could it not be? Rooms were filled with radio personalities, hundreds of cameras and microphones, journalists and then the interviewees: congressmen, senators, political analysts, the list goes on.
I saw a lot go on. I watched numerous interviews and learned so much. Especially, I learned from the journalists there. Some of them were nice enough to let me speak with them and ask how things were going with the election/caucus underway. They all had a similar mindset: hectic, but incredible. We were alike. They were all stressed out, you could see the bags under their eyes. But their smiles were pure. I understood everything they told me. Chasing the story is like chasing a storm. It can drain the life out of you but you’ll still love everything you are doing, and hell, even if you didn't love it, you had to do it to survive in your profession.
My favorite moment of the day was watching my boss interview Chris Matthews from MSNBC. I was sitting right across the table from both of them, adjusting the levels while recording. They butted heads and started yelling in the middle of the room. The discussion was around Bernie Sanders. My boss is a die-hard Sanders fan. Matthews, as I learned, not so much.
The argument stemmed around the idea of Sanders being a Democratic Socialist, or just a Socialist. They agreed to disagree in the end. But watching the conflict from a foot away was something I will never forget.
Overall, I’m glad I had the experience that I had. I was able to network and meet several congressmen (which is pretty cool, I think). I was able to get some wise words from those already invested in the industry. I was also saddened by the realization that this industry is still truly male dominated—hoping by the time I get out there, that changes.
Also, I learned that being a reporter is probably not for me. I follow the news, search for it and love it, but I don’t think I could go through having that job daily. You have to be incredibly strong to do it. I love radio, and I’m going to stay in that career track, but reporter is finally scratched off.
