The Pittsburgh Black Media Federation’s board wanted to find a way to engage young people and its membership. As the group prepared for its 50th anniversary, it just seemed to be the right moment to add something new and at the same time honor a longtime board member and respected broadcaster.
The Chris Moore Media Internship — announced at the PBMF holiday event last month celebrating the milestone — recognizes the longtime and award-winning broadcast producer and host who helped create the organization’s Frank Bolden Urban Multimedia Workshop for high school students and serves on PBMF’s educational committee. Importantly, it provides an opportunity for college students and recent graduates to develop the tools and skills to shape their careers, as well as provide networking experiences for them. The first two interns will be selected this month, according to Erv Dyer, PBMF treasurer.
Moore’s resume has a long list of achievements. He’s a Silver Circle Honor Society 2018 inductee of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Awards and won multiple Emmy Awards for his programs and documentaries that aired on WQED Multimedia. He’s a host on KDKA Radio now in addition to other freelance work locally and nationally and emceeing events and programs.
When Deborah Todd, newly elected PBMF president, announced the internships at the event, it did surprise Moore. Dyer said he’s on the board, so they had kept it a secret from him.
Moore said he had offered to video Todd’s first remarks as president. “There I was trying to hold the camera steady,” he said. “It was news to me and a complete surprise, a pleasant one, and I am honored.”
Dyer noted that the organization has a history of creating programming that honors black journalists and trailblazers — the Robert L. Vann Media Awards and Edna B. McKenzie Fellowship in addition to the Bolden workshop, which dates back almost 40 years. Like other professional organizations, it had to place a pause on all its efforts during the pandemic. The Chris Moore Media Internship, he said, will help restart its work as well as honor Moore, who has helped many young people start their journalism careers. “He is still inspiring to our membership and the many young people he encountered during the workshops,” he said.
The interns will manage the PBMF’s social media, write news releases, and handle other marketing and communications duties. In addition, they will be given the opportunity to write for a group of media sites — BlackPittsburgh.com, NextPittsburgh, Soul Pitt Media and The Northside Chronicle. Dyer said leaders of all four sites were very welcoming about the proposal, and he stressed the sites’ reach, noting they have African American, community-oriented and greater community audiences. “With the diversity of these media, we can give the students a wider experience,” he said.
Six students have applied to become the inaugural interns, and Elaine Effort and Edwina Kaikai, who had long journalism careers at KQV Newsradio and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette respectively, will interview them and make the selection, Dyer said.
The students will each receive $1,000 for the internship, which comes from the PBMF budget. They will be paid freelance wages for their work with the media sites, which they will pitch stories to and negotiate payment. Dyer has asked Effort and Kaikai to mentor the students.
He is hoping the interns stay with PBMF for an entire year. And he hopes to expand the media sites willing to hire the students. “We’d love to bring more partners in to give the students more opportunities to write all they can,” Dyer said.
Moore is hoping he can be involved with the interns, too, building on his long career with the Bolden workshop. He estimates he’s taught more than 1,000 students in the 36 years it ran, which has been on hiatus the past few years, too, because of the pandemic.
He said he brought the idea of the workshop to PBMF, modeling it on a similar program in St. Louis he was familiar with. “It wasn’t hard to get it going here because we had a blueprint,” he said. Alumni of the workshop include Keith Alexander, a crime reporter at the Washington Post who was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team there, and Sharon Epperson, a CNBC senior personal finance correspondent.
What Moore has enjoyed perhaps the most is working beside some of those alumni, including Rob Taylor Jr., the New Pittsburgh Courier managing editor who has also worked in radio. Moore is in his 51st year in the broadcast business and considers himself truly blessed to have lasted this long and has no intention of quitting.
“I have often said my children are everywhere,” Moore said. “I like that a lot, too.”
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.