A few months ago, if a newspaper reporter called the War News Radio office wanting to run a story on the program, the members of War News Radio would have been ecstatic. But now when a call comes in, they ask: Is it national?
In recent weeks, War News Radio has garnered a great deal of media attention through being featured in print publications, such as The New Yorker and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and on news stations such as Fox News Networks. Most recently, the student group was profiled on German television.
"I love it, and it never ends," said Marty Goldensohn, Executive Producer of War News Radio and veteran journalist with a long history of work with National Public Radio. "We used to be excited when a newspaper that no one had ever heard of called to do a piece on us, but now we are jaded. Now we want to know if it is local or national. If you look at The New York Times for Monday, Feb. 20, on the front page was a story of Americans redecorating their garages. It makes you wonder who decides what is important. This new media attention is restoring my faith in the press."
The recent influx of press was started by an article in The New Yorker written by Ben McGrath chronicling the focus and work of War News Radio.
After the story in The New Yorker, War News Radio received an increasing number of offers from the media. "All press seems to open doors to other press," Goldensohn said. "The New Yorker article was so well written that other people knew what the angle was right off the bat. News media is a cascade. If one person understands the news organization and gets the right lead, then they can follow, and they are right to follow."
According to Wren Elhai ’08, a founding member of War News Radio, there has been both an upside and a downside to the media coverage War News Radio has been receiving.
"The upside is that every story means more people that are listening and more stations that are syndicating the show," Elhai said. "The downside is that there is increasing pressure on us to produce quality every week, and we are forced to standardize. We have to shorten to 29 minutes [the length of a standard radio half-hour] to better fit into their schedules."
Goldensohn said he felt that the recent flurry of media coverage has been beneficial for the college as a whole. "I think that it is wonderful that Swarthmore as a college gets all this exposure. It is something that they can be completely and totally proud of, because all of the students are using all that they learn here to do this," he said.
Eva Barboni ’07, another founding member of War News Radio, said that the organization is not planning any major changes in the near future. "We aren’t making any huge changes; we are always trying to get high quality sound from Iraq and going to more events in person."
Elhai also expressed interest in inviting students from other schools to produce stories for War News Radio and in encouraging other schools to open their own chapters.
"We are always looking for more listeners, and are also looking for people who have interesting stories, or who know people that have interesting stories to tell and would help us get in contact with them. We would be happy with that," Elhai said.
When asked what he wanted for War News Radio, Goldensohn replied that he wants more resources to accommodate the expanding War News Radio staff. "For our Monday night meeting, I ordered three pizzas, thinking that would be enough for our usual planning meeting attendance of eight or nine people. Twenty people showed up. War News Radio is growing."
"Up until now we’ve been a more of a podcast, but now we are on radio stations across the nation," he said. "We now need more people. My dream has always been that more people would come to our Monday night meetings, so that we would have enough people to do deeper and more in-depth stories and long range projects. My dream is already coming true. I also want War News Radio to be unrestricted, wide open. I want people to be able to come in with any question and know that they can find and answer."
Barboni said her greatest hope is that War News Radio continues on once the founding members have left Swarthmore, and continues after the war. "I hope that it lasts beyond the war. There is a need for the type of journalism that we are doing. I think that is going to be the case."
