Susan Stamberg

Yeah.

The title was Production Assistant, and it meant one of those, a handful of us, Linda Wertheimer was another, who had to deal with tape that the reporters were racing in with from the field.

I mean, if they came in with 20 minutes and hours worth of tape,

we had to cut it down and get it wedged together with that sticky tape and get it into the control room and on the air.

So that was it, just being pelted with this raw tape that they had just gathered in the field.

I don't remember being a bit nervous.

I remember being thrilled to pieces.

It was all just so intense.

And we had to be working so quickly and efficiently and sometimes mindlessly, just blading that tape and getting it to move along and racing it.

again, into the control room.

So it was pressure, but I felt we could all do it.

You know, it wasn't nervous-making pressure particularly.

It was exhilarating pressure.

I mean, it was just thrilling.

Thank you for all of that.

It was all sort of an accumulation.

I mean, it certainly didn't happen all at once.

And I would listen carefully after we went off the air to what it sounded like and what struck my ear and changes that I thought I ought to make the next day.

But again, I had tremendous guidance from Bill, as always, from a phrase from that mission statement,

And it was that one of the goals of National Public Radio would be to celebrate life.