New Year, New Opportunities (or Lights, Camera, Action!)

With Univision Reporter Paula Gomez and Nettelhorst student (and StudentsXpress contributor) Andrea Benetar

On the first morning of the new year, I was making "New Year Pancakes" for my kids (these are regular pancakes made extra-special by adding sprinkles and sometimes chocolate chips) when I got a call from my dad. It was fairly early, and I didn't know what to expect.
"Are you speaking to Rick Kogan today?" he asked.
"Um, no."
I had been in touch with WGN radio host, Rick Kogan about appearing on his "Sunday Papers" program at some point, but we had never nailed down a date.
"Because he just mentioned your name," my dad told me. He was talking with Greg Jacobs of 'Louder than a Bomb' and he said "coming up he would be talking to Rachel Switall." My dad mentioned that he didn't know if Rick was referring to some time on a future show, but it sounded like he meant 'after this commercial break.'
"Well, I never heard from him," I said, "so he must be talking about some time in the future." I hung up with my dad and went back to flipping pancakes. About five minutes later the phone rang. Again, it was my dad. "I think you should call in the radio. Rick is asking for you to call in."
"Now?"
"Now."
So, I called in and had my first radio interview:
http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/sundaypapers/wgnam-kogan-120101-rachel-switall-studentsxpress,0,5587964.mp3file


Though my voice was definitely shaky at first, I did manage to get through it ok. I know me, and my voice can shake in front of a small room of people, so I was pretty proud of it overall. I must say, Rick was wonderful (as was his producer Casey). He said such nice things, he asked some great questions, and when he read the entries from the magazine, he made them sound so professional. After the interview, Casey immediately sent me the podcast link, which I proceeded to send out to anyone and everyone I could think of. As I mentioned, I'm still looking for a major sponsor for the magazine, and I hope Rick's endorsement might help people see what a great thing that could be.


On Jan. 2,  a segment I worked on for Univision aired on their 5:00 news. Though I meant to write about the experience at the time, I never did get around to it. I'm planning to be better at tracking each step of this whole process in this blog. In the meantime, here is the Univision link:

http://univisionchicago.univision.com/videos/video/2012-01-03/lanzaron-revista-sobre-estudiantes-de

And here's looking forward to new adventures and opportunities in the new year....