Chicago Public Radio Careers

Host, Eight Forty-Eight

Job Summary
The Host will play a key role in the style and presentation of the program, hosting live and recorded interviews, doing occasional field reporting, and conducting discussions on a wide range of news and cultural topics. The Host also will interact with listeners during occasional call-in segments, and may be called upon to host town hall meetings, election coverage or other special broadcasts.

Essential Job Functions include but are not limited to:

Hosting of daily one-hour news magazine.
Daily interviews, live and recorded, with a variety of guests from newsmakers to artists.
Preparation for on-air performance including research, pre-interviews as appropriate.
Daily meetings with show team to plan segments and develop ideas for the show.
Maintenance of timely knowledge about region.
Keep track of wide a range of media for show ideas and story development, including newspapers, newsmagazines, appropriate journals, blogs and other online sources.
Representation of WBEZ at station and community functions, and during on-air fundraising, as assigned.

Education Required
College graduate with a degree in Journalism or Communications or equivalent training/experience.

Experience/Skills Required

3-5 years of professional journalism experience, preferably in a radio or TV.
Hosting and Anchoring experience is desired.
Engaging, credible and conversational on-air style.
Strong interviewing skills on a wide range of topics, and with a variety of personalities.
Ability to work well under pressure and the ability to deal with breaks in routine (responding to breaking news following developing stories) under tight deadlines.
Excellent writing and editing skills.
The ability to work in a team environment.
Familiarity with Chicago region a plus.

In order to be considered for this position, an audio or video demo must be included with your applicaiton materials. Either via web links (YouTube, Posterous, etc. are prefered) or CD, DVD.

Producer, Eight Forty-Eight

Job Summary
The Producer is responsible for working on a team with hosts and other staff to produce Chicago Public Radio’s newsmagazine program Eight Forty-Eight.

Essential Job Functions include but are not limited to:

Responsible for story idea generation and development for Eight Forty-Eight on-air and online.
Selection of, contact with, and scheduling of program guests.
Gathering of background materials pertinent to program content.
Writing of scripts and maintenance of all appropriate files, audio records and databases.
Responsible for the gathering and editing of audio material for program for air and Web.
Called upon for field recording or live broadcasting as needed.
As needed, the producer shall perform all necessary functions as director during the broadcast, including the creation of program rundown, cueing of host, greeting and preparation of program guests and coordination with technical help, staff and volunteers.
Perform all Web duties as assigned.
On-air fundraising, as requested.

Experience/Skill Required

Excellent organizational skills and ability to plan in advance as well as deal with day-to-day progress of show.
General knowledge of News talk programming.
Proven story idea generation and development skills required.
Knowledge of Chicago and Illinois issues helpful.
Expected to be well-informed in a wide range of areas beyond current events, including arts, culture, film, history, science and public policy
Ability to manage many projects simultaneously.
Work well with colleagues, coach and train others and work in a team-oriented environment essential.
Must have excellent writing, editing and field recording skills.
Digital editing experience (either audio or video) desirable.

Qualifications
College graduate or training and experience. Must have two years broadcast journalism experience, preferably with public radio style feature production. Experince with a live daily show essential.

North Side Bureau Reporter

Job Summary:
The Chicago Public Radio North Side Satellite Bureau Reporter produces content for WBEZ and chicagopublicradio.org and other productions of Chicago Public Media. This position is based in our North Side satellite bureau.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Works with an assigned Desk Editor and the Managing Editor to produce news spot reports and features for Web and broadcast.
Generates and pitches original story ideas. Researches, reports, writes and produces material for Public Affairs programs. Strong focus on pan-Asian communities in North Side neighborhoods and elsewhere.
Files spot reports live in studio or in the field and may contribute to roundtable discussions of events and issues. Conducts live debriefs with hosts as appropriate.
Assists in training/mentoring of interns and other staff as appropriate.
May present newscasts or prepare broadcast material for others and substitute for news anchors and hosts as requested.
Collects, edits and posts content for Web, including feature reports, photos, slideshows, links, etc.
Participates in on-air fundraising as requested.
Performs all duties in a manner consistent with Chicago Public Radio’s high journalistic standards to ensure that that accuracy, thoroughness, and fairness are central characteristics of all content presented.

Education Required:
College graduate or equivalent training/experience, with journalism or writing background essential.

Experience/skill Required:
Must have two years of full-time journalism experience. Must demonstrate strong writing, reporting and production skills. Hosting and editing experience desirable. Knowledge of broadcast equipment and digital editing (audio or video) a plus. Knowledge of Chicago issues important. Expected to be well informed in a wide range of areas beyond current events. Must have excellent writing, anchoring, and interviewing skills. Must have ability to meet deadlines and take direction.

Please include links to news stories you reported as part of your application.

News Producer

Job Summary
The News Producer is responsible for working on a team with reporters, editors, hosts and other staff to coordinate and produce news coverage for WBEZ and chicagopublicradio.org,

Duties and Responsibilities

The News Producer shall be responsible for working closely with News Desk editorial team and morning host to gather news, choose angles, craft stories, and advance morning stories.
This includes editing copy, selecting and editing sound, revising and updating morning assignments, deciding on new story angles, communicating with the news anchors about news production, scheduling newscast production, making sure writers and reporters meet their deadlines, and reporting local news.
This person is responsible for preparing the daily Illinois Public Radio Feed, producing the day’s stories, wraps, voicers, actualities and compiling and emailing lead sheets to Illinois Public Radio.
The News Producer also reports, writes and voices news spots and stories for WBEZ, chicagopublicradio.org, NPR and other news organizations.
This person keeps track of and orders news supplies and monitors faxes.
This person conducts research, gathers, writes and edits audio material to ensure that accuracy, thoroughness, and balance are central characteristics of all content presented.

Education Required
College graduate or equivalent training/experience.

Experience/Skill Required
Must have excellent writing, editing and reporting skills. Digital editing experience (audio or video) is preferred. Seeking candidates with strong organizational skills and knowledge of broadcast journalism. Must have the ability to meet deadlines and take direction, but also to exercise solid editorial judgment in studio and in the field. Knowledge of Chicago and Illinois issues helpful. The News Producer is expected to be well informed in a wide range of areas beyond current events. Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, work well in a team environment, coach and train interns as needed.

This position requires the ability to work an early morning or evening schedule as needed.

Chief Operating Officer

From news and public affairs to arts and culture, Chicago Public Radio’s distinctive selection of internationally, nationally and locally produced programs reflects the diversity of the community it serves. As Chicago’s only public radio station, and the birthplace of public radio favorites including This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Chicago Public Radio is widely considered one of the gems of the nation’s public radio system.

Located on Chicago’s historic Navy Pier in state-of-the-art offices and studios overlooking Lake Michigan, Chicago Public Radio is an independent nonprofit corporation led by a committed and dynamic Board of Directors and its President and General Manager, Torey Malatia.

Reporting to Chicago Public Radio's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO) will assume a major leadership role in the organization. Working closely with Chicago Public Radio's Board of Directors as its staff liaison, this person will lead and align key operations and business functions to meet Chicago Public Radio's mission and fulfill its strategic goals. The COO will directly supervise the team of senior executives and manage the day-to-day operations of the station. The candidate selected will guide and support the senior management team in the creation, evaluation, and effective execution of products and services. In addition, the COO will supervise cross-functional initiatives to enhance business growth, sustainability and effectiveness.

The successful candidate will have recent executive level experience in operations or financial management and possess knowledge of public media, digital, new-media technology and the nonprofit sector. The COO must have proven management experience with the ability to oversee and direct many projects simultaneously. The Candidate will have highly developed communication and time-management skills coupled with the ability to collaboratively lead large, complex teams.

A complete position guide is available at www.campbellcompany.com.

To be considered for this opportunity, please send a letter of interest and resume to our recruiting partner:

Susan Clampitt
Campbell Company
One East Wacker Drive, Suite 3350
Chicago, IL 60601

ChicagoPublicRadio@campbellcompany.com
(p) 312-447-3923

Producer, This American Life

The public radio program "This American Life" is hiring a full time producer.
We're looking for someone who has done journalism like the stories on our show. Rather than traditional news features, most of our show is narrative journalism. The stories unfold with a plot and strong, three-dimensional characters. There are moments of humor and emotion and reflection. We will only consider a candidate who has made these kinds of stories.

The job includes but is not limited to:
• Finding, commissioning, editing, directing, mixing and producing segments for the show. These include stories with field reporting and sound, host interviews and authors reading original fiction and non-fiction.
• Designing entire programs, in collaboration with the senior producer.
• Structuring and producing stories with free lance reporters. Some of our producers also sometimes report their own stories.
• Directing talent in the studio, editing voice tracks and quotes, selecting and mixing music into the stories.

Knowledge, skills and abilities:
• Digital audio editing and mixing skills are essential.
• A track record of making narrative, emotionally-evocative stories is essential.
• Five years reporting or producing experience in radio, preferably for a nationally distributed show. Film or TV documentary experience may substitute for radio experience, if it's making stories close to the style of our program.

Qualifications:
College Graduate or equivalent experience.

This position is based in New York City.

As part of the application process please include a sample of your work. The work sample may be an .mp3 attachment no larger than 10MB, or a web link.

The subject line of your email should follow this format:
<Last Name> TAL Producer Application

Applications must be emailed or postmarked by February 12, 2010.