New reporter signs on at KSTK

Local radio station KSTK has recently hired a new reporter, following a five-month stint without one.

June Leffler from Louisville, Kentucky arrived late last week after earning her master's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism this spring. She flew in to Juneau with her family last week, and took the overnight ferry from there to Wrangell.

"It's wild, this is totally different," she said.

After earning her bachelor's degree at the University of Louisville, Leffler explained she was unsure what direction to take professionally. During the interim she taught English for a year in Daegu, South Korea, and back in Louisville was the editor for Goodwill Zine, a non profit youth arts publication. That interest is what ultimately drew her toward journalism.

"When I was a kid, all through my adolescence, even when I was an undergrad, I was making zines," she explained. "I was making those DIY punk zines and I just wanted to do something legit.

"If I was going to make money doing something that I loved, this made the most sense," Leffler added.

During her graduate studies at Northwestern in Illinois, she interned at the Studs Terkel Radio Archive in Chicago. Leffler recounted acquainting herself with the famed late broadcaster's extensive collection of interviews, spanning nearly 50 years.

Her ambition became getting into public radio as a journalist. After graduating from that program, she worked as a summer fellow at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. Searching for her first full-time position in the medium, she came across the opening at KSTK.

"I just heard word and saw job listings for Alaska in public radio, and I knew I wanted to be in public radio," she said. "Once a seed is planted you start seeing it everywhere."

Local listeners can expect to hear her on the air soon as Leffler gets acquainted with Wrangell. Her hiring ends a lengthy search to fill the position, vacated after previous reporter Aaron Bolton took a post at Homer's KBBI at the end of April. During the hiring process, coverage had been picked up by the CoastAlaska radio network.