[249] Holiday ‘MTSU On the Record’ programs unwrap poetry, journalism

MURFREESBORO — The next two editions of the “MTSU On the Record” radio program will introduce the university’s new journalist-in-residence and reintroduce the third longest river in North America.

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Matthew Brown, a lecturer in the Department of English, will air from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 29, and from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4, on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org).

Brown and his friend, Justin Orlowski, recorded the sights and sounds of their journey from the source of the Mississippi River to its mouth in May 2013. The end result is “The River Sonnet,” a multimedia presentation including audio, video and Brown’s original poetry.

“I grew up on the Mississippi River in southern Illinois,” Brown said. “Both my mother and my father’s families have been on the same farms for a couple hundred years, and the river is very much on my mind wherever I go.”

Brown and Orlowski’s work may be seen and heard at www.riversonnet.org, including poems written by Brown and inspired by people and places along the river. The radio program will include several audio clips from the project.

Logue’s interview with Whitney Matheson, who will become MTSU’s Journalist-in-Residence in spring 2015, will air from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 5, and from 8 to 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org).

From 1999 to 2014, Matheson worked for USAToday. Her blog, “Pop Candy,” was posted on the newspaper’s website.

The blog, which explored entertainment and pop culture, won the Weblog Award for Best Pop-Culture Blog in 2006. In 2008, it won an EPPY Award for the Best Entertainment Blog from Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek magazines.

“I really think that the most important thing for a journalism student to have is a great portfolio when they graduate,” Matheson said. “And, so, it is important to me to develop projects that not only teach them how to be better journalists but things they can show to people after they graduate to help them get a job.”

To listen to previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, go to http://www.mtsunews.com/ontherecord/.

For more information, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.