CommRadio Member Spotlights: Tyler Olson

Story posted July 9, 2018 in CommRadio by Matt Freiler

Throughout the summer, CommRadio will be highlighting its growing presence around the country by telling the stories of current members and their summer internship experiences.

Week 3: Tyler Olson, News Director

Olson is a junior from Boonsboro, Maryland who aspires to cover sports or politics in the media. His experiences with CommRadio include broadcasting and beat writing several sports, time as the social media director and news director, producing newscasts, podcasting and co-hosting the weekly sports-politics fusion talk show "Don't @ Me."

Internship: News Intern at WPSU

Duties: I report on various stories in the WPSU listening area and put together both minute-long spots and longer feature stories for WPSU’s radio stations and their website. Every day is something different, as I work on stories about everything from sinkholes opening on College Avenue to the opening of State College’s marijuana dispensary to major medical advances by Pennsylvania companies like Geisinger.

Q & A with Olson:

Q: What has been your favorite part about the internship thus far?

“I get to talk to interesting people about the interesting things they do every day. Sometimes the process of getting interviews and putting together an informative story that fits in the small time allowed by the radio format is difficult, but it’s worth it once you get the final product put together and ready to share with listeners.”

Q: Any good stories you can tell about your experience?

“My first story with WPSU was about a Penn State study that revealed just how deep the economic differences are between prosperous urban regions like Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania, which has been hemorrhaging jobs since 2008. The story quickly became the most popular one on WPSU’s website. It also hit home with me, coming from an area of Maryland that has not been faring so well economically while places further east near Washington D.C. continue to grow.”

Q: What’s life like in the place your staying?

“As you may imagine, State College is a lot emptier over the summer than during the school year, but there’s still plenty to do. I’m calling State College Spikes games for CommRadio with a few other members who are here for their internships, and with the beautiful weather there’s plenty to do outdoors. I’ve been hiking, fishing, swimming and I’ve played plenty of golf at Nittany Country Club, where I’m working part-time.”

Q: What do you hope to accomplish the rest of the summer?

“This summer my goal is to improve myself as a journalist so I can take what I learn back to my position as CommRadio News Director. Additionally, I want to produce strong stories that I can use as samples on applications for other internships this coming school year and for any jobs I apply to after graduation. By also calling Spikes games in my time here, I want to hone my play-by-play skills so I can put those to work on the mic for CommRadio at Penn State sports events in the 2018-19 school year.”

 

Member spotlights are coordinated and written by social media director Matt Freiler. Freiler is a rising senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email psumatt95@gmail.com.