Club members go behind the scenes at NPR

Some 15 National Press Club members were treated March 22 to a private tour of the Washington, D.C., headquarters of NPR.

Members were able to get an inside look at the organization's modern two-story newsroom, complete with cubicles upon cubicles of reporters, editors and others, including the Club’s very own Marilyn Geewax, Vice Chair of the NPC Board of Governors. She is NPR’s senior business editor.

Knowing how hard the newsroom staff was working, Club members brought a platter of cookies to keep the staffers fueled.

A tour highlight was an inside look at one of the studios NPR uses to record and produce its shows. The studio Club members visited, in fact, was used for live coverage of primary elections in several western states only hours after the tour ended.

Many of the NPC members on the tour jumped at the chance to have photos taken of themselves behind the studio's microphone with the NPR logo on it.

To conclude the tour, Rosemary Girard, the tour guide and a member of NPR’s communications department, escorted Club members past the location of the NPR Music unit, where they saw the Tiny Desk of the renowned “Tiny Desk Concert” series. Members also viewed the many souvenirs of the show’s host, Bob Boilen, including his Emmy Award and a bottle of Fiji water belonging to the famed singer Adele.

Knowing how hard the newsroom staff was working, Club members brought a platter of cookies to keep them fueled.

From the “Yarn Bomb Dragon Egg Chair” (seriously) to the temperature-controlled server room and the Public Radio Satellite System, the tour gave Club members an inside look at what goes into producing the radio shows many take for granted on the drive to and from work each day.