A Look Into Radio Reporting With Award-Winning Journalist Rachael McDonald
Written for Audio Storytelling, a University of Oregon Journalism Course. Published on Medium.
Rachael McDonald is the host of KLCC’s All Things Considered and editor of the KLCC Extra. Photo Credit: KLCC.
Rachael McDonald is a staple of Eugene’s public radio network. She is the host of the KLCC radio show All Things Considered, editor of KLCC Extra, and was formerly the station’s news director. McDonald reports on a variety of topics such as breaking news, environmental impacts, education, and local government. She joined KLCC in 2000, where she started her career as a newsroom volunteer. McDonald is also a University of Oregon graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Rodriguez: What does your typical day look like?
McDonald: Since I work as both the reporter and host for KLCC, I have a two-part day. For example, yesterday, I interviewed a local therapist who had just written a book, so that was the first thing I did. I had put together questions for her the day before, we met and did the interview, and then I spent some time editing the interview that might air in a couple of weeks. I do what we call two ways, which is an interview that would air on the station, and then I do some spot news reporting. Then around two o’clock, I start preparing for my show, All Things Considered, doing local newscasting and weather reports. That part of the day is a little more fast-paced because I need to prepare for each break. Sometimes it can be really, really fast-paced, and other days it’s slow and nicely paced.
Rodriguez: When you do local interviews with, for example, the therapist who’s coming out with a book, how are you finding the stories? Do you have somebody whispering in your ear telling you, hey, these things are going on? Do you use a lot of social media to try and hone in on those sources?
McDonald: It’s kind of a combination. My news director definitely. I’m always checking in with him. I pitch a story or interview to him, or maybe he presents it to me and says, ‘Hey, this is something I think you should pursue.’ Sometimes it’s just the people that I already have a relationship with. I used to go to Twitter, but now that it’s not Twitter, I have not been using it at all, just because it feels like it’s changed. I do use Facebook. I’ll see something that people are talking about on a neighborhood Facebook page, and other kinds of pages that talk about community things, so sometimes I also get an idea from social media.
Rodriguez: What’s the big change that’s been happening with Twitter that you’re noticing? Elon Musk purchasing it and changing it to X is one of the huge things. But is there a culture change on Twitter that made you kind of stray away from that? What have been the main changes with that?
McDonald: I think mostly just feeling a little more leery of who’s using it, and whether what’s on there is accurate or factual. We’ve seen some fake reports and things that aren’t being vetted.
Rodriguez: Going back a little bit — what was the first social media platform you started using when you got into reporting?
McDonald: You know, I started reporting before there was social media. I think probably Twitter in terms of using it professionally, just because that is where a lot of journalists go, and so I was able to find a lot of other journalists there.
Rodriguez: It’s crazy that one of the first emerging social media platforms to be helpful for journalists is now turning into an unreliable source. Not that it was always 100 percent reliable, but how do you feel about that?
McDonald: I feel like it’s unfortunate. It was a resource that was useful to journalists, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s the only resource. That’s one tool that I’m not using as often as I was before, but I don’t necessarily feel like I’m impaired by not choosing to use it. I mean, a lot of journalists still do. So, it’s just a choice I’ve ended up making.
Rodriguez: Do you have a place that you like to go to get a sense of what’s going on local news-wise?
McDonald: I don’t think I have any one place. I’ll check things on social media in terms of what’s on the news feed. Sometimes, I’ll go to a website like The Register-Guard. A lot of it is paying attention to what other media is doing and looking at what the city council is talking about this week, or friends sharing that something is happening in the community.
Rodriguez: Are there any big challenges you’ve faced in the last few years in getting people engaged with radio, or do you feel that people are still pretty engaged with listening to the radio?
McDonald: What I hear from people who listen to KLCC is that they feel like it’s reliable and trustworthy, and they know they’re going to get good information. I do think our audience is aging, and I don’t know how much we need to do to engage a younger audience. I also think that people of a certain age might not be that interested in news until they get to a place where they’re like, ‘Oh, this affects me.’ But that’s definitely a challenge — growing the next generation of public radio listeners.
Rodriguez: Does your job at KLCC allow you to connect with your community?
McDonald: We just did our on-air fundraising, and so that’s a time when we hear directly from listeners. They talk about what they like about KLCC, and that’s always really rewarding because it is a moment to hear that people appreciate what we’re doing. We do have community events. We recently had sort of a donor appreciation event where we get to, you know, spend time with people who support the station. Then I think of my regular interactions with people, and when I’m calling someone for an interview. There’s just this sense of appreciation that we’re covering this thing that’s going on in our community.
