Podcasting, anyone? Public Radio Folks Join Us in the Virtual Labs

2008-03-08T22:21:00-05:00

Jones Franzel aka RadioJones, Jaimita "Jay" Haskell aka sweetz1122, and Kiera Feldman aka radiokiera will be joining us in the Storque room of the Virtual Labs for a special Wednesday Online Workshop. They'll be beaming in via webcam from Maine and Providence. Live, at the Etsy Labs, we'll have Jaimita, a youth radio producer who participated in WNYC's Radio Rookies program. We'll be dicussing making DIY radio and podcasting and emerging online venues for indie radio producers. We'll also be chatting about our favorite radio shows and podcasts to listen to while making things. No production experience required and all radio-lovers are welcome!

What: Podcasting & DIY Radio Online Workshop
When: Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 1-2pm (Eastern time)
Where: In the Storque room of the Virtual Labs on Etsy.com
Why: For the love of sound files, of course!

Anyone can join us the Virtual Labs! All you need is an Etsy username (it's free and easy to register). Here's a post explaining how to use the Virtual Labs and a list of all the events we've had in there.

Podcasting, anyone? DIY Radio tips from the Public Radio Exchange

2008-03-05T14:34:00-05:00

As part of our podcasting series, we invited some radio producers and youth radio community organizers to share their passion and expertise. Kiera Feldman aka radiokiera and Jones Franzel aka RadioJones will be joining us Wednesday, March 12th, 2008, in the Virtual Labs for an Online Workshop. They'll be taking questions about how to get started in DIY radio and tricks of the trade. You can learn more about what makes them tick here.

But first, they wanted to point newbie podcast-makers to these helpful tutorials. They picked out some that are technical and also ones that will get you inspired when asking yourself, "What in the world could I make a podcast about?" Here's Jones and Kiera...

Generation PRX is a project of the Public Radio Exchange to support, promote and distribute youth-produced radio. If you've ever wondered how to get started in radio, Generation PRX can help. While the site was started for youth radio producers, new producers of any age can visit the site for DIY tutorials, online audio workshops, and resources. Like Etsy, it's a place where a community of people who love to make things share tips and advice.

Once you've learned some of the techniques, go to Public Radio Exchange to post your work for listeners to review and for stations to license and broadcast. Post in the comments below to let us know what you think!

DIY Tutorials to get started:
From Youthcast host Kiera Feldman, a soup-to-nuts video tutorial on how to make a podcast: http://genprx.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=825456%3ATopic%3A9121&xgs=1

Want to make a story that is entirely sound? Sam Greenspan gives the lowdown on non-narrated stories:
http://generation.prx.org/group/diyradioproject/forum/topic/show?id=825456%3ATopic%3A9142

"Even the most stubbornly wallflowered can rock the airwaves." Producer Lena Eckert-Erdheim with sage advice on being brave for radio:
http://generation.prx.org/group/diyradioproject/forum/topic/show?id=825456%3ATopic%3A9684

Further Resources:

You can subscribe to the Youthcast podcast Kiera is running in iTunes: phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=91643624
RadioDiaries has free online Handbook.
Transom.org is also a great website to explore if you're interested in DIY radio and podcasting.

See previous posts in this Podcasting Series.

Podcasting, Anyone? New Voices are Changing the Public Radio Marketplace

2008-03-03T00:30:00-05:00

In this Podcasting Series, we'll be cross-pollinating with a community of independent radio producers. What do we have in common? A love for making things and expressing ourselves, a desire to connect with other passionate people, and a variegated cross-section of people ranging from amateur to professional and everything in between. We're also ambitious and want to change the status quo!

Public Radio is in a period of dynamic experimentation, trying to capture the energy of the Web 2.0 by crowdsourcing content from user-generated contributions and reaching out to hear new voices. In the interview below, I spoke with radio producers and community organizers Jones Franzel, Jaimita Haskell and Kiera Feldman, who will talk with us about their adventures in independent radio in an Online Workshop on March 12th. The piece below is sprinkled with some links to favorite shows. Post more of your faves in the comments below!

Vanessa: Let's start this off on the right foot...Why do you, Jones, Jaimita and Kiera, love radio?
Jones: What other medium puts you right smack in the middle of a story, lets you see and hear and imagine and experience it, without actually showing you a single picture?… Plus, radio is fun and relatively inexpensive to make, it’s also compelling, honest, and interesting. A good radio story can change your life.

Kiera: I'm finishing college right now, and I find that radio has led me to all kinds of new interests. There’s a quote from Gwen Macsai that sums up my feelings well. She hosts Re: Sound — a terrific show on Chicago Public Radio. On a DIY radio site called Transom, she writes, “Radio is my first love and like a first love, no matter how far you stray and no matter how badly it ended, your heart still skips a beat when it walks through the door.” Isn’t that great?

Third Coast has a yearly radio conference and competition. You can sample some of the emerging talent on their website.
Transom is a website where radiophiles and podcasters gather to talk shop.

Jaimita: Wow… why do I love radio? It’s different... It’s a different type of connection – radio forces you to listen, it forces you to think about what you’re hearing and actually see it in your mind and feel what you’re hearing…After all these years, people still come up to me and say, “I really appreciate your story.” I want to say, “That was 6 years ago!”

The Kitchen Sisters produce radio documentaries — and they have this way of choosing the most amazing, unexpected topics. Give Hidden Kitchens a listen.

Vanessa: Jones, Can you introduce yourself and explain what PRX and GenerationPRX are, for those who don't already know? What is the relationship between Radio Rookies, YouthCast podcast and GenerationPRX?

Jones: The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is kind of like Etsy for radio — it’s an online marketplace for distribution, review and broadcast of public radio programs. It’s also a social network of producers, stations and listeners collaborating to reshape public airwaves. GenerationPRX takes these tools and dedicates them to supporting, connecting and distributing youth-produced radio. We work with over 50 youth radio groups (including Radio Rookies) and hundreds of teens and teachers who are making new, different and engaging radio, and we help get these heard. The YouthCast podcast is one way we help share some of this radio with a larger audience — it’s curated and hosted by the amazing Kiera (who also runs the YouthCast podcast), and goes out through alt.NPR.org This a long way of introducing myself as having a dream job! I’ve been the project Director of Generation PRX since it launched in 2004. (to get more detail on Generation PRX, please see read this).

Vanessa: Jaimita, Please introduce yourself. What is your background with the Radio Rookies program and how did you get involved? What was your experience with radio growing up?

Jaimita: I got started in radio when I was in high school... When I was in school, Czerina (Patel – former director of Radio Rookies) came to my journalism class. She came in to present, and when someone comes into present and you’re a teenager, you hear “blah blah blah.” I filled out the application, but it was real short, and Czerina said, “Fill it out more in depth.” I did, but I wasn’t accepted into the program at first — someone dropped out, and then she called me. At the time I was like “No, I wasn’t your first pick!” But my mother said to do it. The experience was crazy. I was the only black female that was in my group and the reason why I say this is that the people in my group and I ... never ever ever spoke before [we got involved in the program], but all the people who went into the program had a really good bond.

Growing up, the only thing with radio was music to me and 1010 WINS here and there, I never knew — NPR, what? It wasn’t brought up in my household, though music was very important to me. I was always listening to the radio, but if anybody told me I would have been into this when I was younger, I would have said “yeah right, sounds boring.”

Radio Rookies, a youth radio project based at WNYC since 1999, matches mentors to teens. Listen to the Radio Rookies pieces and read more about the project here.

Vanessa: Kiera, can you give us the low-down on the YouthCast? How did you get involved in radio? Can you tell us about how you came to KBOO Youth Collective, in Portland, Oregon?

Kiera: Each YouthCast podcast features just one example of all of the exciting work that’s bubbling out of the GenerationPRX hot springs. I like to say that YouthCast is a glimpse into the Magic 8 ball of radio’s future (and the outlook is good).

Like most “how I found the thing I really like to nerd out about” stories, I kind of stumbled into radio. As a freshman in college I went to an open house at Brown Student and Community Radio where I met a formidably talented producer named Kathleen Ross. We hit it off and started a humor show called Gladiators of Awesome. Kathleen was an alum of Blunt Youth Radio in Portland, Maine. Home in Portland, Oregon for summer break, I wanted to learn editing so I showed up at the KBOO Youth Collective’s weekly meeting and said, “Teach me!” The amazing Erin Yanke (youth advisor) basically replied, “Sure! This is how you edit sound. Go make whatever you want!”

The moral of the story is that community radio is a beautiful thing. You can learn production skills, plot collaborations, and, most importantly, have a space to produce for fun.

Radio Diaries does series (Prison Diaries, Teenage Diaries, AIDs Diary) where they give equipment to people who record their lives, and then Joe Richman, the producer, shapes the tape into documentary pieces. They also offer the incredibly useful Teen Reporter Handbook for free (and it's not just for teens!).

Vanessa: Jones, can you speak a bit about the GenPRX platform and its role as a marketplace? How do you see the internet changing the face of radio?

Jones: With the internet anyone can make audio stories — once you’ve got access to a computer, download Audacity, take a free online tutorial (like this one from Kiera) and boom! You are a podcaster. In the same way that Etsy showcases various items, GPRX curates audio to direct visitors and stations to pieces that match their interests, and users can rate and review pieces for others to see. The review function has multiples purposes — it lets users identify pieces, helps producers improve their work for air, and creates a conversation between makers of radio.

Download Audacity and get right to experimenting! Audacity is a free, open-source audio editing program. You can also record into your computer if you have a line in, or just use Skype to conduct interviews.

Vanessa: Jaimita, did you have a moment where you realized the impact radio had on your life? Or the impact your radio pieces had on others? Or was it a gradual thing, or a thing that always made sense to you?

Jaimita: Yes. One of the impacts radio had was that it separated me from everyone else in high school. I had a story where I had to bring my Marantz recorder into school — which was very embarrassing (they called it a karaoke machine) — but it set me apart and made me different before my story was even finished.

One of my friends actually listened to my story one time, and she looked and me and was like, “I never knew you felt that way.” The story was a way of communicating with another peer, even though she was close to me she didn’t know that I was upset.

StoryCorps is a project that enables everyday people to make a recording of an interview: it's like a radio oral history project for the Internet Age. The project sets up recording studios in places like Grand Central station or the public library in Nashville, and anyone can sign up, go in, and record an interview with a friend or family member. Find out more on the StoryCorps website and get their podcast here.

Vanessa: Any other suggestions for listening — especially shows that work with user-generated content or bring new voices to the airwaves and people's iPods?

Jones: Many many of the groups on GenerationPRX also have their own podcasts you can find through their websites, and you can always start your own. Vocalo.org is an exciting new project at WBEZ that’s working almost entirely with community-generated content. The internet has also opened up new ways to find radio personalities. Last year PRX ran the Public Radio Talent Quest, a hugely popular competition with an open call for submissions.

Kiera: Check out Tell Me More to see how new shows on NPR are starting to involve audiences in the production of the show, by blogging about upcoming shows and integrating audience input from comments.

See other articles in this Podcasting Series. Post your favorite radio shows and podcasts in the comments below!

Storque articles by radiokiera

Podcasting, anyone? Public Radio Folks Join Us in the Virtual Labs

Podcasting, anyone? DIY Radio tips from the Public Radio Exchange

Podcasting, Anyone? New Voices are Changing the Public Radio Marketplace