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 continues with WGLT correspondent Braden Fogerson, an Illinois State University alum who covers education across McLean County.
“We’re usually on the ground for most of the really important things in this community, and especially in a community where there’s not a TV station here anymore, it's pretty often that we’re the first people to go to when people need an event covered, when people need to know what's going on, or just when we know that there's something important to cover,” Fogerson said.
WGLT: Your job title here is K-12 correspondent. Can you explain what that means and what you do every day?
Braden: Being the K-12 correspondent isn't just to do with schools. I also cover Normal Town Council and certain other events that are going on throughout the week that I might be needed.
But my main thing is following schools. Unit 5 and District 87 are the two biggest school districts in Bloomington-Normal, and then I’m also covering the other school districts whenever there's news throughout the county. I go to the school board meetings every month, and both District 87 and Unit 5’s are on the same night each month, so I always go to Unit 5, but I always try to keep an eye on and keep an eye out for news on any of the important K-12 school events that are going on.
Why do you work in journalism, and what do you like about it?
My decision to pursue journalism at Illinois State started because I loved sports and politics in the same way.
I've loved politics since I was 10 years old. I remember the 2010 midterms and the 2012 election and just asking my mom all about all these sorts of questions about how it worked, and I've loved it since then.
Sports took a little bit longer because I was terrible at sports, and so it's hard to get an appreciation for it when you're not good at it. But eventually I started to learn enough about most general sports – baseball, football, NASCAR, I always loved, even since before I was 10 – and then some of those other sports I didn't understand yet.
Once I got a hang of how that all worked, journalism was really the right path for me.
Is there a specific interaction that you’ve had with a listener that reminded you why public media matters?
What reminds me about why it matters is what doesn't happen.
When people ask me where I'm from, who I’m working for, when they see I have a microphone and I say, ‘WGLT and NPR,’ I don't hear a lot of complaints about biases and media or things like that. They usually talk about when they have read some of our stories before. I think they understand that we cover a lot of really important stuff. We're usually on the ground for most of the really important things in this community, and especially in a community where there's not a TV station here anymore, it's pretty often that we're kind of the first people to go to when people need an event covered, when people need to know what's going on, or just when we know that there's something important to cover. And I think public radio is a great way to do that.
If you could force everyone in Bloomington-Normal to listen to or read just one story that we've produced this year, which one would it be and why?
In general, I’d say our stories about the Unit 5 enrollment study, which has been going on for several months now. Any of those stories have been really the biggest stories we've been covering. I would say that following along with Carlock, a small town that is trying to argue in favor of keeping their school, or Glenn Elementary, which is in town here, trying to make the same arguments and seeing what sort of balances Unit 5 is going to come up with in terms of what the solution is going to be next month, it's been really important to cover, and being able to be on the beat of covering school board meetings every month, it's been good to follow and know as the story progresses.
What's one thing about your daily job that would most surprise a reader or listener who only hears the finished product?
For me, it’s the amount of edits that can potentially happen over the course of a story. You try and do everything in one take, but sometimes it doesn't always work that way, and that goes for when you're recording and voicing something, but also when you're just interviewing someone who's maybe never had a microphone in their face before.
I've gotten the hang of it over the course of several years here. We try our best to try and make things sound really good. And make the listeners understand what's going on, and also make the people that are talking to us sound really good.
This is WGLT’s 60th anniversary. So let's do a prediction. What do you think news media will look like in 60 years?
I think it'll look pretty different, but I don't think that it's going to be different in a way that readers and listeners can't control.
It's pretty hard in the age of AI to write a really compelling and well thought out and also accurate story using [AI]. So I don't think we're going to stray too far beyond that. I think the listeners will kind of keep people honest when it comes to that.
But I do think that media has got to reach people where they're at. And social media has changed a lot to the point where there's just a lot of people that get their news through that. And a lot of different types of media have had to adapt and reach people there, as opposed to 20 years ago, you could just kind of turn on a TV and that was the main way to get big news, especially the really important news that hit nationally, but now it's everywhere. So I think that is going to continue to grow and adapt, and we're going to be staying online in terms of how to report.
When you aren't at the station, where are we most likely to find you, and what are you doing to unplug?
Well, I'm watching a lot of sports recently. That's what I enjoy doing. But I think there's also certain places that I go to eat. I do like food. So there's a lot of different restaurants to go to.
So let's wrap it up with a speed round to get to know you just a little better. So what's the last good book you've read?
Tuesdays with Morrie. It’s written by a sports reporter who interviews with and talks with a former professor. He was his favorite professor when he was in school, and then they sort of stopped talking. But this professor gets diagnosed with a terminal illness, and this reporter then comes back and interviews with and talks with this professor about the meaning of life and what's important to you, talking about the world. Once a week, he goes back to it, and it's kind of a good reflection of what's important to you, and things like that. I think I'm almost done with that one, and it's a very good book.
What's the movie that you've seen the most?
That would be Titanic, which is my one allotted time of year where I can cry. I love that movie. I was obsessed with the Titanic after I first watched that when I was maybe around 12 or so, and I would do like book reports and reports in school on and things like that. I watched that usually around once a year. I try to hit around the anniversary of it sinking. And I love it every time.
Who's your favorite NPR host or reporter?
Lakshmi Singh my favorite. She pops up a lot over the course of the day here at the WGLT studios, and she’s got a very good voice. I appreciate her.
Let's say you've got out-of-town relatives coming to visit you in Bloomington-Normal. You've got one day to show them around. Where do you take them to show off the town?
I know a lot of people are going to say Uptown. That would be a good choice with the shops there. I would say Downtown Bloomington is also really nice as well. There's been some new shops there. In terms of the late-night stuff as well, they kind of provide two different atmospheres. But downtown is still a really good place to get a bite, to eat, to enjoy your time here. There's restaurants and things like that. I think downtown is on the same level.
