WTOP anchors and staff members encouraged Campus Current students to keep writing on their field trip last Friday. 

Campus Current, journalism and other students had a great time on this trip. 

“I’ve never had a chance to be in a [radio station] newsroom before,” third-year education student Peaper said. “[It] was awesome being able to experience that and get a behind-the-scenes look.” 

WTOP radio is a station that reports news, weather and traffic for Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia. 

“Campus Current holds a yearly field trip to WTOP radio,” second-year transfer studies student Jose Gonzalez, the Campus Current Editor-in-Chief, said. “They always give us a tour of the news station and … we explore[d] different areas.” 

Students got to see how a real radio station runs. From the boardroom to live traffic to people writing and putting in stories in real-time. 

“They had like a 30-second break to figure out what they were going to do and they went back on air,” Second-year transfer studies student Waleska Cruz, the Campus Current features editor, said.

“I overheard two of the writers writing a news lede… it was about Pamela Anderson on the red carpet at Cannes,” Peaper, the Campus Current daily editor, said. “I want to do that when I’m older … [But] I didn’t expect to hear something like that.” 

Peaper said she loved that WTOP has equal-opportunity employment.  

Second-year graphic design student Kevin Remson said he enjoyed all the TVs they watched at a time. 

“I actually did find it really cool how many… screens that you have to look at at any given time,” Remson, a Campus Current graphic designer, said.

In order to stay up to date with the news, TVs play throughout the radio station. Each TV displays different news stations, such as Fox News or CNN. 

“[Radio] is the most immediate medium,” WTOP afternoon anchor Ann Kramer said.  “If something happened all I had to do was turn on a microphone and start talking.” 

Anderson said social media isn’t a credible news source. 

“What you’re getting on social media most of the time is opinion,” WTOP afternoon anchor Shawn Anderson said. “[News stations] actually do have the credibility.”