Emily Kral

By Lana Sieg

Every weekday morning, Emily Kral grabs her coffee at Starbucks and drives to work. As she is driving to work she listens to the radio and hears her co-worker Chad Dukes on the air talking about local sports news. When she arrives at 106.7 The Fan in Fairfax, Virginia she is greeted by two of the Washington Redskins greatest players; Brian Mitchell and Lavar Arington. During the day her duties varies and she is always doing something different. Emily says, “I’m an assistant for everyone in the building and working at the radio station is fun and exciting.”
Emily recently graduated in May 2009 from George Mason University and earned a BA in communication with a concentration in public relations. During her last year at George Mason, Emily was very active with school, work and interning at 106.7 The Fan. Emily had to balance going to school full-time and interning 6 hours a day twice a week at the radio station. She also worked part-time during the evenings and weekends at Mister Days Sports Café in Arlington as a bartender. During her winter break she also studied abroad in London. Emily went for two weeks and learned about public relations firms, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Cabinet War Rooms, a government public affairs office, and an international association. She said, “It was a great trip and she learned a lot about the public relations profession.”
During her last semester in college, Emily was looking for an internship. Since her concentration was public relations she wanted to find something in that particular field. However, she heard about an internship opening at 106.7 The Fan and was interested and applied. Shortly after, Emily interviewed for the position and was hired as a part-time intern. While she was interning there she learned a lot about production, ratings, media kits, editing audio, creating podcasts and even going to events. Emily attended several Washington Redskins games and fun events such as the annual “Wing Bowl” in Springfield, Virginia. Emily said “The radio station has suites at both FedEx Field and the Verizon Center so I was able to go see a lot of games as well as do promotion for the radio station.”
Emily’s internship was shortly over after she graduated from George Mason University in May. There was a position available for a sales associate at the radio station and she decided to apply for the job. However, there was a change in management and Emily was worried she wasn’t going to get the job. She felt that the manager at the time during her internship knew what she was capable of and it would be a disadvantage of having a new manager interview her. Fortunately, Emily got the position in sales at the radio station and started working there full-time in August 2009.
Emily loves the atmosphere at 106.7 The Fan and enjoys working with everyone there. She says, “It’s like we’re all family at work and we get along great.” Since working full-time, she has learned a lot more skills and has even more responsibilities at the radio station. Even though Emily is working in the media field of communication she is using a lot of useful skills and information from public relations. She wants students to know that “that you shouldn’t limit yourself to only what you major in when looking for jobs.” She is doing something slightly different than she anticipated but she is certainly happy with her decision to continue working at 106.7 The Fan after her internship.