Featuring On Point's Associate Producer Anna Bauman

WBUR is adapting to remote work to ensure you still have the timely, reliable and relevant news you need throughout this pandemic. As we all work to make sense of the new normal, we want to share how the WBUR community of reporters, members, donors, corporate partners and so many more are making it work!

Anna Bauman is an associate producer and director at On Point who got her start in radio co-hosting a live talk show at her alma mater’s radio station WOBC in Ohio. She began with On Point as an intern and in her current role, she's also produced a special On Point Live from South Carolina and directed the show on the road in New Hampshire. She recently began producing at home and is finding new ways of #makingitwork.

Bauman: For WBUR’s programs to make it to your radios, computer screens and podcast feeds during the lockdown, a small number of staff members still have to venture into the station to keep it running every day. For the past eight weeks, I have been on that team. At On Point , I am both a producer and director. I assume whichever role the On Point crew needs at a given time. Since this all began, that has meant directing the show live on air every day. Normally, that entails editing sound, cuing the host, and working with the engineer during the live show. These days, the job looks a little different. Most of my colleagues are at home. I wear a mask in the studio. There is a plexiglass barrier between me and our unflappable engineer James Ross . None of our guests are connecting to us from studios. Instead, I help to coordinate home “studios” by guiding our guests through connecting over wifi and using the right type of headset.

When I walk into the station every morning, the first thing I see is a rotating slideshow on the lobby monitor of my WBUR colleagues hard at work in the field. There are photos taken before the pandemic of health reporter Carey Goldberg interviewing elementary school students, Radio Boston ’s Jamie Bologna holding up a microphone to an elected official, and Morning Edition host Bob Oakes prepping before showtime. The photos make me yearn for the days when I could see all of their incredible journalism come together a few desks away from my own.

To cope with the challenges that go along with this new reality, I have been reflecting on something that NASA astronaut Christina Koch said on On Point this week . Christina was in space for a total of 328 days. Whenever she started to miss things about her home on Earth, she would focus on the unique aspects of the current moment that she would never have again. For her, that was views of auroras from the station and her crewmates.

For my own version of isolation, I know that after all this I’ll miss laughing with our in-station skeleton crew. I’ll miss unashamedly eating the elaborate baked goods producer Dorey Scheimer bakes for us every week. I’ll miss my shaved head! I’ll miss driving, something I rarely get to do, through Boston’s empty streets listening to WBUR with the windows down. I’ll miss seeing my coworkers’ beautifully decorated homes and furry roommates over Zoom. I can’t wait to see WBUR come into the building again in full force. Until then, it’s the little things about this moment that are keeping me moving forward.

#MakingItWork : We’re featuring people and businesses in Massachusetts who are adapting and inspiring us all while figuring out ways to navigate this global pandemic. Some of them work here at WBUR too. Here are a few great examples of some initiatives.