CMA student tour Bloomberg headquarters

By Joshua Pohl

For 12 lucky students, the second day of the CMA conference began with an exclusive tour of Bloomberg headquarters. The tour consisted of a look behind the scenes of how the company runs its various radio and television stations across the world.

Students navigated through the subways on the journey there, by the General Manager of the WDBM Radio Station of Michigan State, Jeremy Whiting.

“It was cool to see how they integrate radio and television altogether. It’s obvious that through their workflow they consider them both equally as important,” Whiting said. “So we even saw a lot of the radio studios they were setting up for video recording, live broadcast, you can basically use any asset for anything with their whole ecosystem, whether it’s in New York or around the world.”

On arrival, students were greeted with a COVID-19 test, received badges and were then granted access to the building. Once inside, met with their tour guide, Charlie Pellett.

Pellet is a reporter and news anchor for Bloomberg and has been with the company since 1992. In addition to his work, he has also lent voice acting work to the New York City Subway stations and the popular band AJR.

“What makes Bloomberg so special to me is the depth, the intelligence, and the work ethic on the part on the part of co-workers. There are so many people in this company. If I want to go to a co-worker to learn facts about a big bank, odds are good that that person not only knows everything about the bank, they’ve written a book about it,” Pellett said. 

“They’ve got that wealth of expertise and on top of that there’s the amount of information, the facts that I have access to at my fingertips, and that is what makes my job in a sense, so easy.” he stated. 

Participants of the tour witnessed live recording studios, newsrooms, office spaces and had the opportunity to meet behind-the-scene editors. Walking through the process of a Bloomberg story from finish to end as well as how each is specialized for different parts of the world is also something they got to delve into.

The participants of the program were chosen randomly out of the number of students who could register before the conference. Of these participants, Kylee Brown from North Idaho College, whose favorite part of the trip was the charismatic Pellett and the massive Bloomberg HQ.

“I was really impressed by the person who gave our tour. He was incredibly knowledgeable and very willing to share his experience. I was really blown away by just the Bloomberg building, in general, is unbelievable.” Brown said. 

The tour concluded with a visit to the eighth-floor lounge, where they received refreshments and a final chance to ask Pellet any additional questions about what Bloomberg does. After returning their badges and catching a subway train, students returned to the CMA conference.