Sometimes we report about feel-good stories. It’s not often we do. The vast majority of news covered in media outlets today concerns what went wrong in the world that day, not what went right. That’s the nature of the beast. When we do report on stories that we hope will give readers or listeners goose bumps, it’s important not to sensationalize to get that effect. If the story and it’s characters are powerful enough, it’s bound to happen naturally. That’s the tightrope that Zach Hirsch was forced to walk in his harrowing Transom report “100%”.

The nine-minute piece tells the story of Jerry Peckham and his mother Dari Whitehouse, a marathon runner who finally achieved her goal of running in the 2013 Boston Marathon. By now, you know what happens next. The bombings, and subsequent chaos that erupted along Boylston Street on April 15th rocked the city of Boston, and Hirsh’s report transitions seamlessly from runner to son, a desperate search to be reunited in the wake of tragedy.

From a technical standpoint, Hirsh’s audio is tremendous. Jerry’s and Dari’s narration, which makes up the bulk of the report, is crystal clear, and the moments where Hirsh pipes in ominous music or nat sound from the Marathon to set the scene works flawlessly. From a professional standpoint, I found virtually nothing wrong with the audio quality. The impressive editing of the audio is part of what makes the story so interesting. At it’s core, Dari’s story is no different than thousands of others who ran in the Marathon that day, but the story’s pacing, background noise, and most impressively, it’s intuitive use of silence are all factors into what makes it such a captivating story. Hirsch could have written poetically, sensationalizing a story that needed no such, well, sensation, but instead, he let the captivating characters tell the story. Indeed, there isn’t much narration to be had from Hirsch, he let’s his characters do the talking.

I thought his production choices in this story were among some of the best I’ve ever listened to in radio news. He was just present enough to be felt as the reporter, but scaled back his involvement to let the real stars of the story shine. The background noise of the explosion followed by five seconds of stone still silence was the moment that sent shivers up my spine. Hirsch knew exactly what to do, and how to do it, and didn’t get in the way in the slightest.

Lastly, his story and message were abundantly clear. There’s nothing confusing about the story. It moves well from one plot point to the next, moving chronologically after the initial introduction to the report’s characters. I thought Hirsch and his report were a great choice for an audio story. It incorporated everything you’d look for in an impressive audio report, while keeping the sensationalism to a bare minimum. Compelling characters and transportive nat sound can just about tell a story on it’s own, and “100%” encapsulated that, 100%.