Remember NPR’s leading sound engineer Renee Pringle: NPR

Rene Pringle, pictured during a journalist’s trip to Paris in early 1989 (she can be seen lifting reporter Rene Montaigne pictured right). The longtime sound engineer NPR passed away on October 16.

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Melissa Block / NPR

Rene Pringle, pictured during a journalist’s trip to Paris in early 1989 (she can be seen lifting reporter Rene Montaigne pictured right). The longtime sound engineer NPR passed away on October 16.

Melissa Block / NPR

Colleagues paid tribute to NPR’s sound engineer, Renee Pringle, who died Sunday after experiencing a number of health challenges in recent months.

Pringle has helped shape and protect the sound of NPR for more than 40 years. She is remembered as a pioneer in her field, a prolific and consistent presence – even in the most raucous overnight frenzy – and a friend to many.

In 1979, she started on NPR as one of the first black female sound engineers, at a time when few women were working professionally in sound.

“Renee joined NPR in an era when our engineers carried huge 20-pound recorders in the field, and everything was taped to tape reel to reel,” said Chris Nelson, senior vice president of technology operations at NPR. “I have recorded and engineered countless field interviews, music shows, and NPR programs.”

You don’t know her voice, but you know her work

Countless mixed pringle pieces for morning edition The Night News Bulletin, among other programmes, and Many colleagues remember it For her invaluable technical guidance (many reporters credit her with “rescuing” them early in their careers).

Her work took her abroad, across the country and into the halls of government. To celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2019, Pringle shared a snapshot of her Congressional press pass (expiring in 1992) and a photo of her and First Lady Barbara Bush bragging about each other.

While NPR fans have not heard Pringle speak on the radio, they have “heard her voice through all the voices of humanity that she has brought to listeners for over 40 years,” as a poll reporter Hansi Lu Wang put it.

Pringle also served as technical director for the 26-part Peabody Award winning film valley in the water A documentary series on gospel music, produced by NPR in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution in 1994.

Speaking at a 2019 panel on the series, Pringle said that engineering takes a lot of hard work, but that’s at NPR and especially with valley in the water, “I was at home. I felt it in my bones.” She mused on her favorite recording from the series, which Howard University choir performances had a particularly quiet number (“Wise Engineer”) in a DC church centuries ago.

“They did this a few times, because it was just really quiet clips,” Pringle recalls. “I’d go crazy if I heard anyone swallow. If I heard them blink their eyes, I’d hear it. And I’d say, ‘Who did that?’ “They had to do it again. Fortunately, everyone was very cooperative.”

Quick to share her experiences with others

Pringle’s dedication to her profession stood out to many of her co-workers. sound engineer Remember Stu Rashfield that “Renee cared deeply about sound and was generous with her knowledge.”

I just learned of the passage of time @NPR Sound engineer Renee Pringle. Renee joined NPR in 1979, when only a few women were working in the field of sound engineering. She has spent more than 42 years serving our audience. Rene took great care of the sound and was generous with her knowledge. 😔 pic.twitter.com/zG34USzw55

– Stu Rashfield: #Kindness (@stu_rush) October 17 2022

There was no one else quite like Pringle, but the two had a lot in common: He knew his late first wife from middle school, Tom Cole, a prominent arts editor who retired in 2021 after more than three decades at NPR. , was one place ahead of him in high school and they both drove an old Volvo. But he really got to know it when they worked together on NPR, “dubbing LPs into RCs; mixing on reel to reel.”

“Renee had a musical ear – she could really sing a piece (a cliché but it was really true in her case). She didn’t use a lot of emotional intelligence – she wanted to show humanity in the voices,” he wrote, referring to the equalizer in sound processing. Moreover, he added, “I commanded your respect, and you did not suffer fools.”

Carlin Watson, Executive Producer of here right nowShe says it was Pringle who first taught her to cut the tape (a process that seemed… very different in the nineties than it is today).

“When I was a student at Howard University learning radio production, he brought in our professor Renee to teach us how to cut tape with a razor, tie tape, and pencil,” she wrote. “When I joined NPR two years later, she remembered me. She was tirelessly kind.”

Highlighting many NPR . visitors

Several colleagues shared similar memories of Pringle’s kindness and generosity – with her knowledge, time and friendship – not only with them, but with their families and guests.

Watson remembers that when her niece and nephew visited NPR years ago, Pringle let them sit behind the microphone and recorded them, “to their excitement.” Even years later, when they became adults, they never forgot the experience – and Pringle would always ask her how they were doing.

Wang recalls the kindness Pringle showed to one of his former middle school teachers and his wife while touring the building. Not only did she let them into the control room while she was working, but she took the time to show them the equipment and answer their questions.

“They had their day given a warm welcome by someone who helped build this institution through the decades,” he said.

Special Reporter Susan Stamberg, one of NPR’sfounding mothersPringle says she was loved by many, whether they worked with her for days or weeks.

I got to know and admire Pringle when they traveled together to Nairobi, Kenya, to cover the International Decade of Women conference in 1985.

“I approached all the complex international vocal work, always with a smile and looked for the next challenge,” Stamberg said. “The Kenyans we worked with gave her a nickname: Jerry. It meant something sweet, like ‘dear’ or something… for the next 30 years or so, that’s what I called it.”

‘Secret Fashion Designer’ will be sorely missed

Pringle has influenced not only the voice she’s worked on over the decades, but the people she’s worked with – whether it’s sending out Stamberg’s birthday notes, mentoring teens, or sharing Organic vegetables With co-workers, the night shift.

Michelle Martin, host Weekend all things considered, says she got a closer look at a side of Pringle that not many people do: “She was a secret stylist.” It was a bit of an open secret, though many others also used words like fashion and style to describe Pringle.

There was a clothing store they both loved down the street from the old NPR office, and Martin wrote that “we might sometimes find ourselves there [on] Afternoon … only, you know, once in a while.”

She says Pringle was so knowledgeable about the store’s inventory that she would suggest things for her to look at, and more than once helped her choose Christmas gifts for her friends (and for Martin herself).

“I have rarely worked with Renee as [technical director] In the studio but somehow it felt like she was working part time [technical director] out of my wardrobe.

Colleagues say over the years they’ll miss Pringle’s voice on the other end of the line, her sense of humor and honesty – Whether with her or with others.

“It was always a pleasure to meet her in the halls,” Stamberg says. “I hope to look forward to the next time that happens.”