{"id":38868,"date":"2024-04-29T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T17:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=38868"},"modified":"2024-04-29T17:25:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T21:25:50","slug":"producing-public-radio-with-grace-and-soul","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/producing-public-radio-with-grace-and-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Producing Public Radio with Grace and Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin bu-blocks-block-editorial-leadin is-style-default has-media has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2200\" height=\"1238\" src=\"\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner.jpg\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner.jpg 2200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-636x358.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-992x558.jpg 992w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1500x844.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1984x1116.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1628x916.jpg 1628w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1600x900.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1366x768.jpg 1366w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/files\/2024\/04\/comtalk-dan-guzman-banner-854x480.jpg 854w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2200px) 100vw, 2200px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin-caption wp-prepress-component-caption\">Photo by Michelle DeLateur.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProducing Public Radio With Grace and Soul\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">WBUR\u2019s Dan Guzman puts a local touch on NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-categories\">\n\t\t\t<ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/category\/alumni\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlumni\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/category\/journalism\/\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJournalism\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">April 29, 2024<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/authors\/matt-kalman\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatt Kalman\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t<div style=\"display:none;\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-share-tools\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-share-tools-inner js-prepress-component-share-tools\">\n\t\t<h4>Share<\/h4>\n\t\t<p class=\"wp-prepress-component-share-tools-article-title\">Producing Public Radio with Grace and Soul<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-share-tools-article-link\">\n\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" value=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/producing-public-radio-with-grace-and-soul\/\" readonly>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<label>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Copy URL:<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"js-prepress-component-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Copy<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/label>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">It\u2019s a little before 10 a.m. on a weekday and Dan Guzman (\u201999), the executive producer of WBUR\u2019s local broadcast of \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d has just arrived at the studio for invigorating day of putting together the country\u2019s most-listened-to afternoon drive-time news radio show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hours ahead could be a roller coaster and will be colored with stories that inspire any and every emotion on the human spectrum. Guzman\u2019s leadership experience has taught him there\u2019s only one way to kick off such a pressure-packed day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He says \u201cgood morning\u201d to everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe day could go downhill real fast,\u201d says Guzman, who was senior producer at WBUR\u2019s \u201cMorning Edition\u201d before moving over to \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d early this year. \u201cIf you start the day with a good morning, you\u2019re at least starting off on a good note.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guzman, who spent more than a decade in television news before returning to Boston to enter the radio realm, will do his best to maintain his plucky demeanor throughout the day, as he and his team produce serious journalism for the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just making sure we\u2019re a good work environment and that we have a chance to laugh at some point in the day. I\u2019m happy to make cheesy references or \u2018dad jokes\u2019 to my team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe cover some heady stuff sometimes, so you want to make sure that everybody is smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Soul and Grace<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Guzman\u2019s love of journalism and his approach to it spawned while interning as a BU undergraduate at New England Cable News (NECN). There he gained experience and met a mentor who would play a big role in his career: Tom Melville (\u201980), who was executive producer at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe taught me that you can be a great journalist\u2014especially in TV news\u2014and still be a great person,\u201d Guzman said. \u201cThat kindness goes far; a level head goes far. It took me many, many years to learn all of his lessons, but he kept instilling them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Melville, who most recently served as the communications director for the MIT Energy Initiative, \u201cdid everything\u201d he could to hire his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 after graduation, but Guzman was eager to see what life had to offer outside of the Bay State\u2019s borders. He landed in St. Louis at KSDK, an NBC affiliate, and later moved on to WUSA, a CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By 2012, Melville had become the executive news director at WBUR and knew he wanted to lure Guzman back to the Hub. And, after more than a decade producing local TV news, Guzman was looking for something that would both fulfill him more \u201ccapital-J Journalistically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s driven to produce really high-quality journalism,\u201d Melville said. \u201cHe does it in a newsroom with grace and humor and a lot of soul. And I\u2019ve always felt the most important attribute of any great journalist is soul. He cares about people, he cares about public policy and he leads a journalism team that\u2019s committed to telling really important stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guzman knew he made the right decision joining WBUR not just because it gave him what he \u201cneeded journalistically.\u201d He recalls walking around town in WBUR swag one day, and the reaction from passersby was overwhelmingly positive. He worked the phones for a pledge drive and was impressed by how invested contributors felt in the programs the station was producing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Important Stuff<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When Guzman begins his commute from his Boston-area home, where he lives with his husband Steve and their boxer-mix Bear, he usually takes the \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d morning meeting on Zoom in his car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the station, after his ever-important greeting of his coworkers, things kick into high gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll Things Considered\u201d is produced out of DC, and Guzman\u2019s day entails \u201cair-traffic controlling\u201d production of the local newscasts, breaks and occasional feature content with the main program. It\u2019s a massive national undertaking of what Guzman calls \u201ccollaborative journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-teal-background-right\"><p>He\u2019s driven to produce really high-quality journalism. He does it in a newsroom with grace and humor and a lot of soul\u2026. He cares about people, he cares about public policy and he leads a journalism team that\u2019s committed to telling really important stories.<\/p><cite>Tom Melville (\u201980)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>After he touches base with the \u201cMorning Edition\u201d crew to get up to date on the news of the day, Guzman begins compiling a list of stories to be covered, identifying which scripts need to be edited and checking in with reporters, editors and engineers throughout the hours before the show\u2019s scheduled start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guzman hates being called the boss, but he leads the team responsible for determining what stories need to be covered and what sources need to be included\u2014particularly if there are voices that haven\u2019t been heard yet. He\u2019s also in contact with the engineers about their mixing process. He says one thing he\u2019s learned how to do in a management role is how to \u201cstay out of the way\u201d and give space to the people working on the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On any given day, he might also write some stories, talk to people for soundbites or assist the field producer with lining up interviews. The reporter in Guzman often comes out when he takes on an interview. \u201cI like talking to people, I like picking their brains,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDan is passionate about the news and the people who make it,\u201d says Jeff Cohen, the station\u2019s managing producer for local news programs. \u201cHe&#8217;s a fierce advocate for both, a leader who understands that each person needs their own kind of motivation and attention, and he&#8217;s someone who cares deeply about the success of the newsroom as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten minutes before the show goes to air, Guzman will enter the studio with the host and engineer. For the next two and a half hours, as the show unfolds, Guzman is keeping a close eye on any changes that may need to be made. And he likes to make the show sound a little unique with appropriate music\u2014perhaps a tribute to a late singer who\u2019s in the news or Squeeze\u2019s \u201cPulling Mussels (From the Shell)\u201d for a story about restoring marshes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout, there\u2019s a consistent back and forth between Guzman and the WBUR \u201cAll Things Considered\u201d host Lisa Mullins, a public radio veteran whom he praises for her journalism and \u201cincredible on-air presence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the show ends, it\u2019s time for a deep breath, maybe a lap or two around the building to unwind and then some congratulatory goodbyes for the team before heading home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-end-of-article\">The work gives Guzman the adrenaline rush he\u2019s sought throughout his career. \u201cWe\u2019re not always covering the most feel-good things out there because the world can be a scary place,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I feel like it\u2019s important stuff that we do and we\u2019re helping people be informed, we\u2019re helping them know what\u2019s going in the world and hopefully making sense of what\u2019s going on in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a little before 10 a.m. on a weekday and Dan Guzman (\u201999), the executive producer of WBUR\u2019s local broadcast&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":38874,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[962,3],"tags":[93,86,74],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/38868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/38868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38890,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/38868\/revisions\/38890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=38868"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=38868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}