As an inspiring young journalist, Cora Markiewicz ‘26 has been digitizing old radio recordings at WYSO radio station as part of an archive project since September. An avid and lifelong listener of this local, Yellow Springs-based, National Public Radio (NPR) station, she first heard about this opportunity while listening to the station. And after visiting their website, she learned how to volunteer at the station’s Center for Radio Preservation and Archives.
“Cora is helping to review and prepare about 1,300 open reel tapes from the station’s early days for digitization,” said Sara Nilsson, WYSO’s business support account manager. “She is doing fantastic work. Additionally, she has expressed interest in contributing to other archival projects, such as the Civil Rights Oral History Project.”
According to their website, WYSO has been on the air since February 8, 1958, and their archives house a treasure trove of old radio programs, recordings, and other station-related media.
Markiewicz’s job is to prepare the nearly 5,000 at-risk audio assets to send to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) to be digitized for preservation. She carefully bags and labels open-reel tapes, cassettes, CDs and floppy disks to be shipped to AAPB, a collaboration between the US Library of Congress and GBH archives.
“I am happy to be working there because I love listening to WYSO and its mission to preserve history,” said Markiewicz. “I am also interested in journalism, and it is exciting to be a part of this massive project where I get to help safeguard the journalistic work for the late 1950s and beyond.”
One day a week after school, Markiewicz drives to Yellow Springs and spends two hours preserving recordings of conversations, cultural events, and news stories. She is part of a team of archive volunteers helping organize and maintain these audio recordings as the station prepares to move the Union Schoolhouse building in 2025. She plans on volunteering at WYSO until the archive project is complete or she graduates from CJ, whichever comes first.
“My favorite memory from my time at the station was getting a tour and seeing the studio where the broadcast goes out daily. It was also cool to find a tape with parody songs about presidents and the folks in Washington D.C.,” said Markiewicz.
At Chaminade Julienne, Markiewicz is pursuing her journalism interests by writing for Eagle Messenger, CJ’s student-run newspaper, and enjoying her English classes. As a junior, her current plans are to study journalism in college.