2 minutes with: Juanita Hurtado Huérfano
Juanita Hurtado Huérfano (Jour’25) knew she wanted to be a journalist, but never dreamed of working in radio until a chance encounter at a career fair led her to volunteer at KGNU. She soon became news director at Ҵýƽ , winning a Broadcast Education Association award for best audio comedy/drama. After graduating, Huérfano moved to Tampa, Florida, where she works at WMNF.
Photo by Kimberly Coffin
Responses edited for length and clarity.
Where did your passion for radio come from?
I actually wanted to be a print journalist. But after volunteering with KGNU, I fell in love. There’s something very beautiful and powerful about letting people tell their own story with their own voices—their excitement, sadness, anger.
A powerful story you worked on was with News21—tell me about that.
I joined News21 with Celia Frazier (Jour’25) and we looked at bilingual voting resources. We discovered there are about 26 million voters in the United States who don’t speak English. For , we went to a voting registration fair for the Native American Diné people and saw how the challenges of language access translated into difficulties participating in the civic process.
What have you brought with you from that experience?
One of the things that really stuck with me was the fact-checking process. Being attentive to detail really matters. Those details enrich your story, and I’ve brought that to my newsrooms at both at Radio 1190 and WMNF.
And you just started there. How is it?
We focus on what we call “conscious radio,” so a lot of our coverage focuses on social justice, equity and elevating unheard voices. I love that community radio brings together so many different people, allowing you to develop diverse and nuanced relationships with both colleagues and sources.
What’s it like running a newsroom?
Busy! I do about three newscasts a day, on top of training volunteers in reporting stories and recruiting students to create newscasts. I’m excited to hear about what college students are learning and build community with them. We’re in an industry that has changed so much in the last 40 years and we have to keep adapting. I’m really excited to grow the station alongside them.
Hannah Stewart graduated in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news at the college.