I am proud to introduce a new staff member at KGOU, and I ask you to join in with us in welcoming him to Oklahoma. KGOU’s next news director is Jacob McCleland.
He comes to us after nine years at Cape Girardeau, Missouri’s public radio station, KRCU. Jacob’s work there included a range of stories important to the local community including floods of the Mississippi River, school bond issues, and even state fair mule jumping, a piece with the type of sound-rich storytelling that grabbed our attention immediately.
Jacob also spent time in Panama as a Peace Corps volunteer.
"I worked there for three years doing small-scale agriculture project in a little village in the foothills of the mountains there," Jacob told KGOU's Brian Hardzinski. "The last year that I was in Panama I was doing an educational radio program for adults focused on rural issues, agriculture, health, things like that."
Jacob's pieces have been picked up nationally by NPR, PRI, and Harvest Public Media, and he's also covered issues that are important to Oklahomans, including seismic activity and the safety hazards crop dusting pilots face.
"One of the bigger issues that they're facing right now are these meteorological towers that the wind industry will put up in fields," Jacob said. "Sometimes the crop duster pilots might not know that they're there, and they've been popping up, and sometimes they'll run into them, and they've been causing some concerns in their industry."
In very short order, Jacob will be adding to KGOU’s news offerings for Oklahoma, and during his first week he's spent his time learning as much as he can about the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building to contribute to our 20th anniversary coverage.
For many months, KGOU has been without a news director, and so I want to thank the staff members who worked extra hours to pick up some of the slack of that vacancy.
We are very glad Jacob has decided to come to KGOU with his talents!