Alumnus and WJON reporter enjoys highlighting human interest stories

While life gave him some twists and turns along the way, Paul Habstritt feels he is right where he's supposed to be.

He earned dual bachelor's degrees in mass communications broadcasting and speech communications from St. Cloud State University in 1993. He worked in television and radio for roughly two years in Iowa and then South Dakota before returning to SCSU to pursue a master's in sports communications, which he earned in 1997.

"My intent was to get my master's and then get back into broadcasting as more of like a news director, general management-type thing," he said. "That evolved into the sports degree while I was going to school."

Following graduate school, Habstritt worked with the Brainerd Mighty Gulls baseball team of the Northwoods League. He moved on to communications and project management jobs with Herberger's, Nahan Printing, SpartanNash and Target, among others. Along the way he started working part-time for an affiliate of the WJON radio station, and took a full-time position around 2023. He's currently a news and arts and entertainment reporter with WJON, and hosts a show Saturday mornings from 6 to 9 a.m.

"I think what drew me into it was mainly — to be honest — ESPN and 'SportsCenter' when I was younger," he said. "I watched a lot of that and enjoyed watching the different anchors on there. My goal when I first got into broadcasting was to eventually get into more specifically sports broadcasting somewhere along the line, but I ended up being a fairly decent news reporter."

Habstritt enjoys highlighting the positive feature stories in Central Minnesota.

"I'm just looking to tell some stories that otherwise don't get told. I get to do a lot of things with people in high school or stories on young kids who have made an impact. I did one on a 6-year-old girl in Albany who was running a lemonade stand and donating all her money back to the police department that she was making," he said. "I just did one recently on a young kid in Sartell who wrote his own comic book, got that produced and was doing a meet and greet and selling his own comic book at the community center one day. Those kinds of things are really fun, to get out and meet people and share what they've been able to do."

An avid board-gamer, Habstritt designed and launched a show about the hobby that airs every other Saturday as well.

"We've been doing it about two and a half years. We're starting to get a lot more guests, so it's really fun to get different board game designers and publishers and things like that on. It's probably my favorite part of my job right now, just because it's a hobby I'm into," he said. "When I get to talk to people in the industry or reach out and try and get them to come on the show and things like that … It's one of those where they always say, 'If you're having fun, you're not doing work.' Well, especially when I'm doing the board game show — that's not work. I'm just having fun for hours talking games with people on the radio."

Habstritt especially enjoys meeting different people through his role with the radio station.

"I get to go to a lot of events and festivals where people are pretty happy to see the media show up and give them some coverage," he said. "You get to meet a lot of really great people out and about in the area."

Throughout his career, Habstritt has stayed connected with his alma mater. He volunteered with SCSU student-run radio station KVSC for roughly 14 years before he moved into his full-time position with WJON.

"I was doing their eclectic breakfast program Sunday mornings from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. That was great time there, too, because Jo McMullen was the station manager at the time and she knew I had the background in broadcasting," he said. "They just let me do what I wanted to do with the show. I could play any music I wanted to play. To be honest, I'd probably still be volunteering there, except for when I started at WJON — they needed me Saturday and Sunday. I couldn't keep my show on KVSC, and it was tough to give that up after 14 years."

Habstritt was also heavily involved with the Husky Sports Band when it was first relaunched. He spent over a decade with the band, first as an alumni member playing trombone, and then as a manager.

For students considering a career in broadcasting, Habstritt highly recommends taking speech classes.

"Some of the speech stuff really helped me out as far as — when I'm on air or in front of people — getting rid of the what they call the fill-in words: 'Um' and 'Ah' and 'You know' — getting that out of your speech," he said. "I didn't realize how big an asset it would be."

Habstritt also said volunteering and getting involved are key for those looking to get into the industry.

"If you don't get into the field right away, just keep plugging away. Keep trying, volunteer. There's volunteer radio stations out there where you can volunteer and at least be getting experience and keep honing your resume tape and those types of things. Sometimes life gets in the way and you don't get to do what you want to do, because you have to do other things your life is dictating that you need to do," he said. "I have that 20-year gap between when I left television, went to grad school, and then got back into radio. You can certainly get back into it or find those opportunities if you just keep plugging away."