ACE Spectrum
ACE Spectrum
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San Francisco High School Interns Report on Working at KALW
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
Eloisa Herbert, Susanna Luo, Allison Ajpop-Perez, and Kasey Chen share their second award of the summer on their last official day at KALW.
Last week was our last week with Allison Aj-Pop Perez, Eloisa Herbert, Kasey Chen, and Susanna Luo, our bright, cheerful, smart, motivated, and diligent summer high school interns from the San Francisco Unified School District. It was a real pleasure to have them in our newsroom, and we’re looking forward to scheduling a listening party at the station where we’ll share their stories!
Earlier in their internship program, I asked them for their thoughts about working with us. Here’s what they had to say:
Kasey Chan
My name is Kasey Chen and I am a high school intern here at KALW radio station this summer. So far, I have had a really fun time here because I’m learning something new everyday, and everything I do contributes to something bigger. I enjoyed learning how to use a recorder – which was something I never thought I’d use – as well as how to use ProTools professional audio editing software. Getting to tour the station and watch people do recordings in studios was fun as well, because I got to see what I will be doing eventually. I am also being pushed to talk to others in order to set up interviews, and talking has always been a problem of mine – because of this, I can grow to be more comfortable talking to people. Additionally, the atmosphere of the newsroom has always been very friendly, and I feel like I can be at ease with everyone here.
Allison Ajpop-Perez
The past two weeks at KALW have been great. Everyone is nice and helpful. The vibe is very positive as well. It has been very exciting and interesting because I got to interview people whom I didn’t really know and I got to know them better. I was also able to learn how to properly hold a recorder and learned how to adjust the levels and to always record room tone. I learned how to use the program ProTools which was really fun, because we got to ask people around the station to pick a number and at the end we put it all together in a sound mix. I enjoyed listening to a different piece of radio everyday, because I got learn a lot about places in San Francisco or around the Bay Area that I have not heard before. I also loved the different sounds that were in each piece because they went very well with the story.
Susanna Luo
During my time in the KALW Newsroom, I learned how to use a recorder and Pro Tools to record and edit audio. While practicing with the recorders, we interviewed various staff at KALW and learned more about them. Jeremy [Dalmas ’14] and Holly [McDede] had us listen to radio pieces to learn about how they are formatted and made to help guide us when we create our own. We began working on our pieces after we pitched and did research and contacted the people we planned to interview. I did some of my interviews already, but there is still much more to be done.
Eloisa Herbert
In my two weeks here working here in the newsroom, I didn’t expect any part of what happened to happen. I didn’t expect for it to be so fun and welcoming. Everyone is so kind and something new happens everyday. I’ve learned a lot, like how to use a recorder as well as ProTools. I’ve learned a lot just from watching others in the newsroom record or write up their scripts for their piece. Everyone working here has a very unique personality, and it really makes the room come alive!
Changes and Good Stories at KALW, Plus The Summer Interns Walked In
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
We’ve been going through some significant transitions in the KALW news department, with some beloved people moving on to new and exciting opportunities and some terrific talent coming in to become key contributors to our operation.
We bid farewell in the late spring and early summer to Audio Academy mentors Julie Caine (now heading Al Jazeera Digital’s podcasting department) and Leila Day (in distribution negotiations on her podcast The Stoop with Hana Baba) as well as longtime sound engineer Chris Hoff (who recently toured the East Coast with live performances of his podcast The World According to Sound) and Audio Academy graduate Ted Muldoon (’15), who moved from mixing a variety of shows for KALW to developing podcasts for The Washington Post. We miss them all, and we wish them well!
At the same time, we offer a warm welcome to Marissa Ortega-Welch, our health beat reporter, who will take on more hours, coordinating our work with San Quentin Radio and helping to manage our now widespread training programs. She will also be a new Audio Academy mentor. Another new mentor is Raquel Maria Dillon, a longtime public radio, AP, and commercial television journalist who’s joining our team as a half-time editor.
We have three other hires who will be integral to our work in the coming year.
– Lee Romney had a 23-year experience as an LA Times reporter before recently turning her attention to radio, studying with the Transom Storytelling Program where she learned from Leila, and joining us as our part-time education reporter.
– Gabe Grabin is a sound engineer with over a decade of experience, most recently working on an award-winning weekly show about mental illness called Safe Space Radio out of Portland, Maine. He says, “KALW is one of the few stations in the US that is making the kind of radio that I’m really drawn to – curious, adventurous, and socially conscious – so I’m excited to take that leap.” Us, too!
– Jackie Sojico is a multitalented reporter/producer/engineer who went to the SALT Institute for Documentary Studies (like Liz Mak [’14]), worked as a Storycorps facilitator (like Chris Hambrick [’15]), was an AIR New Voices scholar (like Geraldine Ah-Sue [’16]), worked with Nebraska Public Radio, and produces a science podcast called New Heads For New People. She also, apparently, bakes pies (like many of us) and likes puns, so … a natural fit!
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Despite our transitional staffing, we’ve been knocking out some really interesting and good-sounding shows the last couple of weeks. Here are some highlights:
– The extraordinary David Boyer (’14) produced an entire documentary: The real story behind the Summer of Love. Super listenable, sound rich, and interesting.
– The next day, we were able to rally and pull together a whole half-hour show surrounding San Francisco’s Navigation Centers on June 28th. It was made possible by the powerful Lauras of Mission Local – our own summer reporter Laura Wenus who made a feature, and Laura Waxmann, who came in for an interview. Also, thanks to Nicole Grigg (’17) for inspiring the show and bringing in a +A on the Dogpatch Nav Center.
– Corinne, another summer volunteer, made a really amusing and surprisingly touching Audiograph about the Drag Queen Story Hour as a pretty quick turnaround piece. It featured the voice of Audio Academy grad Beatrice Thomas (’17), aka Black Benatar, and the cameo at the end of the show was totally memorable. Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!
– We reworked and aired the first story in a series by Audio Academy alum Daphne Matziaraki (’14) about The Shipyard, a massive redevelopment project on the east side of San Francisco, right before the long-awaited opening of hundreds of housing units. We updated the story with shots from a professional photographer who offered his volunteer services, and the piece became the most popular on KALW’s website, topping a thousand clicks.
– We aired a Q&A from cost-of-living reporter, and Audio Academy alum, Jeremy Dalmas (’14) about a proposal to create a municipal bank in Oakland. Again, the timing for this story was excellent, with the city council considering the idea in its next session
– Also, we debuted Oakland Voices reporter Damu Dailey‘s epic story about East Oakland’s Evergreen Cemetery, produced with Jeremy’s help. This story was originally performed live at the Sights & Sounds of East Oakland, and it’s an extraordinary and worthwhile history lesson.
– We took on San Francisco’s building boom from a birds’ eye perspective, with a piece from Audio Academy graduate Claire Stremple (’17) about a tower crane operator. Gutsy reporting accomplished, appropriately, by a rock climber!
– That was followed by a quick turnaround, fun story from Audio Academy alum Chris Hambrick (’15) profiling San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival co-artistic director Carlos Carvajal.
– And we reaired a piece from another Audio Academy alum, Hannah Kingsley-Ma (’15), about the Flower Piano program at the San Francisco botanical gardens, which launched its third season that day.
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Susanna, Kasey, Elly, and Allison share the KALW news department award for being awesome.
Finally, I’d like to give a big shout out to the high school students working in our department as paid summer interns: Susanna Luo, Kasey Chen, Eloisa “Elly” Herbert, and Allison Ajpop-Perez. They’re getting great attention and care from Jeremy and his teaching partner, our justice reporter Holly J. McDede. It’s such a pleasure to be in the company of such confident, attentive, positive, and fun teenagers! We are really appreciative of them being part of our team this summer, and we’re looking forward to hearing their stories in just a couple of weeks! You can expect to hear from them directly in my next blog post!
Audio Academy Class of 2017 Graduates, But the Show (and the Work) Goes On
By Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
They did it!
Greer McVay (’17) shares a laugh with KALW development director Annette Bistrup and ACE board member Bob Gerhardt.
We celebrated the graduation of the Audio Academy class of 2017 with an event at the Sunnyside Conservatory near the station. It was a beautiful space, and a wonderful event, with many emotional and meaningful speeches that deeply moved me. Reveal‘s Al Letson gave a terrific keynote address about the importance of journalism about and for all people, the Kitchen Sisters‘ Davia Nelson and 99% Invisible‘s Avery Trufelman spent the evening with us, as did three members of the board of the Association for Continuing Education, whose support makes the Audio Academy program possible. Also, it was terrific to see our former managing producer Julie Caine return from heading Al Jazeera‘s podcast initiatives to be part of the party. This was a great and memorable time, as you can see from pictures taken at the event.
Congratulations to the graduates!
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Al Letson, host of Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, gives the keynote address at the 2017 Audio Academy graduation ceremony.
Kanwalroop Singh (’17) receives a messenger bag stocked with KALW gear and a membership to the Association of Independents in Radio from her mentor, KALW managing news editor Jen Chien.
Cari Spivack (’17) checks out her graduation certificate.
Nicole Grigg (’17) makes a point.
Josiah Luis Alderete (’17) shares some thoughts.
This week, I came back from a very relaxing vacation to what could have felt like a crazy, hectic news department. In addition to wrapping up our work with the Audio Academy, we’ve got 12 new summer volunteers in the house, four high school interns, and a bunch of hires going on, in addition to putting together our daily show! But I’ve got to hand it to our committed and caring team of Hana Baba, Jen Chien, Jeremy Dalmas (’14), Leila Day, Audrey Dilling, Ninna Gaensler-Debs, Chris Hoff, Angela Johnston (’14), Hannah Kingsley-Ma (’15), Holly McDede, Lisa Morehouse, James Rowlands, Steven Short, Judy Silber, Andrew Stelzer, Liza Veale (’15), our beat reporters, and our Audio Academy fellows for helping make our transition (and ongoing transitions) work out so smoothly. (I hope I didn’t leave anybody out there!) I’ve heard from
High school interns from the San Francisco Unified School District train with KALW’s Holly McDede and Jeremy Dalmas (’14).
summer volunteers that they’re feeling good and well cared for, and it’s been truly awesome to see our high school trainees, Allison Ajpop-Perez, Kasey Chen, Eloisa Herbert, and Susanna Luo cruising around the station making recordings!
Sixteen new people in the department! Amazing!
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Even though it’s most certainly a very busy time, we had a phenomenal week of Crosscurrents programs. Some highlights from Audio Academy fellows and alums along with our new summer reporters include:
– some really fun audio gathered by sound engineer James Rowlands along with summer reporters Jesse Rhodes and Corinne Smith of people celebrating the Golden State Warriors‘ championship
– a lovely, listener-generated story about a hospital program for cuddlers by Nicole Grigg (’17)
– summer reporters Andy Bosselman and Laura Wenus going to the scene of the mass murder in San Francisco on Wednesday to record a stand-up account of what happened. We also aired a poignant interview Laura and Andy conducted with a UPS employee who identified himself as “Mr. O”
– housing reporter Liza Veale (’15) airing a sound-rich feature looking at how Lake County towns have and have not recovered from a wildfire.
– a moving piece from L.A. Scott at San Quentin Radio about terminal inmates being released so they could die outside of prison walls
Remarkable work, team!
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Friday morning, we received this note from a listener:
To the KALW reporters and management,
Yesterday I heard an interview with one of the employees, Mr. O, of the UPS operation where the shooting occurred in SF this past week. I found the interview incredibly touching. This was not a “sound bite” but a true heartfelt expression of the feelings of the man caught in this horrible experience. I want to thank you for such good reporting. I found your reporters were very respectful of Mr. O and showed concern for him as well as getting a good story.
Not only did I learn about how the experience of witnessing this tragedy affected Mr. O but also his own efforts to improve his life and live near his children. This brought me closer to the lives of so many working Americans than all the statistics we could recite.
Thanks for a job well done.
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And check out the power of sharing stories! Nicole’s “Local Hero” piece about the cuddlers at the Stanford Children’s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit was picked up by the hospital’s social media account, and, as I write this blog post, it has received 926 likes, 41 comments, and 65 shares from there alone:
Stanford Children’s Health – Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford
Yesterday at 5:16pm
“Parents spend as much time as they can with their hospitalized newborns, but they sometimes need to be away from the bedside. KALW public radio is recognizing a special group of “heroes” at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford who offer comfort and support: the baby Cuddlers.”
The full story is here: