My Practicum Experience as a Public Relations Manager for WGUR

This semester, I served as the public relations manager for WGUR 88.9 fm, and it also counted for practicum credit for me. As I was writing my practicum paper yesterday, I began to think about how far I've come this semester in regards to doing public relations for radio.

When I was first hired as the PR manager, I was extremely overwhelmed because I had never worked in radio before. I knew a lot about public relations, but it was a whole new ball game for me to apply this knowledge to an industry with which I was fairly unfamiliar.

Leading a team of people who were also unexperienced in the field proved to be somewhat of a challenge as well. We all started off the semester at somewhat of a loss every time we met. Eventually, however, we fell into a groove of brainstorming events together and then I would assign specific PR tasks for each person to carry out individually. One person would write the press release, one person would write a PSA, another would work in media relations, and another would be in charge of community involvement and donations. I would switch tasks for each person as different events occured, allowing each practicum student the most experience as possible.

I learned through this whole experience how to work as a leader in the PR field, not just as a student doing assignments for a grade. I also learned how to apply the skills I have learned in my classes to a broadcasting environment and how radio and PR can work together to produce some pretty awesome events.

I am looking forward to working even harder next semester as I finish the year out doing public relations with WGUR. The experience has taught me a lot that I can take with me as I move on to new experiences when I graduate.