Pittsburgh – March 24, 2022
We’ve produced the Good Question! listener engagement series for about five years to answer questions about what our listeners have wondered about Pittsburgh. On March 24, WESA News is proud to launch the Good Question! podcast to share those stories in a new way to reach even more listeners!
In 2017, WESA started an experiment: A listener-engagement radio series based on questions about Pittsburgh history and culture. First, we produced on-air and digital promotions encouraging our listeners and readers to answer this question: “What do you wonder about Pittsburgh, its culture, or people that you want WESA to investigate?” It didn’t take long. Listeners sent us questions about everything from abandoned coal mines to Pittsburgh’s involvement in the Underground Railroad to the origin of “yinz.” Next, we put our crack Pittsburgh-obsessed reporter, digital editor and producer, Katie Blackley, on the case and we were off. Finally, Katie took on the hosting duties for the segments and produced both audio and digital stories to answer the best of the questions we received.
The first Good Question! story was about the borough of Mt. Oliver. A keen listener observed that in a Pittsburgh neighborhood map, there’s a hole in the southern portion. That’s the borough of Mt. Oliver, which was never annexed into the City of Pittsburgh. We spoke with people who grew up in the neighborhood, the borough manager and the local city councilor. Since then, we’ve produced nearly 100 Good Question! stories that have aired on 90.5 WESA and been featured on our website WESA.FM.
One of Katie’s favorite stories is this: A listener had heard rumors that there was once a Civil War-era fort in Stanton Heights. The listener and Katie trekked into some wooded areas (with permission from the property owners, of course) and found what appeared to be remnants of an old fortification. The trees around the roughly 50-foot-wide horseshoe-shaped raised structure were far newer than the others in the woods. We took a ton of photos and videos, and she showed them to a historian at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum. “Yes,” he said, the location aligned with a historic map of fortifications around Pittsburgh. We’d found it!
The Good Question! series taps into everything great about public radio — curiosity, contextualizing the past, and engaging with the community. To build on that success, Katie wrote a book based on the series, hosted three Curiosity Cruises on the Gateway Clipper and held a Good Question! Live event in February 2020.
And now, we debut the Good Question! podcast.
“I’m thrilled to revisit some of our stories, and sprinkle in some new ones about this quirky and wonderful city,” said Katie. “Each episode is less than 20 minutes long, perfect for a commute, walking the dog or preparing dinner”. Subscribe to our Good Question! Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
