About Mike
Hello, and thanks for checking out my website. I’m a freelance writer, editor, educator and volunteer radio host living in Arlington, Va. I write often for Current, the trade newspaper and website covering public media, and Retail Traffic, a trade magazine about shopping malls and retail real estate. I’ve also enjoyed working with, among other outlets, the Washington City Paper; Piedmont Virginian magazine; In These Times; and WAMU, the public radio news/talk station in Washington, D.C.
For much of my career, before I went freelance in 2007, I either worked in public radio — as a reporter at WFDD in Winston-Salem, N.C. — or near it — as a full-time writer for Current, covering primarily public radio. Since going freelance I’ve put this experience to use by working on various projects in public media, such as recruiting applicants for noncommercial radio stations in 2007, writing about such applicants for the Future of Music Coalition’s blog, or organizing a radio journalism workshop for high-school students at a community radio conference in 2008.
I also host a show on WPFW, the Pacifica station here in Washington and the only station in town playing contemporary jazz, as well as many other styles of music. I cover a lot of ground on my show, playing jazz with a generous helping of music from all over Africa, and some blues, soul, funk, reggae and avant-garde stuff to boot. You can check out my playlists on WPFW’s website — I’m on every other Wednesday night from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.
I grew up in Northern Virginia and studied anthropology at Wake Forest University. I have a daughter, who is awesome, and two cats who bother me a lot while I’m working.