WCAI: The Cape and Islands NPR Station
WCAI is the local NPR affiliate serving Cape Cod, the South Coast, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. WCAI is dedicated to reflecting the unique character of the region and providing first-rate journalism. A small newsroom producing award-winning radio, WCAI reaches from the industrial legacy cities of New Bedford and Fall River, to the artist-and-LGBTQ mecca of Provincetown, to the working-class neighborhoods of the mid-Cape, to the agricultural resurgence of the near-shore island of Martha’s Vineyard, to the remote villages of Nantucket, 26 miles out to sea. WCAI is grounded in stories of science and the environment, drawing on the intellectual wealth of being home to research laboratories of world-class marine and environmental science institutions. It is the only public media service solely dedicated to covering this broad and diverse region.
Closed Position: This Report for America corps member works for WCAI as an environmental reporter, focusing on stories about how climate change affects people in the region. Cape Cod is at forefront of some of the most hopeful efforts to combat climate change and reshape the forces contributing to it. The science critical to understanding the changing atmosphere is happening in laboratories in Woods Hole. Additionally, scientists from these laboratories are part of grass-roots level conversations about how we should respond to the environmental crisis. We are also home to the imminent launch of the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, just south of Martha’s Vineyard, which promises a new era in renewable energy. There are important, people-driven stories of innovation and adaptation to be told. WCAI’s science program host, Dr. Heather Goldstone, serves as a mentor for the environmental reporter, having covered this region and topic for years.