— By Bob Edwards
Our show hit the jackpot when the XM interns were assigned. Taylor Barnes, 19, of George Washington University and John Asante, 21, of Georgia State University have been real assets to the program and great fun to work with, too. And we did right by our interns. There are surely broadcasting outposts somewhere that send the interns out to get the pizza or pick up the anchorman’s laundry. On The Bob Edwards Show, interns not only learn how to become producers—they actually produce. You’ve already heard me do interviews prepared and produced by Taylor and John. There are more on the way. You’ll hear Taylor’s production of interviews marking the 50th anniversary of NASA and John has produced the story of how the U.S. Capitol, the White House and other Washington, DC landmarks were built with slave labor. For these stories, Taylor and John came up with the ideas, researched the facts, selected and booked the guests, prepared background materials and suggested questions for me, edited the completed interview, mixed in music and additional audio and made it fit to the time allotted for the four segments of our show. Taylor and John are now producers in all but title and pay. On our show, it’s the host who makes the coffee. Clearly I learned little from those four years as a management major in college.
We took this staff photo on John’s last day with us. Missing are Andy Danyo and Geoffrey Redick, who work from their homes in Pittsburgh and Memphis respectively. Behind their lucky and proud host from left to right are Chad Campbell, Daniel Bloom, John Asante, Taylor Barnes, Steve Lickteig, Cristy Meiners, Ed McNulty, Shelley Tillman and Ariana Pekary.
