As a U4 English Literature student minoring in French, I have always loved language, particularly the spoken word. I pursued this interest in my academics, seeing that, during my first year at McGill, I was in the English department’s Drama and Theatre stream. I still spend my spare time inhabiting stages across campus, and in high school, I was a finalist at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Dallas. My passion for the spoken word led me to get involved with CKUT, McGill’s campus-community radio station. In February 2021, I began volunteering with the news show, editing scripts for weekly Friday episodes and occasionally narrating. Then, this year, I decided to embark on a more intensive experience as the community news intern. I wanted to explore radio as a potential career and refine my writing skills, all while learning about other storytelling tools.
CKUT is a well-known Montreal institution, broadcasting all hours of the day since November 1987. Its mandate is to provide an alternative to mainstream commercial radio and amplify marginalized voices, or “give a mic to the mic-less.” To achieve this, the station offers a wide range of programs, from music to news to radio dramas. CKUT employs a non-hierarchical organizational structure, and its staff and 200-some volunteers collectively manage the station. Students and community members are encouraged to pitch and produce their own programs, and the station provides training in all aspects of radio production, from operating professional microphones to conducting interviews to mixing sound.
When I began my internship, I did not expect many surprises. I would, after all, be working with the same news team as before. However, my role within the team underwent a major shift early on. The Friday show had one designated producer over the past semester, but she recently graduated and now has full-time work. Without a new producer, there would be no show. None of the other team members could do what they loved. I therefore embraced this opportunity and took on the extra responsibility of producing for the summer. Every week, I led a team of volunteers in researching local news and compiling our findings into a script. I or someone else would narrate the script, and then I would fill the rest of the hour with free-to-use podcasts or field recordings that a station member had collected. I used Adobe Audition to do all my audio editing.
Another of my key internship duties was researching, writing, narrating, and producing a short weekly audio package of local headlines, in both English and French. I would update this package during the week if any important news struck. Other station programmers used my package in their shows, so my voice appeared on the radio at least three times a week. I also conducted four interviews with local artists in the station, each lasting approximately an hour. I attended two live events and collected sound there. I had weekly check-ins with my supervisor to discuss radio production techniques and my ideas about specific projects.
The challenge I have always faced is perfectionism, and with this internship, it was no different. At first, whether I was editing interviews or solo narration, I would be overly worried about subtle background noises or verbal hiccups and try everything possible to remove them. Sometimes, though, the most efficient choice would be to move on and accept that no work product is perfect. This is an especially important realization in a medium like radio, where most programmers are tasked with creating a high volume of material for weekly dissemination. I also had to check in with myself while running team script meetings, to avoid being overly critical and to instead be an encouraging peer mentor.
The highlights of this internship were when I surmounted my challenges and remembered to enjoy the experience. The artists I interviewed were not only talented, but warm and genuine. I was honoured to learn more about their stories and share them with a wider audience. I was also lucky to have the other members of the news team, and we had several engaging conversations about the power of language and the social responsibility that journalists face.
I did not receive academic credit for this internship, but I am leaving with new skills, new confidence, and new professional and personal connections, which will serve me well when I graduate. I did an extensive amount of news writing, which, albeit different from academic papers, has given me a deeper understanding of how to control structure and diction to convey a specific meaning.
My sincerest thanks go to Mr. Kenneth Toten, who funded the Toten Family Arts Internship Award and made it possible for me to participate in this internship. I also want to thank the AIO team, as well as many people at the station: my internship supervisor Jack Solar, production coordinator Spencer Gilley, radio drama intern Fred Azeredo, and all the members of the community news collective. Thank you for a memorable summer.
