Tanya Ott




Tanya Ott is a part-time editor at WBHM and instructor for the University of Alabama's journalism department. She hosts a podcast on business strategy and emerging technologies and trains public radio newsrooms around the country. Over her 30+ year career, she has reported for Marketplace, NPR and other networks and worked at local stations in Florida, Colorado, Georgia and Alabama, including as WBHM's news director from 2002-2013.

Autism Rates

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Minority Research Day

UAB hosts its first Minority Research Day today. Organizers say it's a chance to highlight the work of minority scientists -- both graduate students and faculty. It also helps in recruiting new minority faculty to Alabama. Mona Fouad, director of UAB's Minority Health and Research Center, talks with Tanya Ott about the challenges of attracting African-American and Hispanic students and faculty.

Mental Music

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Black Farmer Lawsuit Update

Tractor motors and irrigation systems dominate the conversation at the Central Alabama Farmers Co-op in Selma, but farmers here, especially black farmers, are also keeping close tabs on the discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers alleged that the agency routinely denied them loans and other technical assistance offered to white farmers. In […]

Medical Bankruptcy

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

12 Days of Christmas

Okay, here we go: the 12 Days of Christmas. Since we’re a lot closer to the 12th Day than the first, we’re gonna do them backwards. So, on the 12th Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 drummers drumming. That’s easy enough to find in Birmingham. “I’m Mark Libby, principal percussionist of […]

Resume Creep

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Black Farmer Lawsuit

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

World’s Longest Yard Sale

The grassy shoulders of the Lookout Mountain Parkway are littered with everything from furniture and electronics to handmade quilts and lawn ornaments. But the residents of the houses that dot this usually calm 2 lane highway are hardly complaining: Instead, they have set up concession stands to sell lemonade, polish sausages, and funnel cakes to […]

Youth Workforce Development

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Sock Capital of the World

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Drug Reimportation: Promise or Peril?

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Food Safety

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Fast Food Trends

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Nursing Shortage

Scores of young nurses learn their IVs from their catheters each year at the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital. But UAB’s nursing school has turned away nearly 100 qualified applicants in the last year because it didn’t have the people to teach them. Associate Dean Elizabeth Stullenbarger co-chairs a regional committee that surveys nursing faculty […]

Living with Arthritis: Joseph’s Story

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

If Money Grew on Trees

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Philanthropy: Venture Philanthropy

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Philanthropy: Transfer of Wealth

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Medical Residents: Underpaid/Overworked

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Hormone Replacement Therapy: Risks & Benefits

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Child Care Crunch

Carol Pierson is a fighter. After escaping a violent marriage, she fought to get off welfare and find a good job at a local university. ‘I work in the human genetics department. I’ve been there a little over 2 years. I love my job. I enjoy working there.’ After taxes, health insurance and mandatory retirement […]

Unclaimed Baggage

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Recycled/Remade: Folk Art at the BMA

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama

Election: The Numbers Game

UAB professor Larry Powell is ‘the poll guy’. When media outlets want to do a political poll ‘ more often than not they tap Powell for the job and ,boy, has he been busy these past few months! “Typically in politics the odd number years are off years, where you’re supposed to it back and […]

Remembering James Rachels

Across the University of Alabama Birmingham campus, faculty and staff are mourning the death of Dr. James Rachels ‘ a philosophy professor who wrote some of the most influential work on euthanasia. Bio-ethicist Greg Pence was a long-time friend and colleague. Speaking recently with WBHM’s Tanya Ott, he shared the story of how he first […]

School Fees

Tatnisha McTerry and her kids have settled into the morning routine.10-year-old Detrick and 11-year-old Justin scrub their Michael Jordan tennis shoes till they shine. “It’s 6:55 boys! Six-55! You’ll be rushing to catch the bus in a minute.” McTerry is playing catch-up financially. Registering four kids for public school has made a real dent in […]

Hair Cut Check Up

For many women, the hair salon is a confessional of sorts. Between perms, dye jobs, and liberal doses of gossip, they talk about current events, marriages, and family problems. “My oldest wanted an earring. Marcus he’s 12. No, no, no, he gotta prove some other things before he can get into that stuff. But you […]

Health South: A Non-Profit Reality

Gary Edwards is happy to forget the old building his organization -‘ United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Birmingham -‘ used to inhabit. “We’d probably been in that particular one for 30 years -‘ we held it together with duct tape. That was a part of town that was kinda changing.” That’s a polite way of […]

Free Press Post 9-11

This is a military town. It’s home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, which along with the Marshall Space Flight Center, employs roughly 10-thousand people. So journalists like Huntsville Times Business Editor Shelley Haskins are used to dealing with a certain amount of red tape. “The military has never been buddy-buddy with reporters, imbedding aside. But […]

Wide Awake

31-year-old Hunter Bell admits he’s addicted. Bell: Not only am I watching TV, but I’m also listening to radio stations and also looking at the internet’ excuse me. Bell was up till 3:30 in the morning early in the war. Since then he’s scaled back a bit ‘ hitting the sack between midnight and 1 […]

Filling The Gaps: The Dental Dilemma

NPR News and Classical Music for North Central Alabama