A Capitol Success for College Alumna
by Janet Herron

Most children spend their summers playing in the swimming pool and trying their hardest to ignore any adult talk about politics or current events. Then again, most children are not Rachel Hubbard.

Fascinated at an early age by politics and driven to succeed in a career in public speaking, Hubbard fits the bill to be a Capitol correspondent, and she naturally fell into her first job in the radio broadcasting business.

She had visited a local radio station in Hobart, Okla., as part of a 4-H project where she recorded short, promotional 4-H spots. The station owners were impressed with Hubbard and needed some help. Along with a recommendation from a friend, she started working there part time.

Her first listeners were the people tuning in to Fuchs’ Radio. She was airing gospel music, broadcasting sports and doing everything between the two. Her interest and career in broadcasting had begun.

“I really felt like I was a person who was in my listeners’ homes every day,” Hubbard said about her job at Fuchs’ Radio. “I look back now and think how strange some of the things I did there were, like reading the obituaries on the air, but I just laugh.  After all, not every young journalist today can say they’ve put together a reel-to-reel machine with chewing gum and paper clips.  In fact, most can’t even thread one. I can say that I know how.”

Hubbard said she always was interested in politics and enjoyed learning about it in school. She even admits this fascination led her to memorize all of the state representatives’ names as a child.

“When I was a kid and my mom worked in county government, I can remember many, many hot summer days spent campaigning for her boss,” Hubbard said. “I think that was when my interest started.”

Dale Hubbard, Hubbard’s great-grandfather, served as a county clerk for a number of years, which also piqued Hubbard’s curiosity. Her family always showed interest in current events, especially politics. Sunday lunches were spent talking about politics and other current events.

“I was a nerd and paid attention,” Hubbard said.

As a youth, Hubbard also was an active 4-H member in Washita County. Through this program, she gained experience in public speaking. It was one of her main project areas and a skill she further developed as an Oklahoma 4-H Ambassador and as Oklahoma 4-H reporter. In both of these capacities, Hubbard enhanced her skills in communications, public speaking, leadership and teamwork, all of which have assisted Hubbard in her broadcasting career.

“I learned to speak professionally, but in a natural way,” Hubbard said. “I think it helped that I started at a young age.

“My first speech was in the fourth grade. We explained the concepts behind each phrase in the pledge of allegiance, and we made these hideous pointers with crêpe paper and the wands of my parent’s miniblinds.”

4-H also gave Hubbard a network of friends and mentors to support and encourage her.

“4-H gave Rachel a second family, a place to belong and also a place to develop herself as a person,” said Charles Cox, state 4-H program leader and specialist and adviser for the OSU Collegiate 4-H Club.

As a student in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Hubbard was involved in the Collegiate 4-H Club, the steering committee for Into the Streets and the ministry with the Church of Christ University Center. She also judged 4-H speech contests and twice participated in a program called Let’s Start Talking. Through this program, Hubbard taught conversational English in Riga, Latvia, and in Kiev, Ukraine, and continued her education in communicating with others.

“I learned to love people for who they are and where they’re at,” Hubbard said. “People are people, and with patience you can communicate with anyone. I remember a lady in a grocery store asking me why I was in Kiev, and I was able to talk to her in German. She knew a little, and I knew a little. We were able to talk.”

During her years as an undergraduate, Hubbard also worked for a Star Schools Grant Project with the chemistry and physics departments. She did general communications work, including writing and editing news releases.

“With that project, I learned that many times you can get wrapped up in your work and forget how the people you are trying to communicate with understand you and your message,” Hubbard said.

Shelly Sitton, Hubbard’s academic adviser and one of her professors in agricultural communications, said Hubbard was one of the students whose interest in broadcasting pushed the department to offer more courses related to this field.

“In working with Rachel, we discovered how much students could benefit from classroom broadcasting experience,” Sitton said. “She helped future agricultural communications students to be better prepared for careers in broadcasting.”

Hubbard said her background in agricultural communications gave her professional knowledge to back up her speaking experience.

Hubbard’s career in radio broadcasting continued at OSU. She worked as a student reporter for KOSU in 1999 as a freshman.

During the summer of her junior year, she interned at KOSU to fulfill a requirement for her degree. Even at this point, Hubbard was not certain she wanted to be a radio broadcaster.

“When I was a kid, I wanted to do television, but people told me I couldn’t because of my freckles,” Hubbard said.

“I was crushed, so I tried all the random ways to remove them that I could think of.  Lemon juice, etc. — none of them worked. I gave up on television then until I had a professor who told me I was good at it.”

When Hubbard graduated in 2003, she had worked for KOSU for four years, and the state Capitol correspondent position opened. Hubbard was a perfect fit.

“I don’t think I ever thought about radio as an option when I was a kid,” Hubbard said. “I just stumbled into it and never found my way back out.  I’m kidding because I love my job, but that’s what happened.”

Craig Beeby, director and general manager for KOSU, said: “I’ve seen Rachel grow and flourish from a student reporter to the current position she holds. As the Capitol correspondent, she has been both the eyes and the ears for the public, and she has been nationally recognized.”

During the four-month Oklahoma legislative session, Hubbard spends her days at the state Capitol building tracking people down to interview, listening to legislative sessions, keeping in tune with the daily occurrences at the Capitol and drinking too much coffee.

Hubbard said she likes to keep the public informed and loves her job. It’s fun for her to go to work every day, and while her work can be stressful and demanding, Hubbard said she thrives in this atmosphere.

There is a lot of “hurry and wait” time at the Capitol, Hubbard said about work as the Capitol correspondent. However, this wait time gives Hubbard time to make more detailed observations about the different sessions and to discover the little, interesting details about the representatives and senators. For a political fanatic like Hubbard, this time makes her job even more enjoyable.

Her passion for her work has helped her win national awards, including the Jack R. Howard Trophy from the Scripps Howard Foundation for the team coverage on the OSU plane crash in 2001. She has received an award from the Public Radio News Directors and an award from the Association of State Capitol Reporters and Editors for beat reporting.

Beeby said Hubbard has won numerous other awards and is considered one of the top Capitol reporters in the United States.

Another tangible outcome of her success can be seen by her recent promotion to news director. As the news director for KOSU, Hubbard will continue her award-winning coverage of the state Capitol and will coordinate overall news coverage and presentation for the station. She also will supervise students and professional news staff.

“I hope to use my experience at KOSU to help our listeners receive better news coverage each and every day,” Hubbard said.

She also has done television work. Hubbard gives political analyses from the reporter’s perspective for “Oklahoma Forum,” a weekly show produced by the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority.  Hubbard also has been seen on “Oklahoma Horizon,” the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education’s program.

Hubbard said she prefers radio to television because it gives her more creative freedom.

“With commercial television, ratings would dictate what all of my stories were about,” Hubbard said. “This way I can do stories on the random things I wonder about. Someone else has to wonder about them, too.”

As a professional, she gives back to the programs that helped her along the way. Hubbard has spoken at 4-H Day at the Capitol to show how 4-H helped her.

“Rachel is a good role model,” Cox said. “She continues to do good things.”

She also has served as a mentor for current agricultural communications students. Hubbard spoke to them about her experiences in radio broadcasting and what to expect out of life after they graduate from college.

One of the best lessons current students can learn from Hubbard is that hard work and dedication pay off. From her early start in radio broadcasting to all of the people and organizations along the way that helped to guide her, Hubbard is living her dream of informing the public through radio broadcasting and is enjoying the success her hard work and dedication has brought her.

“Rachel has been promoted based on her performance,” Beeby said.

“She has the talent to work anywhere in the country, and she has chosen to keep her talents here in Oklahoma. Rachel has the potential to be one of the best news directors the station has seen.”

Anyone watching Hubbard rush around the rotunda of the Capitol can tell she is where she belongs. Hubbard is successful even with her beautiful freckles because she found a way to combine her two passions: politics and public speaking. In her words, there is no where else she would rather be – not even the pool.

 

Learn more about Hubbard’s reporting work on 91.7 FM in central Oklahoma, on 107.5 FM in northeastern Oklahoma and on 101.9 FM in the Okmulgee area or at www.kosu.org.