When Sarah Delia started college as an English and art history major she had no thoughts of one day becoming a radio journalist. But given her love for storytelling and music, Delia now says it makes perfect sense that today she\u2019s an announcer and producer for public radio.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I liked to write, I knew I liked storytelling, and I\u2019d always loved music and listening to the radio, so it all makes sense that it worked out this way,\u201d Delia says. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t go into college saying I\u2019m going to be on the radio when I graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n But residents of Birmingham, Ala., can catch Delia from 3-7 p.m. on Public Radio WBHM 90.3<\/a>. Delia has served as host for “All Things Considered” and producer of local stories for the station since June.<\/p>\n Originally from Virginia, 26-year-old Delia became hooked on radio during her college years at James Madison University. Delia says she was a bit lonely her freshman year of college because she wasn\u2019t looking to party like many of her peers.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know where to find my people,\u201d she says. Delia father suggested she check out the crew at the college radio station.<\/p>\n Delia expected to find a group of snobby, pretentious people. Instead she found a group of people who became her very best friends, friends with whom she still remains close today.<\/p>\n \u201cI always tell people college radio was my sorority,\u201d Delia says.<\/p>\n At her college radio station Delia learned more about what happened behind the scenes and even had the chance to host a feminist radio talk show.<\/p>\n An internship in public radio before her senior year of college left Delia certain that this was the career path for her. Delia later spent a year in New York freelancing and working as an intern at WYNC\u2019s Studio 360. In 2010 Delia graduated from the Salt Institute for Radio Documentary Studies under the guidance of its then radio instructor Rob Rosenthal.<\/p>\n After working for two years in Fort Wayne, Ind., at Northeast Indiana Public Radio, where she hosted several programs, reported, and produced various stories and shows, Delia was ready to move on. She decided that move should be to Birmingham, Ala.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Birmingham has a lot going for it and I think there are a lot of stories to be told here,\u201d Delia says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much history here and there\u2019s so much effort to make things better here, to make a better place, and that really appealed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Delia\u2019s advice to other young women hoping to have successful careers in radio is to be willing to leave your hometown and go where the job leads you.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the best advice I\u2019ve gotten is, \u2018You have to go away before you can come back,\u2019\u201d Delia says. \u201cYou can\u2019t be married to a location. If you really want the experience you\u2019ll go get it.\u201d<\/p>\n In college, Delia\u2019s English studies focused on creative writing. That love for storytelling obviously comes in handy as a radio journalist. And Delia says that when she looks back at the fiction and creative non-fiction she wrote in college, much of it was in the form of short vignettes that would be very radio friendly. The conversational tone of her writing is also perfect for radio.<\/p>\n But Delia admits that the hardest thing for her in her radio career is editing her stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI write very conversationally, which I think translates well to radio, but I\u2019m also the wordiest person,\u201d Delia says with a laugh.<\/p>\n But she doesn\u2019t let word count limits hinder her writing process.<\/p>\n \u201cJust let it out,\u201d Delia says. Her advice is to write your story and then edit to avoid finding yourself staring at a blank screen for hours for fear your sentences will be too long.<\/p>\n If you have time, she says, get a good night\u2019s rest and then edit the piece again.<\/p>\n When asked what advice she\u2019d give to any female journalist, Delia\u2019s answer was simple: \u201cBe assertive.\u201d<\/p>\n She also believes it\u2019s important to be yourself.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important for you to not be afraid to be yourself and to be a woman,\u201d Delia says. \u201cFor a while I was so focused on wanting to be taken seriously as a journalist that I tried to put my gender aside. But our gender is who we are. I think we should embrace it and embrace how you will come to a story differently than someone else will and that\u2019s not better or worse, it\u2019s just different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sponsor Spotlight: Public Radio WBHM 90.3 FM By Javacia Harris Bowser When Sarah Delia started college as an English and art history major she had no thoughts of one day becoming a radio journalist. But given her love for storytelling and music, Delia now says it makes perfect sense that today she\u2019s an announcer and… Continue reading Sarah Delia of WBHM takes her love of storytelling to the airwaves<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,8],"tags":[4,75,76,74],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Sarah-Delia.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sarah](\"https:\/\/seejanewritemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Sarah-Delia.jpeg\")
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