You know the voices, and you know the stories. But behind every story on WGLT is a person who calls this community home just like you do.
The Meet the Newsroom series pulls back the curtain to introduce you to the team that makes WGLT possible. The series begins with senior reporter Charlie Schlenker.
“There’s a satisfaction in telling the community, ‘Hey, did you hear about this cool thing, or important thing?’ It’s kind of the town crier function,” Schlenker said. “There’s also joy in saying, ‘A-ha! Here’s some context that helps explain why such and such is happening.’ It’s a lot of fun as well talking to people who are interested in things that are interesting, and doing important or artistic things, and to hear how enthusiastic they are about what they do. It gives you a lift.
“I’m a deep introvert, and the job gives me an excuse to talk to that type of person about what they love to do, and to tell other people about it,” Schlenker added.
WGLT: Your job title here is Senior Reporter. Can you tell me what that means and what you do every day?
Charlie: I work on longform stories, multisource stories. I do interviews. I teach students how to do newscasts. The ‘Senior’ part of the phrase, I guess, means I can sometimes be a piece of the institutional memory for the newsroom too. I kind of dredge up context from past stories or past decades in the community.
Why do you work in journalism? What do you like about it?
There's a satisfaction in telling the community, 'Hey, did you hear about this cool thing or important thing?' That's kind of the town crier function. There's also joy in saying, 'A-ha! Here's some context that helps explain why such and such is happening.' It's a lot of fun as well talking to people who are interested in things that are interesting and doing important things or artistic things. You hear how enthusiastic they are about what they do, it gives you a lift.
I'm a deep introvert, and the job gives me an excuse to talk to that kind of person about what they love to do, and then to tell other people about it.
Are there any specific interactions with listeners that reminded you why public media matters?
There have been a few over the years, and the specifics don't really matter. The overarching themes, when we get those kinds of communications, though, it varies a little.
On feature stories, there's usually some sentiment from listeners and readers that’s, Thanks for the uplifting, human take on what can be a landscape full of stressful stories or developments. It's a ‘people story’ kind of sensibility.
On governmental stories, it's often, ‘Yeah, that coverage is good, glad you're doing that story, but you really should consider this or that,’ or ‘Why didn't you ask this question?’ They are reminders that we need to think broadly about stories and issues in order to meet community needs.
If you could force everyone in Bloomington-Normal to listen or read just one story that we've produced in this last year, which would it be and why?
Well, this year is young, but I think it's our story about the State Elections Board hearing into potential campaign finance violations by former mayoral candidate Kathleen Lorenz of Normal – that’s an important one. We need public officials to play by the rules and to be seen to be doing so.
What's one thing about your daily job that would most surprise a reader or listener who only hears the finished product?
The amount of care and the subtlety of … let’s call them artistic choices in constructing a sound-rich radio story, finding just the right comments, just the right ambient sound, to take a listener into the soundscape, in the scene of a moment, to make the microphone into a camera. That’s an underappreciated art.
This year is WGLT’s 60th anniversary, so let's do a prediction. What do you think news media will look like in 60 years? In the year 2086.
That's an awful long way out, but live radio will have died. It will all be on-demand. Beyond that, much the same. Human beings are storytelling animals. They want to hear about other people and what's happening, and that that doesn't change.
When you aren't at the station, where are we most likely to find you, and what are you doing to unplug?
Nose in a book, or at a music festival somewhere. My wife is big into music, and I enjoy that with her. So we're often going to live performances, or I'm reading — history or science fiction mostly, or I cook. I like trying different things in the kitchen.
What's the last good book you've read?
Paul Revere's Ride by historian David Hackett Fischer. You hear the mythology of the poem when you're a kid about Paul Revere riding to Lexington and Concord, and this book helps you learn about Revere as a political operative for the colonial colonists resistance. The famous ride itself doesn't even crack the surface of who he was.
What's the movie you've seen the most?
Pride and Prejudice, guilty pleasure.
Who's your favorite NPR host or reporter?
It's a tie. Franco Ordonez and Don Gonyea. Former White House Correspondents and really all around good guys and really sharp, interesting people.
And let's say you've got out-of-town relatives coming to visit you in Bloomington-Normal. You've got a day to show them around. Where do you take them to show off the town?
Uptown Normal, Downtown Bloomington, the David Davis Mansion, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival in the summer if it's in season, the ISU campus in springtime. And if there's time, maybe Funks Grove.
