NOT YOUR AVERAGE MISCHIEF MAKER Written by Craig Kaminer / Photography by David Kovaluk
The first time I met Sarah Fenske was at a new business presentation for the Riverfront Times (RFT), where we (my former agency Twist) were proposing an aggressive campaign to relaunch the RFT to mean The Real F’ing Truth. We knew it was a bit over the top, and may even offend some, but considering the history of the weekly, I was convinced we were on the right track. Sarah was the editor-in-chief and came to the meeting a little late. I had never met her before so I was surprised that the badass editor behind the RFT was charming in every way. She was wickedly smart, in the know, not scared of speaking the truth and challenging conventional wisdom, not to mention having the looks of a model, the athletic appearance of a runner, and the sense of humor of a stand-up comedian. She appeared to like the campaign and felt it was on strategy for the brand. But as luck would have it, the campaign never went anywhere. The RFT was changing (as were most print media). With a few defections and a slight change in focus and resources, the campaign which I was convinced would work so well was dead before it got out of the gate. Fast forward nearly a decade, Sarah took the job as host of St. Louis on the Air on St. Louis Public Radio, the local National Public Radio affiliate, filling the role which Don Marsh had held since 2005 and vacated suddenly in 2019 following a series of questionable comments he made to or about women. Fenske was the perfect candidate for this role as she is direct, fair, and doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics. She seemed like the perfect person for the job at the perfect time in St. Louis media history so I remained in touch with her, listened to her show, and occasionally sent her an email with my thoughts, a suggestion, and even a pitch or two. As a hard working, deep thinking, and research-oriented reporter, she has adapted well to life on the radio. Her guests are wide ranging: exploring issues and challenges confronting our region, discussing the latest innovations in science and technology, taking a closer look at our history, or talking with authors, artists, and musicians. Sarah brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work, and create in our region. While politics are not part of her show, most people would say that NPR leans left, but Sarah is happy to spar with any and all perspectives. I Zoomed with her recently to find out about her childhood, her family life, her take on the state of journalism, and what she loves most about St. Louis. Our conversation was fast and furious, witty and
sarcastic - as is Sarah - and I fell more in love with her style and radio personality. What follows is an excerpt of our conversation: According to Sarah, she’s from the boring suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, and the second kid in a family of five. “This was a big family without a lot of money. We were just a pack of feral children running loose. My dad taught high school English and at that point my mom was staying at home with us. We were just a wild bunch.” “I had the privilege of my parents still being married and all that good stuff. I was attracted to journalism because I really liked writing. My family is middle class enough that nobody encouraged me to be a novelist or what I really wanted to do; be a playwright, because these were not considered feasible careers. They said I should be a teacher, like that’s what women were meant to do. But I wanted to write. And so I thought, ‘I could get paid to be a journalist. I’ll write profiles and features about people.’” “I got my first internship but it was unpaid because I didn’t have a journalism degree. I wasn’t in a journalism program. I had no idea what I was doing. The editor of this magazine, who must have seen the troublemaker in me, asked me what I really wanted to do? I told him I wanted to write a profile where people will see that person - just saying what I thought he wanted to hear. He responded that he didn’t think that is what I wanted to do at all - instead telling me that he thought I really just wanted to get somebody indicted! I had never thought of myself that way. Then he added, ‘Yeah, you wanna go out and bust the bad guys.’ Yes I do!” “To this day, I’m not sure if it was what he saw in me or because no one had ever given me any career advice that I followed that path. That internship helped open the door to my first position at a daily newspaper. And yeah, I wrote stories that got the mayor indicted. There was something in me that wanted to make the world better than it was. If people were doing something wrong, I had this righteous anger. As I’ve gotten older, I have more sympathy than righteous anger, but you know, hell hath no fury like a 21-year-old given a chance to write for a newspaper.” “My Twitter handle says ‘seeker of truth, maker of mischief.’ That was what I was up to in all my years at weekly newspapers - actively causing some mischief. I don’t know that mischief is what they want me to do at St. Louis Public Radio,” she says with a chuckle. “And I respect that. This job is fun in different ways. I think the mischievous side of me now is more something I say as a parent. I’m fairly amused by life, but I’m not actively stirring things up anymore. But for 20 years, that was a lot of stirring things up!” Fenske first came to St. Louis in 2010 as managing editor of the RFT. She then spent several years in Los Angeles at a weekly newspaper before returning to St. Louis in 2014 with her then fiance, who was from a family who has been in St. Louis for several generations. “Because I’d already spent a year living here and was now part of this family, I had a grasp of St. Louis and felt more confident that I got this city. When I joined RFT as editor-in-chief, it was about how do we begin to cover this complicated city and help it be a better version of itself? When I decided to come to St. Louis Public Radio, I knew it was a new challenge and that it was going to be so hard and so scary. I knew I might be bad at it for a while, but I wanted to see if I could learn something new. That was the challenge I needed after 20 years of print journalism.” slmag.net
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