Hi everyone, I'm Ed Leon.

Welcome to the 260 where we cover life and community in Northeast Indiana.

On this episode, we'll meet Fort Wayne's number one rated morning radio personality from WOWOs Morning News, Kayla Blakeslee, as she takes us behind the mic and into her life in the community and well honor Veterans Day as we visit the Veterans Memorial Shrine in Fort Wayne.

It's all right now on the 260.

If you turned on the radio between 5 and 9 a.m., there is a pretty good chance you've heard our next guests considerable talent on display.

She's the host of the number one rated Fort Wayne's morning news on WOWO, And over the years, she's interviewed politicians, business leaders, public safety officials and celebrities while helping Northeast Indiana make sense of the news, the people, and the issues shaping our community.

It's our pleasure to welcome Kayla Blakeslee to the 260.

Well Ed I would say it's my pleasure.

Thanks for the invite.

Come on.

You're too kind.

All right.

We're going to talk a bit about your work, okay?

But first, why don't you give people a little bit about your background?

You know, where you came from.

How did you get to Fort Wayne?

Yeah.

So I'm actually originally from a teeny tiny town, Union City, Pennsylvania.

Okay.

Where is it?

So it's... Are you familiar with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?

Okay.

It's about two hours north of Pittsburgh.

Population less than 3000.

Although I suppose it could have grown since I've left it back in 2011.

But I went to school at Penn State.

Go, Nittany Lions.

I'm a huge college football fan.

I've got a lot of money invested there, so I better be a big fan.

And I majored in broadcast journalism and it's really what I wanted to do.

Did you always know that that you wanted to be on the radio or on TV?

I always knew I wanted to be in broadcast.

Not really quite sure what which medium.

I suppose if you had forced me into a corner, I probably would have said television.

What?

What led to that?

Its actually a really great story, I was in sixth grade in my English class.

Okay.

And our English teacher, she's still a mentor of mine.

Mandy Post shout out to Mandy.

Mrs.

Post to me at the time, she was actually a news anchor in our hometown, but she's still taught part time at our local school, and she had such an incredible way of telling people's stories.

Even in class, she would sit and read to our sixth grade class.

Can you imagine a teacher doing that now?

And you could hear a pin drop because of her ability to tell a story.

It was remarkable.

So then I'd go home and I'd watch her on the evening news, and I was like, that.

That's what I want to do someday.

Yeah, I want to tell people's stories.

Did you do that?

Did you follow that path?

Did you... Were you in broadcast?

I did, I did.

That's exactly what I did.

I was kind of the exception, not the rule.

I mean, I knew very, at a very young age what I wanted to do.

It's what I went to school for.

Majored in broadcast journalism at Penn State.

Thought I was going to go the TV route.

I mean, I could have never drawn a line from where I started to where I'm at now, that's for sure.

I actually swore off radio when I was in college.

I got a little taste of it and I hated it, which I kind of think is ironic and funny now.

But I was applying for jobs right after college because I couldn't sit still, turned down a television job back in my hometown for $24,000.

Okay.

Hey, that was big money back.

The big money back then.

And I turned it down.

My parents thought I was crazy, but I just had this gut feeling there was something else out there.

And within a couple of days, I got the phone call from WOWO asking me to be a social media manager.

And at the time, I don't even know that anyone knew what that meant in 2011.

But I said, sure.

I'd never even heard of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I had briefly heard of WOWO, where I'm from, KDKA is the jam out of Pittsburgh.

But there was there was something in me pulling me to Fort Wayne.

Yeah, so packed up my little red Chrysler Sebring at the time moved to a state I'd never even been to, moved to a town I'd never stepped foot in.

And I haven't left ever since.

You have not left.

All right, let's talk about what you're doing here.

You wake up at 5 a.m., you're on the air live at 5 a.m.. So what is that?

What is your day like?

Oh, my day is a woof.

Because it starts about 3, 3:30 in the morning and my alarm clock goes off, my feet hit the floor, and I am running until about 9:01 a.m.

that's when I exhale because that's when the show is over.

But my day really starts with show prep.

I actually start that at home with a cup of coffee at my kitchen table, sitting there in my PJs.

That's where it starts.

Setting the scene.

Yeah, pretty much pretty much.

But, you know, there is something really magical about being up that early.

No, I do not like my alarm alarm clock.

I don't think anybody likes their alarm clock.

But to be up when I feel like the rest of the world isn't.

Yeah, there's something kind of magical about that time of day, and it really always gets me excited for, you know, the rest of the day, what's coming after the alarm clock.

But that's when I do a majority of my prep depending on what's happened overnight, what's going to happen throughout the day.

And then I, you know, throw on some clothes and I'm out the door.

Usually it's a ball cap in some cowboy boots.

Okay.

Right.

It's radio.

Radio.

Okay.

All right.

Now I'm going to read from your bio.

You list yourself as the news director, editor, producer, anchor, reporter, photographer, personality, and host.

It's a lot of hats.

One hat you don't put on your bio is journalist.

How would you describe your brand of journalism?

Because I wouldn't say I'm a journalist Ed.

I did that intentionally.

Some of those roles I've held previously, I don't hold some of those titles currently.

Yeah, just full disclosure because we have an excellent news director.

So I just want to throw that out there.

But no, ever since I took over morning drive hosting Fort Wayne's Morning News, which was back in 2018, that's kind of when I peeled off that title.

Journalist.

Okay.

Because a lot of what I do can be opinions, it can be commentaries, it can be reactions.

It can simply be just picking through local issues and sharing how they've impacted my life or my family.

And so I felt like when I stepped into that role in 2018, it was actually very important for me to identify myself as a host and or personality and not a journalist.

Okay.

And when you're, you know, you're very like you said, you're very clear on on where you stand on stories when you're broadcasting.

Do you, do you find that you're, you, in your mind as a broadcaster, Are you speaking to a specific audience or are you trying to speak to everybody?

I have a specific listener Ed and his name is Bob, and Bob is above the age of 60.

He drives a pickup truck.

Yes.

You have your profile.

I do, I have my profile and I. I cut you off.

Tell me more about Bob.

Well, you know, and Bob is a salt of the earth kind of guy.

Bob cares about what's going to impact his pocketbook, what's going to impact his health, what's going to impact his family.

And so when I actually think of prepping for the show and stories I'm going to tell, I think about Bob almost every single day, and I try to talk to Bob.

And the reason I do that is because I feel like it helps build a little bit more of a one on one connection.

When I'm broadcasting, I want every listener to think, I'm talking to you and to you individually and solely.

In fact, if you you listen to Morning Drive, you will hear me say, you, you know, I really want to create that one on one connection or at least try to.

So yes, I'm talking to all of Northeast Indiana, but I really try to hone in like I'm sitting there having a kitchen table conversation with Bob.

And if you're if you're talking to Bob and you're perhaps do you ever feel like you're alienating the Marys and or some, you know, some of the other audience?

And does that matter to you?

Yeah, yes, that would matter to me.

But I don't feel like that's happening because, I mean, you just heard me say I try to identify what Bob cares about, right?

His finances, his family, his health.

I would argue most Hoosiers, most Americans care deeply about those things.

So no, I don't think I alienate them.

But at the end of the day, if you've got a country music station, right, you're going to spin country tunes.

If you've got a rock station, you're going to do the same thing.

You know, there is a certain kind of listener that WOWO has, has I'm calling them Bob.

So I'm also, you know, if you don't like country music, you might not want to tune into a country music station.

Does that make sense?

Good point.

All right.

Now social media, you are super active on social media.

Youre kind of like a little star there.

If I'm if I must say your videos, they're funny.

They're, you know, they're compelling and, you know, they're controversial at times.

Right.

You're I can I can have that effect sometimes Ed All right.

Talk about it can be pretty hard hitting in your own way.

Talk about that process.

It's outside the radio, right.

It's it is outside the radio.

Another job it is.

I do it all.

In fact, I get asked all the time, who does all of your editing, who does your filming, who produces all of that?

I'm like, you're looking at her.

This is it.

I am a true one man band kind of gal now my producer, make no mistake, his name is Josh.

Yeah, he's like a character in video.

Josh is such a good sport.

You know, I don't find many men loving the spotlight quite that much.

And so poor Josh gets kind of drug into my shenanigans.

But our listeners love Josh, you know, and I think it's important for our listeners to also see Josh and not just me.

And they hear from Josh in the morning.

So I think it's nice to put a face with his name as well.

But usually I just kind of walk in and it's again, I'm like, what's Bob going to care about most today?

Or what do I care about today?

Or what's everybody going to be talking about at work today?

But yeah, and you hit all those hot button issues.

Is that a different Kayla persona than the one on the radio, or do you think it's.

A little bit shorter content?

I suppose in the videos now, people ask me that all the time.

Sometimes, you know, who's the real Kayla?

And I always say I'm like, what you get on the microphone is pretty much what you get in real life, with the exception of the volume, might be turned up a little bit on.

The microphone.

I love on your Facebook community, you you call yourself News Mom and talk about your family in a bit chic, candid and conservative.

That about sums me up.

Bob, or not Bob, Ed.

I'll be your Bob.

I love how chic is number one.

Yes, that's the priority.

That's got to look.

Good, look good, feel good.

You know, I always say play good because I'm a golfer, but look good, feel good, play good.

Right.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you, what do you do when you're not on, you know, on the on the pulse of the news.

Well, when I'm not, church is very important to me in my family.

My husband and I are highly involved with our with our church community.

We're highly involved with our daughter's school.

That's also very important to us.

But, I mean, I love to bake on the weekends.

I can bake you up a nice little birthday cake.

I also I love to golf, although golf doesn't always love me, that's for darn sure.

Do you feel like there's any stories that you've covered over the years that where you like, I really had an impact on that story.

We had.

We had a story out of Logansport, Indiana, about a year, year and a half ago, and I won't get into all the details because I don't want to get to political here for you.

But it did.

It had a really major impact.

The point the national news media called me and asked me, hey, where did you get your resources?

Could you come on and share this whole story impacting Logansport, Indiana at the time?

And some things did change in Logansport after that story aired.

And to me, I thought, wow, that that made the national news.

Not that I always agree with the national news by any means.

Not that that's the goal, but I knew it had an impact when it stretched up, when it stretched up that far.

But that really isn't ever my goal.

I would love to have an impact locally, and to leave this little corner of northeast Indiana of my world better than I find it.

But it does happen.

You know, you bring up the national media.

There's a lot of conversation in the national conversation about trust in media.

Do you agree that there's there's a diminished trust in media?

100% Absolutely.

Yeah.

I mean, in today's day and age, we can, as journalists write, reporters can say, anchors can say what have you.

We all say we're unbiased.

But I think if we're all honest with ourselves, we're not.

And that is kind of where I do try to differentiate myself and separate myself.

Again, if you listen on.

How do you do that?

How do you build that trust?

Well, you just said my tagline chic, candid, conservative.

Right?

I make no bones about it.

You know where I stand.

You know what I believe.

And if you listen to my radio program for more than five minutes, you'll know I'm a Christian as well.

And I don't try to hide that where I think a lot of times journalists, reporters, anchors, they, you know, they want to say they're fair and they're balanced or they're they're unbiased.

When when I can see what you're putting in my feet, I can see what you're putting on my TV screen.

You know, everybody can see that.

And I think that the bias usually shows through one way or the other.

I just put it out there on the table for all the cards right from the beginning to see Youre okay Being biased.

You're okay with the bias.

Am I okay?

You wouldn't call it.

You wouldn't call it bias.

You would call it authenticity.

I would I would call it authenticity 100% because I'm telling you where I stand.

You know, like I said, I do a lot of commentary, a lot of opinions, which is why it was so important for me not to identify myself as a journalist.

Absolutely.

Because if you are going to identify yourself as a journalist, by golly, you better at least be attempting to put unbiased content in front of me.

So when you're broadcasting, do you feel like you have a certain responsibility to the audience?

Oh my Gosh.

What would that be?

Yes, my my responsibility.

And this is what I go into work every day thinking.

I just want to have the heart of a servant.

I am here to serve my community.

I do not take that role lightly.

I do not take sitting behind that microphone for granted.

I think it's a privilege.

I don't ever want to abuse that microphone.

I don't ever get into name calling.

I don't want to tear people down.

That is not who I am as a person.

That's that's not my shtick.

I know a lot of people in talk radio that is their shtick, and I am very intentional.

I try not to pick what I call the the low hanging fruit.

And I always say to my husband, if you ever see me picking that fruit, it's time.

It's time for me to hang up the microphone.

Yeah.

So so.

Now, all right.

You mentioned your husband.

Yes.

Super, super awesome guy.

Marty.

Marty, full disclosure is one of the board members of PBS Fort Wayne.

By the way, is there ever any PBS playing in your household?

Oh my gosh, all the time.

So you want to hear a great story about Marty.

We when we first got married.

So my husband and I, we didn't we didn't live together until we got married.

And so I'll never forget that first night we're in our apartment and he turns on PBS documentary by Ken Burns on the Civil War.

And this is what we're going to bed to.

And I'm not I'm not lying when I say every night for the next, like eight years, it's that same Ken Burns documentary.

And I'm like, can we please switch it up to the West, to baseball?

Something my my husband is very, very passionate about PBS and the work that PBS does.

He has been a financial supporter of PBS before I even came along.

We still are.

Our daughter is a part of your PBS explorer group.

We get a little package in the mail.

No, we are a huge, huge supporters of PBS.

And yes, I got Molly of Denali Wild Crats.

They're all on in my home all the time.

All right, I knew I liked Marty.

All right, Kayla, thank you so much for being here on the show.

You can hear Kayla weekday mornings from 5 to 9 on Newstalk 92.3 FM and 1190AM and you can follow her on Facebook at @WOWOKayla thank you so much.

Thank you.

Every veteran who has ever served in our military represents a personal story of service, sacrifice, and resilience.

The National Veterans Memorial Shrine and Museum in Fort Wayne is dedicated to preserving those stories.

Home to thousands of military artifacts, memorials, and exhibits spanning conflicts from the Revolutionary War to today's armed forces.

The museum serves as both a place of remembrance and a living classroom for future generations.

Here to share how the museum is commemorating this milestone year in America's history.

Are the shrine's first vice commander, Eric Johnson, and second Vice Commander Tim Schild.

Guys, welcome to the 260.

Thank you for folks who have never been to the shrine.

Tell us, what is there.

Tell us about the place.

Tell us about the mission.

Eric: Our mission has always been to make sure no veteran will ever be forgotten.

And you know, back when Eric and Cleo Scott founded this, he was a World War One veteran and founded this back in the early 50s.

And we've taken it to the next phase.

Putting up the Vietnam Memorial Wall was the first phase.

Putting up a new museum with second phase.

Third phase was the chapel.

And now we've added more monuments on the property in the memorial park, plus a columbarium where a veteran can can be buried.

His cremains can be immortalized out at the shrine.

Ed: Fort Wayne has such a strong military history.

What you know, how do you get that?

That local story into the museum?

How do you infuse it?

We infuse it through the displays that we have right now.

We have several items on display that we just put on display after our closure that include items from Baer Field, specifically items that came off of A-10 warthogs that were donated by veterans that served out at Baer Field.

So.

So you you you mentioned closing.

You were closed for a few a few months to do some, some inventory.

Right?

Correct.

We had to do we closed from January to the end of March in order to go through our inventory, do 100% and rotate the exhibits.

We have, I would say approximately 100 new artifacts on display, including stuff from Revolutionary War all the way to the current.

And that includes some artifacts that came from Baer Field.

Ed: You know, everybody expects to see artifacts at a history museum like this.

But what really stands out are the stories, right?

What are some of the artifacts and stories that really resonate to you from the museum exhibits?

For me, the one the one artifact that resonates the most is we have a piece of glass from the World Trade Center.

It was brought home by a local volunteer fireman, I believe, that went to New York, and he was also a veteran.

So that's that's the one that resonates the most to me.

How we got a call.

I got a call from a couple of vets that were in a retirement home, and they had a medal of honor from the Civil war.

Wow.

I said, where did you get it?

And she says, well, we got it from a lady who gave it to us from another person, and we did the research on it and found out the guy was out of Michigan and very, very personal.

And 1864 he was awarded.

You know, back then there were a lot of generals that had relatives, and they passed out medals like it where they were Candy.

Well, this guy earned it.

And he's with the Michigan Volunteers.

But it's it's stuff like that that really resonates when you when you know where they've been and where they came from.

So we're celebrating this milestone year.

Are you doing anything for America's two 50th?

Is there any special exhibits?

We do have some special exhibits going on.

We have several different flags that have been flown for the United States over the course of its history, along with historical photographs and posters that annotate some of the actions that the military has taken throughout the years.

Along with We have our annual okay!

Magazine that we do.

The magazine includes several stories of veterans that we've personally dealt with and their family members, and it includes their stories and also some more helpful information about some of the activities that we're doing.

Every guest that comes into the museum receives a free copy of this magazine.

Fantastic.

And its a keepsake.

And the museum is free right?

Correct.

Museums free.

Free parking, free admission.

We're also selling our challenge coin 250th year.

This is a challenge coin that veterans love.

And we're saluting all veterans with this challenge coin.

And also we have t shirts for the two of 250 that have the shrine on the front.

And we stand for freedom on the back.

So please come out and visit the memorials.

Visit the museum.

You're also a community resource, right?

Don't you have events?

And you're commemorating all kinds of things.

Yeah, we have Tim used to.

Tim runs a group support group every Monday night for Veterans.

Monday nights at 5 we have a veteran support group.

We do a spouse's support group the first Saturday of every month.

We just got a young gentleman on who is going to be doing individual counseling for veterans in need.

And we just started Sunday services.

So we're providing religious services out there as well.

Talk a little bit about what a place like this means to our local veterans here in Fort Wayne.

For the most part, the thing you hear the most when they come out here is calm and peaceful.

It's a place for them to come, remember their service and not have to explain it to anybody because it's all out there.

Eric: we've got a coffee cafe where guys can sit and talk, and you wouldn't believe how much conversation goes on from guys, total strangers.

And when they leave, it's like your brothers.

You've known the guy for years.

Well, everybody has that same that singular connection.

How do you make you know, you're running a museum and children or young people who maybe don't have a connection to military service.

How do you make this meaningful to them?

How do you help them make the connection to how important this military service your mission to not forget any veteran?

How do you how do you do that?

I typically when it's a younger child, even teenagers, you ask them what their favorite artifact is and then you tell them the story behind it.

And once you start telling them the stories behind some of the artifacts, that's when they really make that connection.

It's not just a piece of cloth or a piece of metal.

It means something at that point to them.

So you brought up, you brought up a couple of stories.

Maybe you can bring up a couple more.

Yes.

We had a high school class from Garrett, Indiana come out.

There were 50 kids.

We took them to the wall.

They they didn't get the information that we were able to give them in the history books.

Page and a half on Vietnam.

Give me a break.

As a Vietnam veteran, we sit and we talked, and when they left, they said, I can't believe how great it was to come out here and actually experience the the wall and the names on the wall and what it meant and how they're organized and what goes into the to the tribute to the guys that gave the ultimate sacrifice.. And what you touched on it here.

But what would you like people to come and leave with?

What would you like them to kind of get in their heart once they visit the shrine of the museum?

Love for veterans, love for their country.

That's what we're mission is to make sure no veterans ever forgotten.

And I heard an interesting phrase the other day.

We don't know all of them, but we owe all of them.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's all gave some, but some gave all.

And I, I think with the columbarium, with the wall.

And when you sit there and look at all those names, 58,000 and you think to yourself, my God, that's a whole generation of guys.

And I said, with the columbarium being there, a lot of guys want to be with their buddies that they they served with.

And now they can be, because at the Memorial Park, we have the columbarium.

So.

Well, I know I can speak for for Fort Wayne.

We appreciate everything that you're providing the community with, with this this shrine and this museum.

The National Veterans Memorial Shrine and Museum is located at 2122 O'Dea Road in Fort Wayne.

Admission is free.

Grounds are open 24 over seven and you can learn more at HonoringForever.org Guys, thank you so much.

Thank you for having us.

The 260 is a PBS Fort Wayne production made possible by membership donations from viewers like you.

Thank you.

You can support the show by becoming a sustaining member at PBSFortWayne.org That's all the time we have for this episode.

Please take a moment to appreciate the folks who contributed to the making of the show, and I'll see you next time on the 260.