It’s a new pairing. WTOP veteran journalist John Aaron is co-anchor with another WTOP veteran — Michelle Basch — for mornings from 5:00 to 10:00 AM. Aaron said it’s surreal to be anchoring weekday mornings for the station he grew up listening to.
“Michelle is great, sharp, funny. What else could you want in a partner? She’s also super critical and keeps everybody honest. Keeps us all on our toes,” Aaron said.
Aaron said he’s a bit that way, but Basch is a little nicer.
“We continuously revise stories with the intent of making them better,” Aaron said. “I may write something early and look at it again a couple of hours later and rework the piece. Michelle brings a genuine energy to the table. That helps when we’re bantering about something silly. She also has a genuine laugh and makes the morning fly by. It’s so entertaining.”
Aaron said there is a real connection.
“I’d been filling in for many years at all hours of the day and night,” he explained.
He’d never anchored with Basch before, even though they knew each other pretty well. They’d talk in the newsroom.
“I’d listened to her on the air and knew what she was capable of doing. Any uncertainties either one of us may have had went away quickly.”
They teamed up about a month ago. Everything still has that new car smell.
Basch and Aaron replaced Bruce Alan and Joan Jones, who opted for voluntary buyouts.
“I worked with both of them,” Aaron said. “They were huge shoes to fill.”
Aarron said Bruce Alan covered two Gulf wars, the Mount Pleasant riots in 1991, 9/11, and the D.C. sniper attacks, among other major news events in the area.
“Joan Jones was always trying to get the best information as quickly as she could,” Aaron said of his co-worker. “ But it always had to be right before it went on the air.”
Aaron said both he and Basch aren’t going to force anything on the air.
“There’s always that little safety net in your head. Asking yourself if you’re going too far with something,” he explained. “Or worse, sometimes I worry I’m going to blurt out something that’s not funny. I’m not going to cross a line with a serious story. I might have a little more fun with the world’s oldest dog.”
Old dogs are almost always good for a laugh.
As a kid Aaron said he was a huge baseball fan and still loves the game. That included the Baltimore Orioles, sabermetrics, the whole thing. But out of college he didn’t know if it was going to be sports or news.
He attended Villanova, which he said was a great experience. He admits he probably didn’t pay as much attention in classes as he should have. While in school he volunteered at the fire department.
After college Aaron said he was afforded the opportunity to cover high school sports. At the same time he was working some TV production at Comcast SportsNet (now NBC Sports Washington). Through those experiences he ended up in the sports department at WTOP.
“That’s when I realized this was something I could do for a living,” he said. “I was well informed in the sports department but then I started to get drawn into the news. In the end, news is more impactful when you’re talking about life and death issues. In sports, it’s awesome, but at the end of the day nothing is going to change your life.”
Aaron said at the end of the day you have to ask yourself if what you’re doing really matters. If you’re going to devote your life to something, spend all of your time on something, it should be toward something you value. Also, the news world does include sports.
“I was never a beat reporter, but I’d go out to a lot of baseball games,” Aaron said. “I did some locker room stuff. One time I went on a roadtrip to New York and was in the Yankees clubhouse. The tie-in for that trip was Stephen Strasburg had just been shut down.”
It was about that time Aaron started thinking about a change, a new challenge. The opportunity came out of the blue and appeared to be some kind of destiny.
“I was talking with Bob Kur, the longtime NBC anchor,” Aaron explained. “When he was at WTOP, he and I would talk about news all the time, even though I was in sports. I would suggest topics. Kur told somebody that I belonged in news. Then somebody approached me to train as a news anchor.”
Aaron said he likes to mentor and help train new staffers.
“A lot of what I’ll help them with are technical things,” Aaron said. “We work on a big audio board, play our own commercials, work with a teleprompter. I’ll help where I can.”
In the newsroom there’s a slew of televisions on news stations. Aaron will monitor breaking news. “I like to make sure the new staffers’ copy is up to an acceptable level. Quality copy.”
Aaron said he’s seen a good crop of kids coming into radio from college.
“I know radio doesn’t have the same allure as television, but these kids have to realize we get the audience. I don’t think local TV can match what we do in that regard.”
Many schools no longer feature journalism as a curriculum major. Aaron said it’s all broadcasting and a mix of public relations.
“Strangely, if they don’t stick around the station, I think they stay in radio. I don’t see as much crossover to TV as people say there is.”
He said radio has the spontaneity and intimacy television lacks.
“With my limited TV experience, I’m amazed how much production goes into a newscast: producers, directors, board operators, all the way down to the smallest things. On radio, I’m able to be much more nimble. I can cue my own audio, decide what comes next.”
There’s still the rush of adrenaline with breaking news. “It’s just you out there and that’s it,” Aaron said. “I remember I was sent out to a small plane crash that was tangled in power lines. That was an incredibly elaborate rescue. People had to get out of the plane without it falling to the ground. Going live on the scene is exhilarating. You have to paint the picture, describe the situation whereas a television camera just shows you. That’s the trick. I had to describe the fog, the fire department’s spotlight on the plane.”
When he’s not covering plane accidents, Aaron is a member of the Washington Automotive Press Association, (WAPA.)
WAPA promotes motor vehicle education and professional awareness around manufacturing and regulation. It enhances and encourages the professionalism of journalists and specialists in automotive and related fields.
“I try to cover auto stories when I can,” Aaron said. “I don’t get to do it as much since I’m anchoring every morning. We have a segment called Friday Test Drive. It’s useful to our listeners who are largely in their cars. You’re going to need to know something about how your car operates sooner or later.”
If the car they test drive doesn’t meet his standards, Aaron said he’s critical of the vehicle.
“Today we covered the Ford F150 Lightning,” he said. “It’s electric and we felt it was short a note. Its range is going down in colder weather. They’re hard to get.”
His love of cars probably preceded his love of radio.
“I got my first car when I was 15, and it is a 1951 Chevy Styleline Special.” He can speak about the car in the present tense as he had the foresight to hold on to it. “It’s painted a 90s Ford Purple,” he said. “It’s loud, makes too much noise. I’m getting some work done on it right now.”
Aaron said he was lucky to get that car.
“I heard a quote from Jay Leno who said he was fortunate to be in a position to not have to sell a car. If you can hold on to something, why sell it? I’ve never sold any of my cars.”
So where does this newsguy keep these cars?
“I’ve colonized our garage,” Aaron said. In addition to the Chevy he has a 1972 Caprice. “Much to the dismay of my wife. We were looking for a house with a barn so I could keep the cars out there. We didn’t find one. My wife found a house she loved and told me I could have the garages if we bought the house.”
His father was into cars. His favorite car was a Porsche 911.
“He took me with him to a dealership when I was five and after that I was hooked. He put me on the right track and I could see his reverence for cars.”
Aaron reads when he can, liking books on politics, history, and tries to keep up with the auto trade magazines.
“You learn about the new products. It’s very ‘in the weeds.’ When they get into the minutia, my eyes glaze over.”
His dream car? Aaron said that changes. When we spoke it was a 1957 Nomad. He said his ‘51 Chevy has such an iconic look.
Aaron said there is a flipside to owning such an iconic car.
“It’s horrible when it comes to safety,” he said. “They’re so dangerous.”
Most of us probably think of a ‘57 Chevy as a Sherman tank. I know I did.
“The older cars don’t dissipate as much energy as the new cars,” Aaron said. “In crash tests it performed so poorly. It was all about how the forces were transferred that caused the older car to be crushed.”
