There are two clocks on the wall of the Pacific Palisades home of Kerstin Zilm, the West Coast correspondent for German Public Radio, ARD. One gives the local time and the other the time in Germany, nine hours ahead. Zilm’s work is controlled by these clocks, as she prepares reports and does live interviews for over 60 German public radio stations and an average daily audience of 32 million people. Her subject matter ranges from the Academy Awards and the Michael Jackson trial to other subjects of interest to her German listeners’Governor Schwarzenegger, the environment, stem cell research and personal stories of Southern Californians involved in the war in Iraq. The day begins at about 6:30 a.m. when she turns on the TV news, scans the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and USA Today’and checks the e-mail from her colleagues at radio stations throughout Germany, asking for reports on various subjects. Although about 70 percent of her assignments come from editors in Germany, she develops other story ideas on her own, and puts her own spin on assignments. For example, with the Oscar story, she prepared a preview story on the accountants who tally the Oscar votes. Inside her rented Castellammare home is her studio, where she produces her reports’that range from 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes, although she at times has done longer pieces up to half an hour. She enjoys the process of editing, adding sounds from a library of sound effects, sound bites from her interviews as well as her own voice. Zilm, who has been studying English since fifth grade, also translates all her interviews into German. Zilm, 40, wanted to work in radio since she was 14, growing up in a small town near Freiburg. ‘I loved listening to radio, and it sounded fun and interesting,’ she recalls. ‘I wrote to one of the radio hosts, saying ‘I’m Kerstin, I want to do the same thing as you; what do I have to do?’ I got a nice letter back, saying go to university first, study anything, and then try it with internships.’ She followed the advice, first graduating with a degree in the history of theater from Ludwig Maximilian Universitaet in Munich, and then interning for a private radio station in Munich in 1989. ‘I like that radio is fast, you don’t need a lot of equipment, just a tape recorder and microphone.’ Four months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she began an internship in Berlin. ‘It was a very exciting time for me, and I think that was the time when I discovered that I would love to be a reporter rather than sitting at a desk and editing. I interviewed people who could now travel, who were not allowed to have private companies and did it anyway.’ ‘I was so happy, I had wanted to do this for 15 years’it was great and it still is.’ Zilm continued working in Berlin as a reporter, host and producer for public radio. After a two-month scholarship to the U.S. in 1994 through RIAS (Radio in American Sector), she became more involved in reporting on transatlantic issues, and worked at ARD’s Washington, D.C., bureau before taking a year off to work freelance. After returning to Berlin, she got her dream job in March 2003 as the U.S. West Coast correspondent. Zilm likes to concentrate on personal stories. ‘I try to show that the government is not everything. The U.S. has different opinions and different people.’ For example, one story she did concerned a class at Cal Poly, where students were discussing what could be done to stabilize Afghanistan. She received requests for transcripts from teachers in Germany who wanted to do the same thing. ”My intention was to show that Americans were not ignorant, which some people in Germany tend to believe.’ Although she travels to other parts of the West Coast two to three times a month, she says ‘There’s a lot you can do inside L.A. It’s so diverse.’ A favorite story involved a former surf champion who started a program to bring inner-city kids to the beach and teach them the sport. ‘I was surprised that many kids had never been to the beach,’ says Zilm, who was amused that the youths wanted wetsuits that were two sizes too big so they could be baggy. With the sounds of the kids and the ocean, Zilm was able to create a sound portrait of the program. She also has fun doing live broadcasts. These can vary widely since ARD has so many different stations. Even one area’s station might have five different frequencies, devoted to news, classical music, young people, etc. ‘I’ll talk to young DJs at a hip-hop/ rap station, they’ll joke and be funny, ‘Hey, Kirsten, what’s happening in L.A.?’ Next is an in-depth program on a very serious station regarding political commentary.’ She enjoys the variety. ‘The adrenaline is running very high.’ She keeps notecards in front of her to be prepared with facts for any line of questioning, although some questions it’s hard to prepare for. For those, Zilm uses a technique she learned from politicians she interviewed in Berlin ‘finding a way to link the question to what she knows. A part-time assistant assists her with research. Zilm, whose American boyfriend lives in Washington, D.C., is two years into her five-year contract. Being far away from family and friends in Germany is the hardest part of the assignment, but otherwise she loves it. ‘I think being in the Palisades is being in paradise.’ Zilm has loved her ocean-view home, but will have to find a new home in June when the owners move back in. She has also noticed differences between Germany and America during her time here. ‘When I first came to the U.S., I noticed Americans are encouraging and positive,’ says Zilm. ‘In Germany, people say ‘We’ve never done that or I don’t know if we can do that.” Driving all around car-centered L.A. has been another one of the adjustments made by Zilm, who was used to stepping out of her Berlin apartment to have a coffee or beer, see movies or take the Metro.
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