Over the Airwaves

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Rene Gutel '00 Gives Voice to Public Radio

When Rene Gutel launched her own radio show on WMHC senior year, she had no idea that she would eventually have a career in radio journalism. Armed with a double major in French and a self-designed program in Middle Eastern studies, she had set off for graduate school at Berkeley. Before long, she decided that graduate school wasn't right for her, but before she left, she took a course in radio reporting at the graduate school of journalism.

"That's where I got bit. I discovered there's actually a career where you can run around with a microphone and talk to people and learn something new every day," she said. She has covered topics ranging from the serious—a report on Three Mile Island 25 years after the nuclear accident there—to the not-so-serious—a profile of the Minibosses, a band that plays only covers of Nintendo songs. Her stories have aired nationally on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. The solid liberal arts education she received at Mount Holyoke was excellent preparation for her career: "The breadth of knowledge and the habit of critical thinking—I'm able to apply that to any issue, any story I am assigned to do."

Gutel has worked at radio stations everywhere from Pennsylvania to Alaska, and is now a reporter and host at KJZZ, a public radio station in Phoenix.