Martha Melendez is the new intern at WHAV.

Northern Essex Community College student Martha E. Melendez, a liberal arts major, journalism/communication option, has joined WHAV as an intern. Her responsibilities include contributions to news gathering and reporting, producing the “Community Spotlight” program and on-air broadcasting.

Melendez, a resident of Lawrence, attended Greater Lawrence Technical High School, where she earned a certificate in marketing communications.

“The opportunity to work in an environment like this one is terrific, because good communication skills, both personal and technological, are the key to success in any field of endeavor,” says Melendez.

The WHAV call letters have been associated with local broadcasting since 1947. WHAV is today operated by Public Media of New England Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. Since 2004, the call has served the Merrimack Valley’s pioneer Internet radio station at WHAV.net and a number of public access cable television stations in Andover, Haverhill and Methuen, and Plaistow and Sandown, N.H. The station is also heard over AM 1640 in northern Haverhill and Plaistow, N.H. The Federal Communications Commission has tentatively selected WHAV to receive a new FM license at 98.1 MHz.

NECC offers an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts with a journalism/communication option, which prepares students for transfer and for careers in print or broadcast journalism,including jobs with newspapers, magazines, publishing, television or radio.