My Journey: The Plight of an Intern

All Things Considered Weekend Edition (WATC) is my assigned department. After a couple of days of orientation and computer training, I had barely familiarized myself with my department's broadcast operations when former President Ronald Reagan died.

It happened when I walked into the program room the first Saturday of my intern week at NPR. My supervisor, Walter Watson, executive producer of WATC, had paged me to come to the production area where WATC operates on production days. He told me what to expect and how busy the staff would be in the event of Reagan's death. My work for the day was outlined.

I got busy, helping research phone numbers and book calls with personalities to be interviewed. I prepared listener letters to be read on the program by contacting the listeners to confirm that they actually wrote the letters. I also monitored the network's wires on incoming news and developments on Reagan's condition.

Walter was almost rounding up on the day's run down; we had just 15 minutes before the broadcast would go live. I kept monitoring the news wires. I felt some breaking news on Reagan might pop up anytime. Yes! It did pop up on the screen: "Reagan Dead." I announced it and the editors moved swiftly after a brief moment of sorrow.

The entire WATC program line-up had to be changed with just 10 minutes before going live. Within seconds, the production area was besieged with an influx of other weekend news staff who provided vital support in getting the program on air at 5 p.m.

The atmosphere in the office was mixed, including moderate panic on the part of interns. Walter, while filled with sadness, was entirely in control of affairs with the help of other essential weekend staff.

I spent the rest of my evening at the studio watching the live broadcast. The entry studio doors constantly burst open as staff members rushed with scripts for the director and host, Linda Wertheimer.

The three-hour live program on Ronald Reagan included death announcements and interviews with Reagan's former employees and colleagues. The prepared tapes and write-ups were very good fillers. The three-hour program was called "special coverage" -- very different from the regular one hour live WATC programs, which are followed by a rerun.

I grew exhausted, but I stuck it out and stayed until the end of the broadcast at 9 p.m.

Working with WATC is exciting. Initially, I was bored. But I found very quickly that I do not have to wait for my supervisor to give me an assignment but rather to look out for story ideas for the program and listen to transcripts of other NPR programs. That keeps me constantly busy -- and I love it! The staff here are very helpful and once I show interest, they are ready to walk me through the process.

So far, apart from story ideas, research and lots of observations, I have helped log tapes. I also went out on an assignment with associate producer Tracy Wahl and host Linda Wertheimer to record interviews with shoppers at Costco.

As a side attraction, Linda welcomed us to her home when we went to drop her off. I had the chance to view from the third floor of her room the magnificent gothic cathedral in Cleveland Park, where Reagan's funeral service was held.

Finally, I am also working on my story pitch for Intern Edition.

Rebecca Ekpe is a student at the University of North Texas in Denton. She trained with Next Generation in summer 2003 and this summer is doing a 10-week internship at NPR in Washington, D.C.