Theresa Bakker

History

Member for

1 year 7 weeks

Audio

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Personal Information

Your website

http://myfairbankslife.blogspot.com/

State

AK

Bio

I’ve worked at public radio stations across Alaska for almost fifteen years, but I grew up in Pennsylvania. When a classmate’s father visited our high school homeroom during career week, he talked up a vocation as a newspaper reporter. It was like finding the right wedding dress or a good place to buy bagels. I was hooked. I enrolled in the only state college with a journalism program. On the first day of my freshman English class, the professor asked us each to reveal our names and majors. After the lecture the girl next to me asked, “You’re a journalism major, right? Are you interested in radio?”

The question floored me. I loved radio. I would plant myself beside the mini boom box in my bedroom, my finger hovering over the pause button. When a good song came on, my goal was to capture the tune on one of the everlasting mix tapes I was always compiling. Radio meant music and deejays spewing witty banter. I didn’t know what that had to do with journalism. My classmate told me that the campus radio station needed reporters. So I learned how to pull cuts and write leads. I became an engineer. Sitting in front of the live microphone, I let the words stream out of my mouth while my fingers flew over the control board like they were playing the piano.

I didn’t always get it right. In the middle of a speech by one of my favorite authors, a man I would have preferred to impress, my hands fumbled with the recording device. A squeal of feedback pierced the air, causing Kurt Vonnegut to stop mid-sentence and glare in my direction. When I talked to him afterwards, he waved my apologies away. "That's ok," he said, "I like radio."

What's your favorite public radio show?

AK on APRN - kind of like This Alaskan Life

What's your secret talent?

The ability to pronounce my own last name. It's Dutch and is said like "bawk-er." I tell people it rhymes with soccer.

What song is stuck in your head right now, you know, a music wedgie?

Spiderman, Spiderman
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size
Catches thieves, just like flies
Watch out, here comes the spiderman

It's my son's favorite song.

What sound is most characteristic of where you live?

Right now it's chickadees chirping "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" in the lilac tree outside my window and a downy woodpecker "rat-a-tat-tatting" on a telephone pole down the street.

What's your favorite sound memory?

The scream of an eagle. When I first moved to Alaska, I couldn't believe how many of the birds lived here. It seemed a good enough reason to stay.

Which station do you listen to most?

KUAC-FM, Fairbanks, Alaska

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