Meet the Radio Staff
- April Baer
- Reporter/Producer
April Baer followed her curiosity to Portland in winter of 2004. Prior to serving as the local host of Morning Edition for OPB Radio, she hosted a local news public affairs call-in show at Cleveland's NPR affiliate and anchored the morning shift. Now, she's getting out of the office to file reports for OPB News. Public radio has made possible some of the most interesting days of her life -- eating doughnuts with day laborers, watching biologists build robotic roaches and jam sessions with Russian immigrants. Really exciting moments include interviews with Robert McNamara, Susan Sontag, Richard Perle and Meshel N'degeOcello.
April thinks it would be great if people paid as much attention to local and international events as they do national politics. April likes city neighborhoods, rural diners and nearly everything about Oregon. Her proudest accomplishments include a half-dozen features produced for NPR and one really dubious green sweater that took a year and a half to finish.
- David Christensen
- Music Director
David Christensen coordinates opbmusic's on-air sound and content, in studio sessions and much of its behind-the-scenes operations. He is one of the music channel's three hosts, along with Jeremy Petersen and Dave Cusick. Before launching opbmusic, David hosted a variety of music programs on OPB Radio, including the free-form jazz/folk/world music program Eclecticity and the jazz program Kind of Blue. He also wrote and hosted OPB's Oregon Symphony broadcasts in 2005 and 2006. He describes himself as a music listener "always attuned to a great voice or a soulful rhythm." Away from work and music, David is a Blazers and Beavers fan, spends summers anxious to get on the river — any river — and is a father of three.
- Michael Clapp
- Web Editor
Michael Clapp came to the Web world after bouncing around to several Oregon newspapers working as a photographer. He has studied journalism at the University of Oregon and the University of Missouri/Columbia. After a year teaching photojournalism at the American University in Bulgaria, he returned to Oregon to do his part to inflate the Internet bubble, working for interactive game maker ImageBuilder, managing the multimedia program at PSU and serving as launch editor for OregonLive. He came to Oregon Public Broadcasting in 2000 and currently manages news content for the OPB Web site.
- Kate Clause
- Radio Operations Coordinator
Kate started in radio in 2001 when she was a student DJ for KSWC, a station with an effective radiated power of 10 watts. She'd wish listeners good night at 12pm and turn off the transmitter on her way out of the station.
After earning a degree in English from Southwestern College, Kate worked for Wichita Public Radio and KFDI Newsradio in Wichita, Kansas. At KFDI News, she covered Wichita's education beat, anchored severe weather coverage and delivered hourly newscasts.
While at Wichita Public Radio, Kate hosted almost every shift and position, and she eventually came to rest as the station's All Things Considered host in the afternoons and operations coordinator.
Kate enjoys walking, exploring Portland with her husband, Raymond, and writing in her cooking blog, Kate's in a Pickle.
- Lynne Clendenin
- Vice President, Radio Programming
Lynne Clendenin's career path took a U-turn from the study of classical music and violin when she moved to Hawaii in the '70s. After enjoying the life of sandals, sailboats, recitals and ocean breezes, she moved back to the mainland and served as an educator/animal handler and spokesperson for a wildlife reserve before returning to school to study broadcast media.
Lynne has pursued her passion of working for public radio since the mid-'80s. She remembers clearly the days of editing with a razor blade and slicing block, and wishing listeners a good night at midnight when the stations turned silent until dawn. Lynne has held many different positions at OPB, including announcer, producer, radio operations manager, program manager and program director. She also serves on a number of national advisory committees, helping producers polish new and existing programs.
- Eve Epstein
- Managing Editor, OPB News
Eve Epstein started her journalism career as a print reporter in West Virginia and Boston, covering religion, education, presidential politics, hurricanes and whatever else blew across her desk. She moved to public radio as news editor for WBUR in Boston, and then became the senior news editor for public radio's Marketplace, supervising domestic coverage. She was part of the Marketplace team that won a duPont Columbia silver baton for overall excellence. Eve moved to Oregon in 1998. In 2004 she hit the history trail as producer of the 13-part OPB series Unfinished Journey: The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Eve has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Princeton University. She lives in Portland with her husband and daughter.
- Kristian Foden-Vencil
- Reporter/Producer
Kristian Foden-Vencil is a veteran journalist/producer working for Oregon Public Broadcasting. He started as a cub reporter for newspapers in London, England in 1988. Then in 1991 he moved to Oregon and started freelancing. His work has appeared in publications as varied as The Oregonian, the BBC, the Salem Statesman Journal, Willamette Week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, NPR and the Voice of America. Kristian has won awards from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. He was embedded with the Oregon National Guard in Iraq in 2004 and now specializes in business, law, health and politics.
- Allison Frost
- Senior Producer, Think Out Loud
Allison Frost started playing with microphones and tape -- way back when there was such a thing as tape -- at a tiny community radio station in Fresno, California when she was in her 20s. Some years later, the University of Oregon lured her to Eugene for a master's degree, and she's been hosting and producing radio for Oregon Public Broadcasting since 1998. As a senior producer and editor, she's led an incredible team of journalists who've won too many accolades to count. She's also contributed to OPB's award-winning arts show Oregon Art Beat. As the only Oregonian in her family, she's not ashamed to admit she loves the state motto, "She Flies With Her Own Wings."
- Christy George
- Special Projects Producer
Christy George is Oregon Public Broadcasting's award-winning special projects producer. She is also currently the president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Radio projects include "The Denmark Project," a series of half-hour specials about the impact of climate change on one Oregon town and "The Switch," a newsroom-wide look at Oregon's energy future, which she edited. Her last television documentary was "Forecast: Cloudy" about climate change skeptics among the ranks of weather forecasters.
From 2003 to 2007, she hosted Oregon Territory, which won a 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award and a 2007 Gracie Allen Award. More recently, she won first prize for investigative reporting in AP's 2009 regional radio awards for a story about flaws in the DMV's new identification rules. She's also produced three chapters of The Oregon Story documentary series for OPB TV, two of which won Northwest regional Emmy awards.
George originally came to OPB in 1997 to create the business and the environment bureau for the national business show Marketplace, and shared in the program's 1998 Columbia-duPont Silver Baton. Before that, she was national and foreign editor for The Boston Herald, and a political reporter for WGBH-TV, where she won her first Emmy. A high school graduate, she was a 1991 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.
She has served on the board of directors of the Society of Environmental Journalists since 2000 and was elected SEJ's president in 2008. SEJ represents more than 1,500 journalists and academics in 30 countries.
- Emily Harris
- On-Air Host, Think Out loud
Emily Harris grew up in Oregon and her initial foray outside the US was a Lincoln High School trip to the Soviet Union in 1984. She found herself cursing her high school Russian teacher years later, on a camping trip in Siberia, when she started running out of food. But she caught the international bug early and it stuck.
After getting a degree in Russian from Yale University, Harris spent three years in Portland helping Russian immigrants and learning radio rudiments at KBOO. She moved to Moscow with grand plans but no job in 1994. She eventually found reporting work there for a number of US and international broadcast outlets, including Marketplace and Fox News. The next stop was Los Angeles, which she expected to hate but loved. There she produced the public affairs show Which Way, LA?.
A move to Washington DC led to a reporting job at NPR. Harris covered welfare, the FCC, the Department of Agriculture and whatever else might have fallen through the cracks otherwise. She then joined NOW with Bill Moyers as a national correspondent in its initial year. In 2002, she moved to Berlin, Germany as an NPR correspondent, covering central and eastern Europe and elsewhere as needed. She reported regularly from Iraq and shared in NPR's 2004 Peabody award for Iraq coverage. After that, she spent a year at Stanford University on the Knight journalism fellowship.
In nearly 15 years away from the Northwest she has been to some amazing places, but her favorite remains ORASWWA* and she is happy to be home.
*Oregon and southwest Washington
- Morgan Holm
- Vice President of News and Public Affairs
Morgan Holm oversees OPB's local news operation. He has been an assignment editor, producer and reporter since joining OPB in 1990.
A native Oregonian, Morgan graduated from Southern Oregon University in Ashland with a bachelor's degree in communication ('89). He started his journalism career at Jefferson Public Radio in 1986. In 1987, he began working for KOBI-TV as a weekend news producer. He was a finalist for the Livingston Young Journalists award in 1991 and has won citations from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists, RTNDA and National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his work. He has traveled to Germany as a RIAS/RTNDF Fellow, and to the Korean peninsula as a participant in the International Reporting Project's Gatekeeper program.
- Beth Hyams
- Assistant News Director
Beth Hyams grew up in Hawaii, where her father produced and hosted a weekly classical music radio program. She got her own start in radio at KPFA in Berkeley after meeting the news staff on the softball field. Beth has a degree in English from Brown University. She worked with filmmaker Loni Ding on several PBS productions related to Asian American history and later was on the staff at KBOO in Portland. She has been a newscaster and editor at OPB since 1993.
- Steven Kray
- Audio Engineer
Steven began his audio odyssey at OPB when he was hired on to be the sound designer for Unfinished Journey, a series distributed nationally through PRI. He moved to Portland by way of Dubuque, Iowa where he manned the console for live television news morning and night at station KFXB; Dallas, Texas where he was a sound designer for commercials that primarily involved people eating chips; and Orlando, Florida where he learned the joys of 4am lab hours at the Full Sail recording arts program. Steven enjoys hunting for rare rhythm and blues music, playing the drums, pinball, and tasting various cakes.
- Rob Manning
- Reporter/Producer
Rob Manning has been both a reporter and an on-air host at OPB. Before that, he filled both roles with local community station KBOO and nationally with Free Speech Radio News. He's also published freelance print stories with Portland's alternative weekly newspaper Willamette Week and Planning Magazine. In 2007, Rob received two awards for investigative reporting from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists, and he was part of the award-winning team responsible for OPB's "Hunger Series." His current beats range from education to the environment, sports to land-use planning, politics to housing.
- David Miller
- Online Host, Think Out Loud
David Miller spent three years producing radio documentaries under the large, brilliant ears of Dave Isay at Sound Portraits Productions before striking off on his own as an independent producer. His work has aired on various National Public Radio news magazines, including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition Saturday, and Fresh Air. Most recently, he was the senior producer of Open Source, which pioneered the intersection of internet and radio.
- Casey Negreiff
- Morning Edition Producer
Casey Negreiff got his start in public radio (never commercial) at KPBX, Spokane, Washington's community licensee station, a few weeks shy of his 21st birthday. He took to the air as midday host and also contributed his janitorial skills on weekends. After a prolonged stint in college, he finally graduated with an English degree and returned to the airwaves, this time as Weekend Edition and primary fill-in host for Northwest Public Radio, a statewide network run by Washington State University. A long and winding road finally brought him to Oregon Public Broadcasting, where he has taken on yet another role -- this time, as OPB's Morning Edition producer and back-up host. Turn-ons include bicycling, cast iron cooking and SCTV. Turn-offs include cats, wrong numbers and light beer.
- Geoff Norcross
- Morning Edition Host
Geoff Norcross began his radio career at 16, doing hay reports and funeral notices at a little AM station in the hills of West Virginia. Since then, he has worked in a variety of formats in several markets. He had a national audience for his late-night classical music program on New York's SW Networks. Geoff also won Tampa Bay A.I.R. and Associated Press awards as best newscaster. He has also won Edward R. Murrow and AP awards for his reporting. Most recently, as program director at KNAU, Geoff shaped the network-quality sound of their local productions. Until they began their journey to Portland, Geoff and his beautiful (and patient) wife Kristy lived in Flagstaff. In his spare time, he spends every possible moment outdoors, going on foot.
- Jeremy Petersen
- Music Host/Producer
Jeremy Petersen hails from the southeastern corner of Idaho, where he spent eight years at KISU in Pocatello serving in various capacities, including program director and producer/host of a daily music program. Prior to coming to OPB, career highlights included interviews with Wanda Jackson, Jill Sobule, Kelly Joe Phelps and Mike Doughty. (Laura Veirs and the Avett Brothers, among others, have since been added to the list.) He holds a bachelor's degree in psychology, for what that's worth, which he insists is not a lot, although he acknowledges it's more than an English degree (which is where his heart really was). Aside from music, he's into baseball, beat literature and beauty ('cause it equals truth). He plays the bass, with others when possible, and has been married to Rachel for two years. They're cat people.
- Sarah Rothenfluch
- Executive Producer, Think Out Loud
Sarah Jane Rothenfluch moved to Portland from San Diego where she worked for the NPR/PBS affiliate, KPBS. During her three years there she worked as the station's special projects producer and as the senior producer of their daily call-in show, These Days. Originally from Canada, Sarah spent a number of years at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer for numerous national shows, including This Morning, Sunday Morning, and Richler on Radio. She also spent five years as a television field producer for TVOntario.
- Julie Sabatier
- Associate Producer, Think Out Loud
Julie Sabatier is proud to be a part of the Think Out Loud production team after working with OPB as a freelance reporter. She came to Portland from Baltimore in 2003 after graduating from Oberlin College. She started learning the art of radio at KBOO Community Radio, where she served as interim evening news director in 2005. In the past, her radio work has also been featured on The NPR Station Showcase and The Splendid Table. She has produced feature stories and a radio documentary for Pacifica's Free Speech Radio News. Her print work has appeared in many local publications, including Willamette Week and Just Out. Julie also produces the radio show Destination DIY.
- Jason Sauls
- Radio Announcer/News Anchor and Producer
Born and raised in California, Jason Sauls began his radio career in Ashland while attending Southern Oregon University, where he graduated with honors (his parents were shocked but proud) in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communications. After stints as an on-air host and producer with Jefferson Public Radio and with KTMT in Medford (where, as an intern, he once fetched a cup of coffee for '70s rock icon Peter Frampton -- an early career highlight), he arrived at OPB's studios at KOAC in Corvallis in fall 1997, taking on the position of local host for Weekend Edition. In spring 2007, he shifted to the position of host and local newscaster for OPB's midday programming. Outside of the radio studio, Jason can be found exchanging witty banter with his wife and their two sons, trying to catch his breath on a treadmill, being a "model of good parental sideline behavior" for youth soccer games, obsessing over the NHL season, writing fiction and non-fiction, and enjoying eclectic varieties of CDs, books, movies and coffee beans.
- Scott Silver
- Public Insight Analyst
Scott Silver joined OPB as a public insight analyst. A native Oregonian, he grew up in Tigard and went to high school in Beaverton. He graduated from Whitman College with a degree in English. He has worked as a writer/reporter/producer for radio and television stations in Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and Alaska.
- Raoul van Hall
- Radio Operations Manager
Raoul van Hall is OPB Radio's operations manager. Raoul started in radio as a DJ in markets such as Seattle, Detroit and Spokane. Since 1980, Raoul has served as a program director, music director, operations manager and on-air personality in Eugene, Oregon and as a broadcast programming consultant for several radio stations. In addition, Raoul has also had a side career doing commercial voiceovers and film narration work. Raoul is the proud guardian of a cat named Phaedra.
- Rick Wiseman
- Weekend Edition Host
Rick moved to Oregon in August 2007, trading the heat, humidity and threat (sometimes fulfilled) of hurricanes in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the great people, coffee and beauty of the Northwest. He knew his biggest challenge would be making it through the cold winters here — and is proud to have made it through his first Oregon winter unscathed.
Rick has worked in radio for over 35 years, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area and south Florida. Prior to coming to OPB, Rick worked for six years as local host for Morning Edition in Palm Beach County. When the decision was made to move to Portland (his girlfriend has family here), he picked up the phone and called the only station he had any interest in: OPB. The timing was right — OPB was looking for a local host for Weekend Edition.
Rick lives in Portland, where he enjoys jogging around and learning about his new city. He is a member of Cascade-Zydeco, an organization dedicated to the enjoyment and preservation of zydeco music.
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