WUWM has been serving the Milwaukee area for over 60 years. But just like any radio station, the work that we do would be impossible without a good engineering department to keep our signal strong and solve any issues that come up along the way.
That's where Jason Rieve comes in, who serves as our studio and broadcast engineer. And for this segment of our Get to Know WUWM series, we sat down with Jason to learn more about his background, how he got interested in public media, and what keeps him motivated to do the work that we rely on so heavily.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you expand a little bit more into the opportunity and what motivated you to take advantage of it and end up here at WUWM?
Bruce Winter was the program director here when the job came available that I applied for, which was the studio engineer at the time. He was a great guy. We got along really well, and he was the one who actually forwarded the job post and said, "Hey, you know, we're hiring. I think you should do this." And it looked like a really good fit. And I loved the station. So, yeah, that's how I ended up here.
How would you describe WUWM representing Milwaukee specifically and what sets it apart from some other places that you've been?
It's really a beautiful city. We really do live in a special place, and I truly think Milwaukee is becoming one of those special American cities. How does WUWM fit into that? If you want to know what's happening in the city, this is a great resource for that. It carves out this niche for the city. I think that's what WUWM is definitely helping with.
So, what is it about your work and everything that you do and experience that keeps you here at WWM?
What I love is I get to help our reporters, our staff, continue doing the work that we are doing. If I can help, like, a reporter with a new story, it's a great feeling. It really is. I'm not a journalist. I would never try to be one. It's a very tough job, and not only do you have to be a journalist here, but you have to be an audio engineer. And if I can help out and help them make their stories better or do anything to help that, it's very rewarding. And getting to love what you do at a place you love listening to — it's really rewarding. So, I love it. That's why I'm here.
