KYW Newsradio 1060: Promotions & Events Internship

People have been asking me lately, why are you an advertising major, interning at a radio station, and going to law school in fall?  And my favorite question is, why aren’t you pre-law?  Well first off there is no such thing as pre-law so that is why I am not pre-law.  Likewise, I wanted to have a degree in something I’d actually use in case law school doesn’t pan out as expected.  A majority of the students currently in law school are Philosophy majors, Political Science majors, or English majors.  No offense to them, but if law school doesn’t work out, the last thing I would want to be stuck with is a boring Political Science major.  So, I chose advertising because I knew it was something that definitely interested me and that I could (for lack of better words) do.  I want something fun and creative I could fall back and most certainly use!

I am currently on the Account Management track with a minor in Business Administration and I am graduating in May.  I love being an advertising major, especially in account management because you get to touch on everything from copywriting to research to art design.  You get a background in all aspects because in the real world you would have to understand all of them to be an account manager.  For this spring semester I took a slightly different route and I am working as a promotions & events intern at KYW Newsradio, a newstation within the CBS 3 family.

So far I can honestly say I have enjoyed it.  The atmosphere is great, and everyone is very friendly and helpful.  It is more laid back than the first impression I got which was rather strict at first (not the people just the vibe I got).  When I first started I got my own desk, phone/voicemail, computer- like my own little office.  I started right away on my first assignment which was the Public Service Announcements or PSAs.  As a promotions and event intern here I do these every single day and I usually have to put in around 5-10 a week.  They are surprisingly my favorite part because of the responsibility I am allowed which is to write up the public service announcement (if the organization hasn’t already done so) or revise it so that it fits in either the 30 or 60 second slots and choose the flight dates for each one.

I also assist Brian Schultz, the Promotions & Events Coordinator, in his responsibilities.  Interning at KYW has allowed me to see all of the behind scenes operations of a radio system from every department- the actual recording studio (which is kind of neat), advertising sales and marketing, and of course the promotions and events.  One of our most widely known events is the Kidcasting, which surprisingly has been a lot of fun.  At first, I will admit, I was dreading it because it was Saturday and/or Sunday mornings, but after my first one at the Manayunk Ice Sculpting, I felt differently.  Despite the freezing cold that day, I got to meet a lot of other people on KYW’s “Street Team” and I also got to talk to kids all day.  We record children doing a KYW Newscast and post it online for people to hear.  It gets the kids excited to be on a real radio station and the parents get involved by going online later.  It wouldn’t let me post the actual pictures from kidcasting, but you can check them out at: https://www.facebook.com/KYW

After only being about 3 months into my internship, I can honestly say that maybe/if someday I do work in the advertising field I would probably enjoy it.  And who knows, maybe one day I will consider working in promotions and events field such as public relations.  I would certainly be able to handle it given my experience at KYW and I really do love interning there!