Mark Richards- Assistant News Director WNIR
Mark is the Assistant News Director and afternoon anchor at the station.
During his discussion, he shared the power of radio as a communications platform and the value it brings to the community.
After his visit, Mark sent us the following thank you note.
Dear Terry:
Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to meet and speak with your students on Monday at OCB!
It’s encouraging to see so many young people continuing to show an interest in making a career in the broadcasting industry and I considered it a tremendous honor to spend some time with them.
It was a pleasure to meet Janice Hannah-Hardy, Mark Quinn and other members of the OCB team.
The facility at Valley View is very impressive! You and your staff are preparing your students for so many aspects of the modern-day industry, which continues to change dramatically as technology moves forward.
I haven’t had many opportunities to share my experiences with many up-and-coming broadcasters, aside from working with interns from time to time over the years and doing so on a one-to-one basis…so this was definitely a great opportunity to detail the realities of it all. I firmly believe that you have some students who will “lock in” and focus on gaining as much knowledge and hands-on experience as possible while attending classes at OCB. Those who open their minds and expand their horizons in acquiring every possible industry-related skill will afford themselves a much better chance of landing that first job – and will also be prepared for that day (and it WILL come) when they’re asked to perform tasks which are a little outside their proverbial comfort zone. Things change in this business and they change rapidly. That fact cannot be ignored by anyone who truly wishes to be successful.
Thank you again for allowing me to speak with the students and I hope we get the chance to do it again in the future. We must all take a vested interest in the future success of those preparing to test the waters.
Hoping for the best of success to all the students and to you and your staff,
Mark Richards
