Editorial: So long, farewell, Ithaca [AUDIO]

Dear listeners, friends, & comrades,

January 22, 2021 was last day as WRFI News Director. As we continue to face this global pandemic I’ve decided to move to a city (NYC) so I can be closer to family and loved ones in these tough times.

It has been an absolute honor to work alongside this outstanding news team team. We don't often talk about the behind the scenes of our operation, but this station is a real community. And this team has also responded with incredible vigor and heart to support one another, and continue to inform, and entertain our listeners - even in the most challenging of times

Looking to the near future, starting Monday, January 25th, the regular evening WRFI News program will go on hiatus, and all next week at 6 p.m. you’ll hear a special broadcast of our collaborative public affairs series Which Way Forward: Reforming Public Safety, with short headline newscasts during the day. If you'd like to provide feedback on a new iteration of the program, the team would love your input.

I’ve loved working here at WRFI, sharing the stories of this amazing community; from tackling climate change, uplifting voices of social justice movements - to covering elections, local events of all kinds, and hearing the unique stories of our neighbors in Tompkins and Schuyler Counties. 

I owe so much of who I am as a journalist and broadcaster to my comrades and co-workers at WICB-FM, Cayuga Radio Group, WRFI, and of course, the other local reporters I’ve met along the way. 

For 8 years I’ve been an Ithaca resident, where the studio was my playground and the Greater Ithaca area was my adoptive home. I will miss this place dearly.

I wanted to close out this farewell with an excerpt of the poem “Ithaka” by C.P. Cavafy, translated by Edmund Keeley. 

As you set out for Ithaka, hope your road is a long one,

full of adventure, full of discovery…

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all….

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,

you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

It has been an absolute honor to share stories with you, listeners, in my 18 months as WRFI News Director, and my 7 years on the Ithaca airwaves.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I hope you stay tuned to WRFI, and keep supporting this incredible thing called community radio.

Sincerely,

Michayla Savitt