KALW Audio Academy Students Start Broadcasting Stories
By Martha Sessums and David Boyer
It’s an essay test. Well, a special kind of essay test for KALW’s Audio Academy students. Their assignment was to profile a place, and the first broadcast piece is about blue spandex and “give me sexy” at a backup dance class at the Academy of Ballet in the Castro.
It’s the result of what the Audio Academy class has learned over the past three months. Think developing and producing stories for radio is easy, think again. It may start with picking your story, but then you have to write for radio. That includes sound gathering, production in ProTools, voice training, story structure, the art of the interview, writing the lede, setting scenes, transitions, how sound can tell the story, then editing for tempo, time, and mixing in the engineering room.
The results are coming through, and here is the first piece by David Boyer. Check it out below. The piece makes you want to break out your spandex and start moving. Then watch the video of the class backup dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Applause,” and answer the question: who is the guy in the blue jams on the right? Is he in technology, “a doctor, drag queen, teacher or investment manager”? Boy, is he having fun!
This is an awesome story, David. Thank you. ACE Spectrum will post the other Audio Academy student’s work as they are broadcast. The class is two-thirds through the first semester, and have Spring semester to follow. Enjoy!
Wow! What a marvelous story about a great class! Makes me want to jump right on a plane and attend.