Working as a reporter for The Ohio Newsroom has allowed Erin Gottsacker to explore her home state and learn about the experiences of people in different communities.
She's especially interested in covering education and environmental issues in rural parts of the state.
Before joining The Ohio Newsroom, Erin reported on a large, rural area in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and hosted Morning Edition for WXPR Public Radio. There, she covered a range of topics from affordable housing to the environment to rural health care to Native American cultures. Prior to that, she was a Peace Corps educator in Ethiopia.
Gottsacker is a Cincinnati native and Ohio State University graduate.
In this WYSO Weekend excerpt, she talks about her work and background and how she became interested in journalism during college. She also highlighted a recent story she covered about a Bing Davis project featuring inspirational Black Ohioans, which she found to be an uplifting piece.
Jerry Kenney: Erin, welcome to the studios.
Erin Gottsacker: Thank you for having me.
Kenney: So we just wanted to talk and get to know you, and as I mentioned, listeners know your voice and we just wanted to find out a little bit more about you. But let's talk a little bit about your reporting and what drives you there. What got you into the profession?
Gottsacker: That's a really good question. When I was in high school, thinking about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I did not think journalism was for me. But I really liked writing. And so when I got to college, I was actually studying music, and I took a communications class, and it was just really fun. It was like an intro to journalism class, and I thought, "Wow, this is amazing." It gives you permission to ask questions to anybody you can think of and then write about it. And so I started taking more of those classes and eventually I thought, "Man, I really think I should give this a shot at least and see if I can make it a full-time career."
Kenney: You cover a lot of ground in your reporting. You did a lot of holiday features this past November and December. I think every Friday in December, we aired a holiday feature, and you took a lot of those, correct?
Gottsacker: I took a couple of them, yeah. I was in Portsmouth in Scioto County. There was a Christmas cave and so I went underground to see this lake cave decorated like a nativity scene, which is pretty cool. And in Steubenville, where they have this huge Nutcracker village. There's just so many interesting things and creative things that people are doing in Ohio.
Kenney: And that's the great thing about this series, because you're working through this collaboration with public radio stations like WYSO, you're covering the whole state, and it's just any quirky kind of, or even in-depth news piece that is worth covering. I know it's added a lot to our coverage and when we hear from our listeners, they love that we get all this extra statewide coverage.
Gottsacker: That's really good to hear. I always tell people I grew up in Ohio, I grew up in Cincinnati. I went to school in Columbus. I've lived here really most of my life. But until this job, I don't think I've seen much of the state, like really gotten to travel to a lot of Ohio's small towns and even smaller cities. And it's been really interesting to learn from people and hear about their experiences in our state, too.
Kenney: Outside of reporting, I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you any hobbies, interests outside of work that you care to tell us about.
Gottsacker: I really enjoy spending time outside, so I'm a big fan of the Cincinnati Nature Center. You can find me there most weekends if it's not raining. I love hiking and biking. And I also really enjoy reading, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, too.
Kenney: The Nature Center is mostly just outdoor trails and for hiking and biking?
Gottsacker: Yes. If you've never been, it's not for biking, but lots of hiking trails, really nicely groomed. I would highly recommend that. And then I live really close to the bike trail too, and I was just talking to someone (in our studios), my family used to come up to Yellow Springs just for the biking. We would bike here and then of course, stop at Young's Dairy for ice cream.
Kenney: Yeah, nature is big up here as well. Anything else that you care to tell us about? Any favorite stories that you've covered in your time with Today from The Ohio Newsroom or even before that collaboration started?
Gottsacker: My gosh. It's always hard to be put on the spot like that. Well, one of the stories that actually just came out recently was with Bing Davis. We're working on this series about Black excellence throughout Ohio history, and Bing Davis has been working on this project for almost the past 20 years featuring "skyscrapers," which aren't the buildings in Dayton, but actually the people who have really done amazing things. He's worked with Black artists to paint these really inspirational Black people, and now they're hanging in schools and Dayton's public schools to inspire young students. And I just think that was one of the examples of stories I think is really uplifting.
Today from The Ohio Newsroom airs on WYSO 91.3 every weekday at 6:44 a.m. and p.m.
