Akira Quinn has joined the WUWM team as our eighth Eric Von Broadcast Fellow. Originally from Milwaukee and an alumnus of UW-Milwaukee, Akira brings a passion for storytelling and serving her community through impactful, authentic reporting to this role. Prior to becoming WUWM's Von Fellow, she was a news intern with WTMJ 4 in Milwaukee.
After a couple weeks in the role, she sat down with President and General Manager David Lee to further introduce herself.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're doing in this role as our Von Fellow.
Yes, so I grew up here, [in] Milwaukee, Wisconsin, born and raised. In this position as an Eric Von fellow, I am a reporter for WUWM. But I also represent a legacy of what [Eric Von] did in Milwaukee and his inspirations of creating environments for people who didn't have a voice out there. So, I'm just following the path that he made for me. And everybody that was before me and that's going to be after me, I'm just trying to set a legacy for them.
Where did you come from before this role?
Before this role, I actually was in broadcast news. So, I recently graduated from UW-Milwaukee. Throughout the whole time, my four years there, I did journalism my entire four years. I only was focused on news broadcast. So, I wanted to be like a TV reporter, and be on camera all the time. But it turns out like I ended up here in radio and I really love it. I would have never thought that I would be in radio because I come from such a [TV] broadcast environment.
What's the one thing that surprised you the most at transitioning from TV to radio?
The word again, authentic. I didn't know I could really just be myself because when I was in television news broadcast, I felt like I had to put up this front to make people more comfortable with me, I guess. I thought I had to come to radio with that ideology. But I realized you don't have to be like that. A journalist comes in many different forms, many different ideas, and you can look the way you look; it doesn't matter. So, I learned to be authentic within myself. And that surprised me the most about coming here in that transition, because I realized, "Oh, I can just be Akira."
What are the kinds of stories you're most interested in telling?
I like to focus on bigger issues in Milwaukee and what affects the people the most. So, housing has been one that I have been interested in. Also, MPS. MPS is really a good one.
