Susi Elkins, WKAR’s director of broadcasting and general manager, is leaving the station after three decades of service.
Elkins began her career at WKAR as a student employee and started leading the organization in 2017.
She will be moving on to a new position as the chief community impact officer at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union. Her last day is Friday.
WKAR's Megan Schellong sat down with Elkins to discuss the highlights of her career at WKAR.
Interview Highlights
On how she got started at WKAR as a student employee
I was actually in school at Central Michigan University and took some production classes and really loved it. And a few of my friends were in school here at Michigan State and when I came back to visit with them, I met some staff members at WKAR and Bill Kinney, who was in charge of our Student Employment Program at the time said, you know, just sort of offhandedly, “Hey, you should come transfer to Michigan State, so that you can work for WKAR." And so I did. I showed up in his office like that next fall.
On the greatest challenge she's faced at WKAR
The greatest challenge for me has been reinventing myself at every stage in my career. I really feel like the station and community deserve the best, and if you're going to stay here for 30 years, you need to make sure that you're upping your game. You need to make sure, I have wanted to make sure that I'm always striving to be out ahead to provide a vision for the station that our employees can be excited about and that our community can be excited about.
On what she will miss most about WKAR
I will miss everything. Every single thing, and I'm not kidding. I think there's just not been a day when I haven't pinched myself to think, you know, I can't believe I get to do this work. Megan, I'm in tears. I will miss figuring out how to create something out of nothing, and with some of the most creative, smart and passionate people in the world.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: Susi Elkins, WKAR’s director of broadcasting and general manager, is leaving the station after 30 years of service.
Elkins began her career at WKAR as a student employee and started leading the organization in 2017.
She’ll be moving on to a new position as the chief community impact officer at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union. Her last day is Friday.
Elkins joins me now to discuss the highlights of her time here at WKAR.
Susi, thanks for joining me.
Susi Elkins: Thanks, Megan. I'm so happy to be here with you.
Schellong: Tell me about how you got interested in working with WKAR as a student employee.
Elkins: Well, I was actually in school at Central Michigan University and took some production classes and really loved it. And a few of my friends were in school here at Michigan State, and when I came back to visit with them, I met some staff members at WKAR. And Bill Kinney, who was in charge of our Student Employment Program at the time said, you know, just sort of offhandedly, “Hey, you should come transfer to Michigan State so that you can work for WKAR."
And so I did. I showed up in his office like that next fall and said, “Can I have a job, please? I transferred. And the rest is history. I've been here ever since.
Schellong: Do you have a specific project you’re especially proud of launching?
Elkins: Some of the things I'm most proud of would be being able to do all of those things while I was a student and learn from the incredible staff that we had here back then and that we still have today.
Some of the things I'm most proud of would be being able to do all of those things while I was a student and learn from the incredible staff that we had here back then and that we still have today.
I'm really proud of starting Curious Crewand our casting calls and inviting kids and families to come in.
I'm proud of starting WKAR Family and really figuring out how to leverage faculty research and knowledge here on campus and bring that to not only our community but communities across the country.
And I'm also really proud of the innovation that we've continued, and WKAR has a long tradition. We're heading into 100 years of broadcasting. And we started you know, with an experimental license in radio, and we now have the only public broadcasting experimental license in next-gen TV, the next generation of television. And we've been a thought leader nationally through Michigan State and WKAR, so those are, I mean, there's so many things I'm proud of.
Schellong: Throughout it all, what's been the greatest challenge you've faced here at WKAR?
Elkins: Well, I mean, personally, the greatest challenge for me has been reinventing myself at every stage in my career. I really feel like the station and community deserve the best, and if you're going to stay here for 30 years, you need to make sure that you're upping your game. You need to make sure, I have wanted to make sure that I'm always striving to be out ahead to provide a vision for the station that our employees can be excited about and that our community can be excited about.
I have wanted to make sure that I'm always striving to be out ahead to provide a vision for the station that our employees can be excited about and that our community can be excited about.
And so, you know, that's a challenge for all of us to always be questioning. Are we learning enough? Are we pushing ourselves enough? And so, that means we just have even more work to do to dig deeper and get better at it.
Schellong: Throughout pushing the boundaries and reinventing yourself, what was your favorite memory at WKAR?
Elkins: We were helping teachers introduce technology into the classroom. We were integrating technology with a teacher who was feeling nervous about it, but I encouraged her to let her kids be in charge in the classroom.
And she was worried she wouldn't understand the technology well enough for them to really enjoy it, and so she took my advice and let them take over. And she called me a couple of weeks later in tears of joy because they recorded the commercial and watched it and came back to her and said, "Listen, we need another week, we watched ourselves, and we see now what you mean about articulating.”
And she said, you know, she'd never seen them work so hard on something and improve so well in such a short amount of time.
And to me, you know, the light bulb went off for the kids, and the light bulb went off for her. And that's what we're all striving for, right, is for kids to have that light bulb go off and see and take charge of their own learning and understanding.
Schellong: What are you going to miss the most about WKAR?
Elkins: I will miss everything. Every single thing, and I'm not kidding. I think there's just not been a day when I haven't pinched myself to think, you know, I can't believe I get to do this work. Megan, I'm in tears.
I will miss everything. Every single thing, and I'm not kidding.
I will miss figuring out how to create something out of nothing, and with some of the most creative, smart and passionate people in the world. This team has been incredible over all of these years, and I think the people for sure, and the ability to play a small part in our community members' lives. I think that's really really special, and I'll miss that.
Schellong: Susi Elkins is WKAR’s director of broadcasting and general manager. Susi, thank you for everything you have done here at WKAR. You will always be a part of the WKAR family.
Elkins: Thank you so much, Megan. I really believe that. I'll be here supporting WKAR forever, and I do just want to thank Prabu David and everyone else who has supported me and my career.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.