ACE Spectrum
ACE Spectrum
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The Talent Shows in KALW Audio Academy Stories on Public Safety
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
This week we launched our public safety series featuring stories from the Audio Academy.
Eli Wirtschafter was up first with a great interactive piece about earthquake preparedness. I really appreciated his scene-setting, the way he clearly made the subjects comfortable, the choice of very fun quotes and language, and the sense that I was receiving insight into some useful and practical information. Eli has a serious talent for radio, and he’s excelled at every task we’ve put before him.
Next, Truc Nguyen reported a very timely piece exploring the homeless issue through the lens of tiny houses. I liked the scene at the top connecting listeners to the homeless couple, and it really popped when they noted that their stuff had been stolen only a few days before. I really felt the public safety connection in recognizing the value of sturdier shelters for people living in tents. Truc has been the hardest working member of the Academy, dropping into the station every day last week, and her diligence is really showing in the professionalism of her work.
We’ve got more in the series coming up next week, and I’m so proud of the Academy members and KALW’s managing editor Jen Chien for seeing the project through. It’s a real accomplishment, and it’s great content to share with the Bay Area!
We featured some other terrific content from the Academy last week, too. Eli arranged an impassioned interview with Representative Barbara Lee. Geraldine Ah-Sue facilitated and later edited and produced this beautiful multi-generational Storycorps piece on mortality. And Ian Lewis produced this dynamic interview with Caroline Paul about her book Gutsy Girl. Nice, nice work!
One more thing I’d like to mention: we’ve got one week left until the application deadline for the next Audio Academy class. We’ve received 18 applications so far, including several from around the world! We’re looking to bring in the most diverse class of go-getters that we can, so check out this link and spread the word!
Audio Academy at KALW Learns Pitch Techniques and Audience Desires During Visitors Week
By Guest Blogger Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
When we were setting up the Audio Academy syllabus for the year, there was one week that everybody circled. Visitors week: a week when people who make public media as we know it come in and talk with our class. That happened last week, and as expected, it was one of the most dynamic of the year.
Detour’s Marianne McCune (left) and Luisa Beck (right) share insights about their scene-rich storytelling with the Audio Academy.
On Monday, longtime public radio producer Marianne McCune and one-time KALW trainee Luisa Beck came in to talk about the work they do for Detour, a San Francisco-based app that provides audio for walking tours around cities. A lot of public radio people have been finding well-paid creative work with the outlet, and this was a good opportunity for our Academy to get a sense of how they work. Marianne is a real hero in the public radio world, and she talked about her work both as a reporter at WNYC in New York and as a teacher with Radio Rookies, a training program out of the station.
It was also fun to catch up with Luisa, who made some a variety of really great stories for Crosscurrents about people reentering society after long prison sentences. Check those pieces out, here. We had a big turnout for the conversation, and Academy members Tammy Drummond and Geraldine Ah-Sue pitched stories to Detour.
Snap Judgment’s Joe Rosenberg (right) sits in for a conversation with the Audio Academy.
Tuesday brought Joe Rosenberg from one of the fastest growing shows on public radio, Snap Judgement. Their offices are in Oakland, and several KALW alums have worked with them on stories and in production. Joe talked about the meticulous pitch process Snap employs as well as the intensive story workshop meetings they have for every piece in the weekly, hour-long show. Then he fielded live pitches from Academy members Truc Nguyen and Lisa Bartfai.
Suzie Racho and Victoria Mauleon from The California Report dropped in to lead a
The California Report’s Suzie Racho and Victoria Mauleon (top right) discuss their statewide, weekly news magazine with the Audio Academy.
seminar on Wednesday. TCR is a great outlet for our students and staffers to pitch, because it’s locally-based at KQED public radio, but it’s got one of the largest reaches of any public radio news program, with outlets around the entire state carrying its daily and weekly program. We had a great conversation about the changing nature of what the audience wants, focusing on reporting with personality while retaining strict journalistic ethics, and it was really nice to connect with our colleagues at the Bay Area’s other NPR affiliate. Luisa Cardoza and Eli Wirtschafter pitched stories, and, as you may remember from another blog post, Eli has already had a story run on TCR.
We saved the biggest organization for last, with NPR Western Bureau Chief Jason DeRose joining us by Skype on Thursday. He’s a great friend of KALW, giving us sound advice on stories to pitch for national, and recently placing stories from several of us (including me, Julie Caine, Jen Chien and Judy Silber) on NPR news magazines. In fact, it was during a pitch session a few years ago that Jen had her story about the tribulations of City College of San Francisco get accepted for air on All Things Considered. Ian Lewis and Shereen Adel pitched stories to Jason.
Students at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism listen to Audio Academy alum David Boyer’s story about being homeless in San Francisco during a lecture from KALW News Director Ben Trefny.
I couldn’t be there for that, though, because I was invited to present to a radio journalism class at the University of California at Berkeley that day. I spoke with about 15 students about my background and how I worked my way up as a volunteer reporter and producer at KLCC in Eugene, through an internship at KQED, and into a growing role at KALW where I’m now News Director. I continued my ongoing conversation with others about using an authentic voice for telling stories and shared examples from former Audio Academy members Liza Veale (’15) and David Boyer (’14) with the class — Liza’s story about development in downtown Oakland, and David’s story about a homeless woman in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. It was great to have the opportunity to highlight the stellar work done by our trainees!
Students of KALW Audio Academy Pitch For the Whole Crosscurrents Show
By Guest Blogger Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
Hannah Kingsley-Ma (’15), Angela Johnston, Ninna Gaensler-Debs, Jen Chien, and Raja Shah (’15) show their stripes in the news department.
This was the week the Audio Academy had been preparing for. This was the week their experiences listening to stories, fact-checking shows, discussing the various big pictures of what’s going on in the Bay Area, pitching stories, and reporting news and culture features would come together in one document: the whole show pitch.
Every student gets an entire half-hour Crosscurrents show to fill. They can follow our usual format, with a newsy feature followed by a related interview and a third piece. They can center the show around a conversation and create support features that the interview responds to. They can create a documentary-style program. It’s up to them, and we’ll help them achieve their vision.
I was especially happy with the topics our students are looking to take on:
– the future of renewable energy
– collective bargaining in the gig economy
– immigration and identity
– empowering at-risk black boys and young men
– different types of healing in the Bay Area
– living with sex offenders in the Bay Area
– the state of transgender acceptance
– the future of Bay Area public transportation
We’ll be honing the pitches over the next couple of weeks, and we plan to start airing them before graduation in June.
Meanwhile, we’ve started receiving applicants for the 2016-2017 Academy. Last year, we received 82 applications for eight slots. Click here to read about what we’re looking for. The application period is open until the end of March.
Before I go, I’d like to highlight the KALW stories reported this week by people who have been part of the Audio Academy:
Hearing Highlights Tension Between SFPD and the Public – Jeremy Dalmas (’14)
Can Factory-Built Homes Curb the Housing Crisis? – Liza Veale (’15)
Oakland Negotiates With Developers and Community Members to Sell Public Land – Liza Veale (’15)
Audiograph’s Sound of the Week – Aunt Charlie’s Lounge – Hannah Kingsley-Ma (’15)
Shereen Adel (’16) files a public records request with the Oakland Police Department as Ian Lewis (’16) observes during a class on investigative journalism.
And here’s the first voiced story from Shereen Adel, class of 2016: