People
David Boeri
Host
So what do you do after you win just about every award there is in broadcast journalism? You become the host of a new public radio show, of course.
After Edward R. Murrow awards, Emmy awards, Radio and Television News Directors Association awards, Society of Professional Journalists awards and after being named Boston’s Best Political Reporter, David Boeri is making Radio Boston his next venue for award-winning journalism. David has reported stories such as the wars in El Salvador and Kosovo, environmental issues in Belize, politics in Canada and organized crime in Boston. At the Radio Boston office, we try not to eavesdrop on the calls he gets from the many sources he’s developed through the years.
While David’s television work at WCVB-TV and WGBH-TV is legendary, his entire career in broadcasting is impressive. In the early days of public radio in Alaska, he worked at KFSK in Petersburg where he would sign off with “you’re listening to KFSK, the only station on your dial.” David is a writer at heart and he’s contributed to publications such as The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Boston Globe, Oceans, Yankee, Boston Magazine, and The Boston Phoenix. David is the author of two books.
After several years as a commercial fisherman in Boston, he wrote “Tell it Good-bye Kiddo: The Decline of the New England Offshore Fishery”. He later lived and hunted with Eskimo whalers in Northwestern Alaska and authored “People of the Ice Whale” (E.P. Dutton; Harcourt, Brace) about an endangered culture’s hunt for an endangered whale. David’s breadth of experience, skilled reporting and engaging style will be the hallmark of Radio Boston.
Deb Becker
Senior producer
Deb Becker, aka Deborah Becker in her previous on-air life, has been at WBUR for almost a decade. She has pretty much done it all at WBUR — working as reporter, producer, writer, editor, newscaster and show host. She put her foot down when we asked her to help move furniture. Because Deb helped start the public radio show “Focus Rhode Island” at WRNI in Rhode Island, she thought she would do it again here at Radio Boston. She also worked at Monitor Radio and several other radio stations in New England, where she earned her reputation as a concise writer, a tireless journalist and a stickler for fact checking. We try to anticipate when we’ll hear her say her three favorites: “How do you know that’s true?” “Take me past the headline here,” and “That’s a beautiful thing.”
Meghna Chakrabarti
Reporter
Meghna is reporter and fill-in host for Radio Boston. Her first introduction to the show was listening to David Boeri tell stories about clandestine meetings with mobsters, and how, if asked by a member of the Family, you never, ever, ever take the red sauce with your pasta. Always the Alfredo. Her second Radio Boston encounter was bird watching, bushwhacking, and brewing camp espresso with David on Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor. After that, she was hooked, and lured away from beat reporting for On Point. She also hosted the Not Your Classroom series of programs broadcast on WRNI in Rhode Island.
Her othe bona fides include a graduate degree from a place in Cambridge, other degrees from elsewhere, a passport full of visa stamps, and other professional accoutrements. She can kick tires and change oil. She is trying to learn Hindi. Her latest passion is keeping her feet out of the lines and not pulling an Ahab while learning how to sail on the Charles River. She grew up in Oregon and loves the West Coast. But after years in New England, she can stomach a lobster roll, eats ice cream in the dead of winter, owns a Red Sox t-shirt, and finally acquiesced to calling the granite lumps in New Hampshire, "mountains".
Claudine Ebeid
Associate Producer
When Radio Boston needed a creative genius, precise writer and editor, dogged journalist, amateur psychologist and congenial comedian….well, we said we are looking for an “Associate Producer.” Claudine fits all of these roles and more – did we mention she works as our organizational consultant, has a deep rolodex and makes great chocolate chip cookies? Claudine is no stranger to WBUR or to Boston. She most recently worked in the WBUR newsroom as a producer and news writer. Before that, Claudine worked at National Public Radio in her hometown of Washington, DC. Even before that, Claudine worked part-time at WBUR while earning her master’s degree in journalism from Emerson College. She just couldn’t stay away from us or from Fenway Park.
Tim Skoog
Technical director
“I know that there will be a place to go
and a way to go
and nothing need ever be
lost” - Charles Bukowski
An avid Bukowski reader, Tim is the audio artist here at Radio Boston. He takes our stories, voices, sounds, words, music, tape and ideas and creates what we call radio pictures. They might seem like simple recordings, but they’re actually a complex mix of sound, stories and voices interwoven into the pieces we present to you each week. Tim has been at WBUR for 10 years and we knew his audio magic would help create a signature sound for Radio Boston. We have given him a small, padded, sound-proof room here at WBUR, which he keeps dimly lit and works wonders with his equipment on our tape. Tim is also a musician and is spearheading our effort to create a local show with all local music. He doesn’t like to talk much about himself except to say he lives in Boston, drinks beer, and returns library books late.
Jessica Phaneuf
Radio Boston Intern
A native of
Now that the ground has thawed let’s go on an archaeological dig. What are some of the latest big local discoveries? What do historical artifacts teach us about our past?
