The power of the human voice and covering the positive aspects of Ohio is what drives Kendall Crawford to travel across the Buckeye State.
She's part of the team in search for stories for Today From the Ohio Newsroom, a feature that airs weekday mornings at 6:44 a.m., and weekday evenings at 6:44 p.m. on WYSO.
Kendall also enjoys experiencing new and unique things, and takes heart in knowing that there's more that unites Ohioans than divides them.
She shares her experiences with WYSO's Mike Frazier for WYSO Weekend.
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Press "Listen" above to hear the whole interview.
MIKE FRAZIER: How did you get involved in radio and journalism?
KENDALL CRAWFORD: When I went into college, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was a theater kid, nerd, and really loved storytelling. I always loved to write. And when I found the college newspaper, I was like, this is it. But then when I got an internship at the public radio station, I was like, this is really it. This is really what I enjoy doing.
I think something about getting to hear people's voices, the people that are impacted. I was just completely sold on.
FRAZIER: I was about to ask you why public radio, because your face lit up when you said that.
CRAWFORD: Yeah, I think hearing someone's voice is an intimate thing. You're not distracted by the visual part. When you read it, it's still impactful, but I think meeting people in person and hearing the emotion in their voice when you interview them was just something that really sucked me in immediately.
FRAZIER: Is it challenging sometimes to convey emotions over sound?
CRAWFORD: It can be. But the really great part of sound is that I don't have to say that much and I can take someone to a place. If I spend enough time in my reporting, getting audio like a café sound, or I just went on a hike with someone for a story, you really get transported there. The easy part is I don't have to use my words all that much. I can enhance it as best I can, but I try to let the audio do the work if I can.
FRAZIER: Do you have any techniques to get people to be comfortable with them revealing something personal or special to them? Because when you sometimes start an interview, people are kind of like I'm not sure what to say. But then maybe later on, they're more revealing. How do you bring that out in people?
CRAWFORD: Yeah, I think having a microphone in someone's face sometimes can be really intimidating. This is kind of cheesy and obvious, but I think listening and making sure people can see it in my eyes that I'm there with them, I'm asking follow-up questions specifically on what they said. I'm not usually diving into the hard-hitting question first, I'm trying to make sure that this is a conversation and not an investigation into them right away.
FRAZIER: Not a gotcha thing.
CRAWFORD: Yeah, not a gotcha thing. I don't like to think of journalism as too transactional. I'm getting something from the conversation and I hope that someone that I'm interviewing feels that they got something out of that too.
FRAZIER: And your interest and fascination with what they have to say makes them, you think, come out more comfortably and say more?
CRAWFORD: I hope so. I just recently did an interview that was on a super sensitive topic and I think it takes a lot of preparation doing the research beforehand and then, yeah, ultimately it comes down to looking someone in the eye and being like, I hear what you're saying, how do you feel about that? And I think that's the best public radio moments happen.
FRAZIER: Have there been any stories or interviews that really stand out to you, that have moved you or maybe even changed you a little?
CRAWFORD: I think one story that I reported on at the end of last year was about Ohio cities passing ordinances that make sleeping outside illegal. And I got to go to a pass-out-food drive in the community of Newark, and some of the people that I talked to there, just about their experiences of sleeping outside, I left feeling different. I left just understanding people in my state more than I did before, and those aren't conversations that in your day-to-day, you get to have that often. And part of why I love journalism is I so often am going into these communities that either aren't looked at as much as unhoused people are or homeless populations or are just like strange. I've done a story on a river circus and who would have thought I'd ever get to do that? And so, yeah, that is one thing I really enjoy is getting to spend some time in this slice of life that without being a reporter I would never do.
FRAZIER: What kind of personal satisfaction do you get out of what you do?
CRAWFORD: I like to think that the stories that we do accomplish the mission of bridging gaps people feel in small towns where there isn't as much news, like feeling like someone cares about the. And then a lot of what TFTON (Today from the Ohio Newsroom) does is happy stories, things that are positive about the state. And I don't know about you, but winter can be rough, and having those positive stories in my own life has made me prouder to be an Ohioan, and so I hope that people out there feel the same kind of way.
One of the favorite parts of my job is getting to go into all these communities that I hadn't been to before and then coming back and sometimes it can feel like putting little pins on a board and putting thread and just trying to figure out: what connects you? There are not many jobs where you can look at an entire state and get to ask that question. So I really enjoy that.
FRAZIER: And you enjoy getting to know Ohio and the people in it.
CRAWFORD: Yeah, I've learned so much stuff about, like, what's originated in Ohio. We do a series in May called Made in Ohio, and for that I got to see Airstreams being made, and Erin went and talked with a mandolin maker. I think every story I do, I feel a little bit more that I know what it means to be an Ohioan, and so that's another great part of it.
FRAZIER: When you talk to people, do you think that people in Ohio, even if they're from different backgrounds, different life experiences, have more in common than not?
CRAWFORD: I definitely think so because sometimes I'll work on stories and I'll be like, this is like a small town Ohio issue, this is something that they're just thinking about. And then I go and do my research and I'm like, oh, well, Cleveland also has talked about this. And Cincinnati just recently did something on that. And it shocks me sometimes that, I can think it's for a specific demographic, but it is wider held. One example of that is I did a story on communities dropping dollar stores. They didn't want them to come in. They were putting moratoriums on them coming in. And when I started, I thought it was maybe just happening in Canton in the larger cities. And then I talked to a town, I think that had like 500 people, Archibald in Northwest Ohio, and they had the same exact kind of conversation, maybe for different reasons. But there are just things that we have in common. It's not always just urban versus rural, I think. A lot of reporting is showing, oh, hey, this is something that a lot of communities, a lot of people have already faced, and what lessons can we take from that?
