SDPB welcomes Stel Kline as the new local on-air host for Morning Edition. Kline was born and raised in Schenectady, New York. “Schenectady is a Haudenosaunee word for ‘The Place Beyond the Pines.’ You may be quicker to recognize the city by another catch phrase, ‘The City that Lights the World’ from housing General Electric’s headquarters,” says Kline.
They attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore and lived in Baltimore for over 10 years. They began audio and radio work while interning at WYPR, Baltimore’s local NPR affiliate, later working as a freelance producer in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia. They’ve worked with On the Media, This American Life, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, among others. “What motivates me to work in public media is implied in the name, that content coming out of public media is to have been created for the benefit of its listeners – topics the community needs to know about but don’t necessarily have the privilege of having the time and the resources to investigate themselves.”
“The work I’m most proud of from the last two years has been through my neighborhood’s mutual aid project, Better Waverly Mutual Aid (BWMA),” says Kline. “To highlight one great achievement, our neighborhood group was able to raise over $20,000 in less than three weeks to get 26 homeowners off of the city’s tax sale list – a historically predatory and racist process of tax enforcement.”
Kline looks forward to the transition to South Dakota. “It is always a comfort to hear a dynamic local voice broadcasting between segments, there to provide continuity that brings you back to your sense of place,” says Kline. “It’s already been a great pleasure to get to know Vermillion and the state of South Dakota more intimately. With hosting Morning Edition, I am excited to be the voice who helps start their day, bringing warmth and understanding to the way they experience the news.”
Kline adds: “If you see me around Vermillion, please say hi!”