By Liz Holohan
PWA member Lisa Osborn is a fantastic resource for students and community members interested in communications and radio broadcasting. In her role as News and Public Affairs Director at KCSB, Lisa supports the student-run radio station news team and frequently provides free workshops on podcasting and reporting with the Associated Students Media Center. I spoke with Lisa about her background in radio broadcasting and how her work has evolved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
How did you start at KCSB and what’s your role?
I am the News and Public Affairs Director and I’ve been in my current position for 5 years. I work alongside two student news directors. My background was in broadcasting in Los Angeles and I moved up to Santa Barbara for a job hosting a morning show. I wound up at KCSB because it was a much better fit for me.
Did you think about going into journalism?
I got into radio broadcasting a while ago because it was a career with flexibility--if I moved out of state, I could work in any market. I’ve done all sorts of things from being an on-air DJ to a news anchor at a station in Los Angeles called KFWB. Before I moved to Santa Barbara, I was a classic rock DJ at a music network that was on 200 stations. I’m kind of stuck in the 60s and 70s in terms of music. I’ve had some journalism training but it was more that I’ve gotten into news through my work experiences, learning on the job, and being able to match what stations wanted when I first started. For example, I got hired at KFI because I had the sound they were looking for at the time.
What’s a normal day for you right now?
The day starts and ends with figuring out the news and getting it out to our audience. I work with the two student news directors to put out a COVID-19 update. We started doing the COVID-19 update in March with just going to our KCSB programmers 6 days a week. Then we heard that people were interested in it and so we expanded. Now, we have a version that goes to all undergraduates 3 times a week and a version for the broader KCSB community on Saturdays. After getting the COVID newsletter out in the morning, I’ll work with reporters through zoom. We offer stories they can pick or they can pitch a story to us. Then they’ll write the story or do an interview and record for air. Or they might do an interview. Right now, we are in the process of training some new reporters and getting them up to speed. A lot of my time is spent working with students and then meetings with staff and advisers. At the end of the day, I start writing the COVID news for the next day.
As a staff member, I was aware of KCSB but didn’t really know much else about it. This fall, my partner, who is a graduate student, started sharing the COVID-19 update emails. I was immediately impressed with the depth and breadth of the reporting on local news.
Thanks! We just try to recap the highlights. Most of the content comes from the weekly news conference when the local health officials update the media.
To me, the reporting feels transparent and comprehensive. You’re not trying to spin it too positively or be too cautious.
Thank you! We strive to keep it factual, not opinionated. We’ve gotten practice with that. Our readers offer feedback and, sometimes, constructive criticism, which I always appreciate hearing—as it helps us improve our work.
What was it like to transition remotely in your work?
I was surprised at how much we could do remotely thanks to technology. I already had a home studio so I was all set. In March, we shifted our operation from mostly live programs to pre-recorded. We are very grateful that our last student general manager got it all going very quickly. But I’m really surprised at how much we’ve been able to grow and allow students to continue to have this hands-on experience and continue to train new reporters. Training is almost easier on Zoom because I can easily share my screen and teach reporters how to edit audio recordings.
What is something exciting about your work right now?
I’m excited to see our brand new students getting involved. We have a lot of first and second year students which is different from other years. I’m so excited about the depth that the students bring to their stories. After the Capitol riots, we wanted someone to explore ideas around free speech. We had a student write a story about the riots and she brought in some of her knowledge of the first amendment from a class she had taken. The extra stuff that the students bring to their reporting is so exciting to see.
The KCSB News team continues to provide timely and meaningful reporting about the pandemic for our local and regional communities. For more information about KCSB and to sign up for the COVID updates, visit https://www.kcsb.org/category/news/. Go to kcsb.org and enter your email address at the bottom of the homepage where it says “Join our Newsletter.”