By Stephen Smoot
While many young ladies their age share information and spend time on their social media, a Troop of Cadet Girl Scouts made the rounds of the local “old school” news and information sources in Hardy County.
In the middle of last month, Troop 14029 made the trek to Fisher’s WELD Radio. This historic station will enter its seventh decade of existence next year, with credit going to the team behind Save Our Station.
“They are working on their media journey,” explained Troop Leader Serena Brafford. She noted that “in this journey they will look at themselves, how they present themselves, and what image they want to portray.” The journey will include radio, the newspaper, and also the internet.
Upon entering the station office, as station manager Chip Combs (whom Brafford described as “a wonderful host”) states, “they first met Lainey, our rescue cat and mascot. They fell in love with her and we discussed how she came to live at the stations.”
The Troop learned that the building housed three stations and got to examine each separate studio. “As we moved from one studio to the next, they had many questions” noted Combs. They also got to see the radio stations’ extensive collections of music dating back to 1956. “They were in awe,” he said, then added “to our surprise, they knew what they were looking at.”
An even more pleasant surprise came “when most of the girls said they got most of their music from AM and FM radio.”
Combs then delivered an important history lesson that could be a life saver later. He shared the story of how WELD stayed on the air during the Flood of 1985, reporting the latest updates and likely saving a number of lives in the process.
“Eyes were opened as to where folks would get vital information during a crisis, one in which modern media would be effectively silenced without today’s connectivity,” Combs went on to say.
The Troop then visited the office of the Examiner. Brafford said “At the Moorefield Examiner, we were able to see the history within.” Scouts learned about the history and importance of the newspaper over the years, the family whose leadership maintained a standard of excellence since before the Civil War, and how newspapers report the news.
They also received a demonstration of how the journalist “five w’s and one h” work in storytelling and why they are important.
Also, as Brafford shared “the girls were offered an opportunity to write an article for the paper in the future. Several girls were excited for this!”
WELD and the Examiner both shared the same experience in greeting and engaging the Girl Scouts. As Combs remembered, and this also described their experience in the newspaper office, “they were polite, respectful, and courteous.” He added that “we welcome almost and group to schedule a tour!”
Brafford stated “thank you to both locations for their hospitality and their willingness to show us around.”
