Ashley Wolfgang is a summer intern at Clear Channel Communications in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a company with multiple radio stations in the Twin Cities, including Cities 97, KDWB, KOOL 108, and K102. Wolfgang writes for the online news blogs for each station and covers breaking entertainment news that happens throughout the workday. She also copy edits a weekly online newsletter for each station, posts on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and attends exclusive recording sessions with artists in town.

Describe your day-to-day experiences so far.

My work day typically revolves around the amount of music news and activity going on. Sometimes I write up to 10 stories in one work day, and some days I'm happy if I can find one story to report on.

How have your Knox experiences benefited you in the internship?

The newswriting and reporting course I took my sophomore year definitely gave me all the skills needed for the internship. It taught me the perspective and flexibility needed to be a journalist, and how to turn around stories in the fastest amount of time possible. The class also gave me the opportunity to have a feature story on a local cellist published in Galesburg's The Register-Mail, which definitely put me ahead on my internship.

My love for music has also, obviously, benefited me in the internship. I occasionally cover shows happening on campus for The Knox Student, have my own show for Knox radio station WVKC, and write about my music obsessions on my personal blog.

How do you think this internship will benefit you in the future?

I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to jumpstart my journalism career. I can definitely see myself doing something along the same lines in the future, either writing for an online news blog similar to this internship or writing/editing for a major music publication such as Rolling Stone or Pitchfork. Those are the larger dreams, but I basically just want to be involved in the music journalism industry in any way that I can. Because I'm being published online exclusively covering music related stories for this internship, I can see this opportunity leading me to greater heights.

What has been the coolest part of your internship so far?

Besides getting stories published daily online, I've been able to attend exclusive recording sessions with artists such as Foster the People, and I've received free tickets to a music festival called the Basilica Block Party here in the Twin Cities, where I got to see The Head and the Heart and Cake live. It's a dream come true!

What have you learned?

I've learned that writing for an online publication is really all about the art of interpretation -- understanding how you can report different stories so they can speak to the eclectic listener base of each station.