Meet the Team: Nuala McGovern
Post categories: Meet the team
| 11:49 UK time, Tuesday, 1 June 2010
One of the very cool things about WHYS is how far and wide around the globe our listeners are spread, it's so interesting where you are from and where you live now. I've been lucky enough to be working with the WHYS team since November 2009 producing and presenting so it's high time I offered up that information about myself.Â
I'm Irish born and bred and I've arrived in London after years in Italy and New York. I've had a variety of jobs including pulling pints in Dublin, scooping ice-cream in Italy, teaching English to Milanese doctors, dressing fashion models, serving legal papers and selling Japanese handbags. But for the past 15 years it's been pretty much all about radio and TV. Despite the grumpy face in the photo above, I do love it.Going back a bit, my first job in radio was an Irish show for New York's Irish communities. I then moved to where I produced for 10 years.
The past decade was an incredible time to be involved in a US news /talk call-in show and the defining news event was 9/11. It was the story that initiated so many others, Afghanistan, the Iraq War, Homeland Security, Guantanamo Bay and some would argue the election of President Barack Obama.
I am a political news-junkie and loved managing the election coverage at the local and national level including debates and primaries. Broadcasting live from Denver as then-Sen. Barack Obama gave his nomination acceptance speech in Mile High stadium was one of those 'I'm experiencing history here' moments. Here, John Legend and Wyclef Jean warm up the crowd not that it was really necessary....
And of course producing in New York you also got the 'only in NY' stories of subway strikes, a 3 day blackout and even the surprise celebrity New Yorker calling in. (Hint she wanted to be President too, here she is with a few thousand fans who agreed with her)Â
My team won a for excellence in broadcasting and I was particularly proud of why as we got it 'for radio that builds community'.
Which brings me to you and the community. That concept of community building really means something to me and as a listener you might agree that it's one of the things that WHYS does remarkably well.
In 2006 I went to New Orleans and found a passion for gumbo and yes you've guessed it World Have Your Say.
The WHYS team were doing the show live and though I'd often done outside broadcasts I had never seen anything quite like it. It was dynamic, inclusive, interactive and as the show was post-Katrina so very, moving tooI was blown away and went looking for the team that evening to offer kudos.
I found Mark and Ros on Bourbon Street and got to know them better. Nice people as well as great makers of radio. Here they are with former WHYSer James revisiting the site of the first WHYS on the road broadcast Preservation Hall.
The next time I saw the show live on the road four years later I was lucky enough to be working with them as part of the team in Miami.
When I'm looking for ideas, I have traditional sources for news, love the ritual of getting a newspaper and a cup of coffee in the morning but to know how people are reacting to stories and what's playing big globally for me it's gotta be online as well radio, I have a fab little app and is invaluable. As you probably know the criteria for a story making it onto WHYS is how much are people talking about the story around the world and I love trying to figure that out. Going down news rabbit holes online is fun, I will admit I have an internet addiction that I'm working on......on the way to a show in a pre-iphone era......
After I discovered WHYS I knew if I ever moved to London I really, really wanted to work on World Have Your Say but can't quite believe that I now do, it's such a privilege. I'm looking forward to getting to know you better and hope you'll get in touch.
