2020 marks the 18th year that KFSK public radio in Petersburg has offered a summer internship to someone looking for valuable hands-on experience in radio news reporting and live on-air hosting.
For several months each summer, our intern serves as a full-time reporter/producer/host under the direct supervision of one of our two regular news staffers. The intern will learn to serve as the solo local host for KFSK’s Morning Edition from 5:30-8:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. That means live on-air reading of local news, weather and announcements and meeting time posts for NPR’s Morning Edition. KFSK’s intern must be willing to get up early. Aside from morning hosting, duties include researching, sourcing, writing and producing at least two to three pieces each week for local, regional and possible statewide broadcast. Our intern produces sound-rich features, complex news packages, host wraps, interview segments and simple readers. As a general assignment reporter, the intern has the opportunity to cover a variety of topics. The intern also helps keep our website updated.
Our small news staff works with a virtual newsroom that includes reporters at four other stations in the region. It’s called the CoastAlaska Radio Network. We regularly share stories and coordinate coverage of regional news. We also share with many other stations across the state as part of the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Many of our interns have won Alaska Press Club Awards for their summer work. Some have gone on to work for public radio stations in Alaska or elsewhere around the country. We hope to train our newest intern to have the same success.
KFSK is located in Petersburg, on an island in Southeast Alaska. It’s primarily a commercial fishing town and has a little over 3,000 residents. We are in the heart of the Tongass National Forest, one of the most beautiful places on earth. We are surrounded by mountains, glaciers, water, and wildlife. It rains a lot here, over 100 inches annually. Think Seattle, but rainier. It’s relatively isolated but has a lot of basic amenities. There are no fast-food restaurants or big-box stores. Access to and from is by boat or plane only.
KFSK provides basic housing at the radio station during the internship, along with a small weekly stipend and airfare to and from Petersburg from elsewhere in the United States. We encourage all potential applicants to visit our website at www.kfsk.org to find out more about the station, our news and the town. If you yearn to become a public radio reporter and you love the outdoors, Alaska is a perfect place to start.
Applicants should be planning on a career in radio journalism and must have previous experience using Cooledit, Adobe Audition or similar sound-editing software. They must have at least some news writing and announcing experience whether it was as a college/graduate student, volunteer, or paid employee. We need to hear at least one story that the applicant has produced and voiced for a radio station or university course. Applicants should have some experience gathering sound, interviewing sources, and using a standard field recording kit. They also must be comfortable with the editing process and willing to take direction from news staff.
The length of the internship is typically about three months, with starting and ending dates flexible for an applicant’s summer schedule. We hope to award our internship by mid- to late-March with the expectation that our intern would be here starting in May or early June.
Interviews are now underway, for information contact KFSK
Joe Viechnicki, news director
joe@kfsk.org and kfsknews@gmail.com
