Her on-air signature sound belies her youthful, roundish face, her flawless complexion framed with the deep, dark, sheeny, crinkle waves pinned back at her forehead. The smooth, calming voice is the one of flawless diction, of listen-to-me-command. It is the voice of NPR affiliate, WPLN, FM 90.3 arts reporter Nina Cardona. And we were lucky to host her in our condo twice the last couple of weeks.
Since my radio radio production experience consisted of a handful of required class sessions back in the techno-dark ages of the early 80s in college, it was delightful to learn something new and of such awe.
Impressive was and is the word and sound artistry of Cardona. I'd say her job is much harder than my own of crafting a story to be read online or flat paper–magazine or newspaper. For Cardona and the other gifted reporters at our ambitious local NPR station, they must write, include the meat of quotes and match it all with sounds. Cardona says she starts with the sound. Her second trip out was to capture the sound of Grace making art by holding a microphone close to Grace's hand as it moved pressured, rapidly and repetitively over paper. Both trips she captured the dead silence of the sound in each place to which I took her in our small condo–where Grace made her art, where we stood and talked about art hanging on the walls of the great room and in Grace's bedroom, by the sofa where we first sat, her persistently asking me questions, redirecting me as I frequently sauntered off on passionate tangents.
Somewhere during the last decade I became humbled by the process of writing for-print stories and being interviewed. I've been on both sides. I know the challenge of interviewing someone and coming up to speed on a topic about which you may have been unfamiliar just moments before you met the subject of your story. I know the challenge of getting it right, of doing justice to your interviewee. Of, having your story messed up by poor editing. I respect the process. I respect the reporter. And I am grateful when one deems our story worth air time and print space. I hope, in turn, I do justice to my (disAbility) community.
