Reporter-News Anchor, Food (Reporter Iii) (18872)

About the Department

WAMU 88.5 is the leading public radio station in the greater Washington, D.C. area, and DCist is our digital outlet for local news. We provide in-depth and enterprise reporting alongside essential daily news and information that aims to reflect and serve the diverse communities of our region. We believe in news as a public service and put our current and future audience at the center of our work.

Summary/Objective

Essential Functions

• Audience Engagement: Represents WAMU/DCist at donor and community outreach events. Participates in membership campaigns. Contributes to conversations about national and local clock formatics and their impact on delivering content in their assigned air shifts. Build audience connections using social media. Performs any related duties as assigned by the Program Director and Chief Content Officer, or their designees.
• Reporting: Develops sources and deepens and shapes coverage for their assigned beats. Regularly contributes spots and feature stories for radio and digital publication. Contributes story ideas that are relevant, timely, convey a distinct sense of place and editorial style, and utilize multiple platforms. Monitors major news developments in the Washington region, reading publications, following prominent figures, and searching for newsworthy angles.
• Anchoring: Fill-in temporary news anchoring for on-air newscasts and local station breaks as assigned. Responsible for all technical operations during on-air shifts, including operation of broadcast audio board and media playout system, unless a board operator is assigned. Records interviews and conversations, voices episodes and promos. Contributes to story development, writing, and additional reporting as needed. Communicates regularly with producers, editors and WAMU Program Director as needed.

Work Environment

• While this position will be assigned to a specific shift, occasional work will be assigned outside that shift, to include early morning, midday or late evening hours and weekends as required.
• Local travel required.
• This position requires full on-site presence on days when the individual is assigned to an on-air anchoring shift.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

• Full Time.
• Non- Exempt.
• Project Leader/Advsior B.
• This is a union-eligible position.

Salary Range

• Starts at $45.19/hourly; to commensurate with experience.

Required Education and Experience

• 5-8 years of relevant experience.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent.

Preferred Education and Experience

• In journalism or beat-specific related field.
• Master's degree or equivalent.
• Relevant experience may be substituted as deemed appropriate.
• Deep knowledge of the Washington metro region.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

• Excellent writing, researching and reporting skills under deadline pressures.
• High level of proficiency in operation of a digital broadcast board.
• Demonstrated ability to work "combo": operating broadcast equipment while carrying out anchoring duties and hitting all time posts. Must have experience working under extreme time pressure every hour.
• Experience building audience connections using social media.
• 3+ years’ experience live hosting/anchoring in radio, or professional podcast, television or video environment with demonstrated ability to handle live format for highly competitive major market drive time programs.
• Experience building a beat/reporting on a specific topic, preferably food, culture or business related.
• Experience representing an organization at live events and speaking engagements.
• Authentic, empathetic and curious with the ability to make emotional connections with the audience.
• Excellent on-air communicator with a conversational, warm and inviting presentation and top-notch pronunciation and enunciation.
• Hands-on audio editing and multimedia production capabilities.
• Experience remotely filing stories for digital, social media and audio, including live.