Our newest reporter and afternoon news anchor Ben Abrams is an unabashed Public Radio Nerd.
Growing up in Philadelphia, Ben remembers sitting in the backseat of his father’s car listening to public radio station WHYY. “My dad would constantly have Car Talk on. I learned more about cars as an 11-year-old than I'm sure a lot of other people my age did.”
Ben and his dad even attended a live recording of Wait Wait...Don’t Tell Me! together as a Father’s Day gift.
“I knew I always wanted to work for an NPR station,” Ben says. “I very much want to view the things that I do as serving the public, and to me, that's always the message that I got from listening to NPR.”
“I think that NPR and NPR member stations really strive to serve the communities that they're embedded in and that really sticks out to me every time I listen."
And so, when the opportunity arose, this Public Radio Nerd made his way from New York City, where he attended university and graduate school, to Tulsa, OK.
The heat, intense weather and storms have been an adjustment, but Ben is happy he can get around without running into traffic.
When you hear Ben on KWGS, you might guess that he was made for radio, with his deep voice, clear delivery and sharp reporting.
In many ways, his experiences have all pointed in this direction.
“I'd always been interested in news and current events,” Ben says. “I had been a trained musician for years, so I had a really good ear. So, the combination of being interested in news and having a very good tonal sense led very nicely to me going into radio.”
Ben says his parents also helped sharpen his journalism skills.
“Both of my parents are lawyers, so dinner was always fun,” Ben laughs. “I think that's where I get some of the good journalistic instinct of ‘not letting people tell me baloney.’”
When he’s not asking the hard questions for KWGS, you can find Ben exploring Tulsa’s mountain biking trails, tinkering with old devices and playing the guitar.
“I've loved music for a very long time and will continue to do so forever,” Ben beams.
Not only did Ben’s father’s stereo expose him to public radio, but it also introduced him to rock ‘n' roll.
"I remember when I was really little the song “Vertigo” [from U2] came on and my dad went, ‘Hey, Ben, listen to this’ and cranked it all the way up. [My ears] were ringing, but afterwards I went, ‘That was awesome!’ So that set off my rock ‘n' roll love journey.”
You can listen to this music lover and meticulous reporter on KWGS 89.5 FM on weekday afternoons. And if you see him around town, don’t forget to give him a big Tulsa welcome!
