Wyatt Barmore-Pooley

Within weeks of graduating, Newhouse alumnus Wyatt Barmore-Pooley is on air several times a day. The former WAER student reporter is now producing and anchoring daily newscasts for WNBZ, a music station in upstate New York.

“It’s not a news station, but I’m the news guy,” Barmore-Pooley says.

The Plattsburgh station’s inaugural “news guy” attributes landing the gig to his WAER experience. He joined the Syracuse NPR station in August and was hired by WNBZ in December.

“We had the opportunity to talk to the movers and shakers in Onondaga County,” the 23-year-old says.

Barmore-Pooley covered election results live from the field and reported multimedia stories during his weekly shifts. That included a daily assignment on social media regulations that turned into a two-part series.

“The news director and I realized we can’t tell this in one and it’s worth it to split it into two,” Barmore-Pooley says. “So that faith in me was rewarding.”

Barmore-Pooley says working alongside WAER’s award-winning professional staff was one of the biggest takeaways from his time.

“Forget actually working on the news, it was just talking through perspectives on stories, perspectives on how we were going to approach this, how I should edit it,” he says.

He says that in-studio experience is what he misses the most from the Ostrom Avenue station—Barmore-Pooley’s new gig has him filing casts remotely. Yet he keeps the WAER vibe alive with an “on air” sign in his home office.

Barmore-Pooley and other current student reporters will elaborate on their experiences during WAER’s recruitment meeting today at 6:30 p.m. The station welcomes prospective students to attend the event in Newhouse 3 room 250 and learn about opportunities in news, sports and music.  Students who are interested but can’t attend the meeting may reach out to program coordinator Tarryn Brittney Mento at tbmento@syr.edu.