A public servant is somebody who works in the government, right? How about a radio traffic reporter?
Photo courtesy of WTOP
WTOP afternoon traffic reporter Bob Marbourg, 70, thinks of his job as a public service that carries plenty of responsibility. For over 35 years, Marbourg has warned more than one million drivers about crashes, overturned trucks, roadblocks and any other transportation mayhem that can make things more difficult to get from point A to point B.
“It is an imperfect process. We [at WTOP] just do it better than anybody else because our listeners are totally invested in the process,” he says.
The “imperfect process” has changed over the years with the growth of social media—they routinely post and receive updates on Twitter—but Marbourg says a phone call still has an informative value that a 140-character tweet lacks. The immediate back-and-forth allows him to debrief the caller and gauge how confident they are in their report. Callers to the WTOP traffic hotline should be prepared to answer if the traffic is heading toward Washington or Haymarket, if the incident is on a road or a shoulder, which exit is it near and if there are any responders at the scene.
To get more familiar with the roads in the District, Maryland and Northern Virginia, Marbourg takes a cruise on some weekends to see the roads his listeners are driving on every day. He puts a video camera in his car and watches the footage at home to take notes in over 30 ADC maps (yes, print maps) that have nuggets of wisdom not found in Google Maps. A big help in his maps is noting where mile posts are on highways. This way when somebody calls with new information, Marbourg can get a better idea of where exactly they are.
The Prince George’s County resident has watched the D.C. area’s immense growth throughout the decades. He remembers when rush hour was only from 7-9 a.m. and from 4-6 p.m. and recalls when Centreville was in the middle of nowhere. He also understands that all of this growth means more people are out on the road and traveling farther to get to work.
“More and more people have gone further and further out to find a home that they can live in, neighborhoods that they can feel comfortable in, schools they can put their children in. Then you turn around and figure out, ‘OK, now I have to get back to work. And how do I do this? I get up earlier every day,’” Marbourg says.
He was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame for the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, but he insists his work is not about him. It is about the listeners who need to get to work or pick up their kids from daycare on time.
“Thank you very much. I appreciate the recognition,” he says about his SPJ award. “Now I’ve got to go live up to it.”
(September 2015)