Category Archives: Pitches

calls for pitches

Pitches

Innovation Hub is looking for pitches

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Call for pitches from WGBH's Innovation Hub – details below! -Mia

Innovation Hub is a new national show, from WGBH and PRI, about how the world is changing and how we'll be living next. Yes, we cover tech and startups. But we also look back at important inventions that have changed us, and forward at new ways to change human behavior and the world. We examine what it takes to be successful, what genius is made of, and what causes failure. We're an hour-long, weekly show that includes conversations from some of the biggest thinkers of our day. You can check us out at InnovationHub.org.

We're looking to expand our coverage to include more reported pieces about innovations happening all over the country – from Manhattan to Meridian, Idaho; Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania to Seattle.

We're now accepting pitches from reporters at local stations or freelancers. Repurposing a piece that aired locally is fine. Pay will be commensurate with other national public radio shows.

Please send a short email with a description of your story, as well as links to previous work, to mary_dooe@wgbh.org, and we'll take it from there.

Pitches

Seeking new soundy works for Soundproof. And more.

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Call for pitches from the fabulous Julie Shapiro – recently relocated to Australia. Details below!
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Greetings from the antipodes / RN's Creative Audio Unit!

We've just launched a call-out for new works for our evening program Soundproof (8pm Sundays, 9pm, Fridays), and of course I'd love to hear from ALL of you.

We're seeking 5-15 minute works, inspired by:
– unspoken stories – tell us a story not driven by words
– audio photographs – what are your ears looking at?
– high/low: sound art meets junk food. literally.

A few more details here:
http://bit.ly/SPcallout
Send links to audio or pitches: soundproof@abc.net.au

While I've got you, I'm pretty looking for pitches for both shows on a rolling basis: all durations and styles: narrative work, fiction, essays, dramas, hybrids of all of that, soundscapes, composed audio features, brand new forms you've just invented…any/all of it welcome for consideration.

Have a listen to a few shows to get a feel for what we're doing, find out more about each program, read guidelines for submitting:
Radiotonic – http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic/
Soundproof – http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/

Don't be shy (or quiet)!
Julie Shapiro

shapiro.julie@abc.net.au

Pitches

Call for pitches – Misadventures

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This new(ish) venture looks rad – call for feature pitches below. -Mia

Misadventures (misadventuresmag.com) is an outdoors/adventure lifestyle magazine for women, and we're gearing up to launch our first print issue and we're looking for long-form features. If you've got a story or scoop about an incredible place, journey, pioneer, overlooked moment in history, injustice, women-led project in progress, or something completely different, we'd love to read it. 
We pay between $400-$600 for features. Send pitches to misadventuresmag@gmail.com.

Pitches

upcoming opportunites with Above the Fray, UnFictional, and CBC’s How To Do It

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If you work in public media and you're not yet an AIR member, you should be. (And I don't work for them, I'm just a member and a big fan.) A slew of opportunities have popped up on their listserv recently. Here are a few with upcoming deadlines. Go for it! -Mia

1) The Above the Fray fellowship deadline is July 1, 2014. 
Learn more about the fellowship's history and requirements here: http://www.thejohnalexanderproject.org/apply.html. 

2) UnFictional is seeking pitches (topics: Spying/Eavesdropping, The Unreliable Narrator, The Phone Call). They are always looking for great stories outside the themes, too. (ongoing deadlines)


3) The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio show How To Do It: The Guide to Everything Else is looking for submissions for upcoming episodes. Deadline July 7, 2014.

How To Do It is a half hour radio show that explores how to do the things you never learned in school, by hearing from people who have lived through these situations. 

To get a sense of the tone of the show and the kinds of stories we like you can check past shows atwww.cbc.ca/howtodoit. The show puts a premium on surprising stories and unexpected interpretations of the theme. The tone is often tongue-in-cheek, cheeky, and humorous. Stories should have some amount of levity. At the same time, stories can still address serious topics. 

We are looking for approximately 5-7 minute radio stories based on the topics below. These could be stories you tell about yourself or pitches about people's stories where you would gather the tape. 

We are open to creative interpretations of the topics and any ideas for innovative use of tape to enhance the story telling. 

Please send a paragraph describing the story you would like to tell to streleaven@gmail.com 

We will pay CMG (Canadian Media Guild) rates ranging from $75-$500 depending on the nature of the submission 

  • *DEADLINE MONDAY JULY 7TH**

    HOW TO SELL OUT 
    We are looking for stories of people who ditch their values or moral integrity for some other end – fame, money, power, love. Or perhaps less enticing reasons – a free clock radio or praise from a superior. The more dramatic/amusing the about-face, the better. (Attention: priests who have become pimps.) Maybe the "sell-out" is deeply personal: you were a diehard vegan until you discovered smoked meat. What is your sellout threshold and how did you determine it? We want to hear how you were bought. 

    HOW TO LIVE IN CAPTIVITY 
    How have you survived captivity – whether it was doing time in a prison, on a cheesy cruise ship, or at a bad family reunion? We are looking for stories of being trapped, held hostage, or living in captive. We're open to both literal and figurative interpretations, and bonus points for both levity and any instructional component. 

    HOW TO SPEAK TO THE DEAD 
    Have you ever had a conversation with the dead? Perhaps you had an encounter with a ghost, participated in a seance or got a message from a Ouiji board? Or maybe you're haunted by someone long gone? Is there a ghost you just can't let go of. We want to hear about what haunts you, and how you dealt with it.

    • Pitches

    Latino USA call for pitches

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    Lots of great themes here. Send your pitches to Latino USA!
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    Here’s a list of the program themes that Latino USA is working up over the next few months. Along with the descriptions, I’ve also posted the air date of each show, in case you have ideas with particular time hooks. Please send pitches to: pitches@futuromediagroup.org.

     

    OUTDOOR ADVENTURE (ongoing)

    Get out there and have fun! If your outdoor adventure idea also has an element of environmental stewardship in it, all the better.

     

    ESCAPE (8/1/2014)

    Getting away, becoming free.

     

    GENIUS IS…(8/15/2014)

    Thomas Edison said it was 1 % inspiration and 99% perspiration. We’d like stories about working, tenacity, following a vision.

     

    SHOWTIME (9/12/14)

    Performance, celebrity, entertainment.

     

    ALLIES (9/19/2014)

    Unlikely friendships, strange bedfellows.

     

    LANGUAGES (9/26/2014)

    ‘Nuff said. (Or written.)

     

    THE FEAR OF…(10/3/2014)

    Stories about what scares you, and about overcoming fear.

     

    TARGETED (10/10/2014)

    From marketing to hunting.

     

    ISLANDS (10/17/2014)

    That can be literal (like stories from the Caribbean) or figurative (like isolation and/or breaking out of it).

     

    ELECTIONS (10/24/2014)

    Democracy, voter participation, voter suppression. (One example would be a story about the Texas lieutenant governor’s race.)

     

     

     

     

    Pitches

    Pitch to Snap Judgment! Latest theme list.

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    Hey folks. Snap Judgment wants your stories!! Really, don't feel shy. They genuinely want to hear ideas from folks so even if you think you MAY have a good story, send it along. But please follow the guidelines below. Good luck!

    -Mia

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    Greetings Snap Contributors,

     

    The time has come for another Snap Judgment themes list. 

     

    But before we get to that, a quick word on pitching the show.  In our last newsletter, we talked a little bit about the elements we’re looking for in a story (multiple scenes forming a narrative arc, a main character wrestling with a central tension, blah, blah, blah…), but we also want to give you a tip about how to pitch the story once you’ve found it.  And it’s actually a really simple trick.  Are you ready? 

    Good, cuz here it is: Don’t pitch us a public radio story. Pitch us a MOVIE.  

    A typical public radio pitch invariably describes what a story is broadly about, more often than not some kind of compelling concept; a movie pitch summarizes a sequence of events.  Give us the enticing premise, introduce the compelling characters, then describe the thing that sets the story in motion, the rising stakes, the unexpected development, the third act twist, and the ending that somehow feels unexpected and inevitable at the same time.  Okay, it doesn’t need all those things, but you get the idea.  

     

    Anything that sounds like a movie (or a short film) will definitely get our attention.   Because that’s what we do, we make cinematic stories that just happen to be audio-based — usually from a first person perspective.  And if you can’t pitch your story as a sequence of events?  Well, then, it probably wasn’t a Snap story in the first place.

     

    Okay, onto the themes:

     

    ***Any Really Good Story***

    We will never stop saying this.  If your story is amazing, it will make it on the air, theme or no theme.  In fact, consider the following themes inspiration, but do not take them as gospel.   

     

    ***The Forbidden Zone***

    Do you have a story about an abandoned island?  A radioactive wasteland?  A room that was off-limits growing up but which surely contained untold riches and magic?  It doesn’t even need to be a place per se; it could be realm of forbidden behavior, like the one thing everyone knows but which you’re not supposed to actually say out loud.  Think about it.

     

    ***Washed Up***

    Stories of people who are literally and figuratively washed up.  A shipwreck on a deserted island. A message in a bottle.  That one dog who somehow managed to escape all attempts to give her a bath, until one day.  Or just stories of people having an interesting experience in which they reach rock bottom. 

     

    ***The Leak*** 

    It's a leak in all senses of the word.   The water seeping through the hole or  the secret dying to get out.  It's the story of the whistle blower, the captain of the sinking ship, the instigator or the investigator.  Everybody is trying to contain it, but eventually it will all come out.

     

    ***The Duel***

    Face-offs. Grudge matches.  Rematches.  Stories in which someone goes toe-to-toe with an adversary in a weird and unexpected way and maybe discovers something about themselves in the process.          

     

    ***The Tortoise & The Hare***

    Stories in which someone achieves something by doing the opposite of what they’re supposed to.  Also, stories in which the a character is willing to plod away for a long, long time – despite criticism from naysayers – to get what he needs. 

     

    ***Viral / The Meme*** 

    Stories about ideas spinning out of control.  Gossip gone wild.  Youtube videos spawning Youtube videos.  A catch phrase that you’re absolutely sure you coined, but nobody believes you!  Perhaps someone tries to start a trend and fails.  Really, we’re just looking for an excuse to use the word “meme” as many times as possible.     

    ***Gaia***

    After a recent story meeting, we concluded that storytellers (truth-tellers) have failed to present Global Warming in a narrative sense that touches regular people.  Without a compelling story, we will continue to ignore the greatest catastrophe of our time.  We're looking for stories that bring home the truth what is happening to our world, our Earth, on a personal level.  We're not looking for earnest, boo-hoo pieces about an assaulted ecology, but stories that make personal what's going on without being preachy. 


    SNAP JUDGMENT FREELANCER INFO

    Do You Have A Mailing List?

    Yes.  Email pitches@snapjudgment.org and ask to be added.  We'll be trying to email people once a month with upcoming themes.

    Why Should I Pitch To Snap?

    1) We pay well.  $95/minute for your first three stories.  $105/minute after that.  We also give everyone a $250 kill fee.   And our stories are long (see next line).

    2) We give you time to tell your story.  The average Snap piece is now 8-15 minutes.  That means fewer editorial puppies being killed, and more time being spent on scoring and mixing each piece.

    3) Your story stands a very good chance of making it to air very quickly.  We have programming gaps for every single upcoming theme. That means if we like your pitch, we will not put it in a maybe pile for a year.  Once it's produced (provided it's not killed), it will in all likelihood be on the air shortly.

    4) You still own the story and can create your own director's cut. You can't sell something (say on PRX) that's too similar to what we did on the show, but you can always put your own version on your website or resume if you prefer.  If you make a story that's substantially different, you can sell it to anyone after we air our version.

    5) You can produce cool old stories with no pegs.  See next section!

    Where Can I Find Stories For Snap?

    Most people think they need to "stumble upon" a small, intimate, underground story for Snap Judgment.  This is simply not true.  Great stories can come from a newsletter, periodical, magazine, press release, obscure TV program, non-fiction book or documentary. If you have found ANY story with strong narrative elements which hasn't gotten too much press in the past few years and hasn't yet been turned into a radio piece (and one of the characters turns out to be a capable talker) you should pitch us.   Anytime you come across such a story, we are potentially interested.

    How Do I Know The Story Is Right For Snap

    1)    Is the story not just a story, but a tale?  In other words, does it have characters with wants and needs and hopes and fears, scenes that play out in a chronological order in which said characters make important decisions and discover new things, and some kind of central tension that gets resolved in an unexpected way over the course of a narrative arc?  If so, then it’s a tale, and we’re interested. 

    2)    Is the story cinematic?  In other words, will it provide us with scenes rich enough in detail that the listener can see events playing out in their mind’s eye?  Because we’re not interested in narratives in which things happen on an abstract level.   We want the listener to be transported to a specific time and place.   

    3)    Is there something new about it? Every Snap Judgment story needs to have an unexpected wrinkle, a new element, that makes the listener stop what they’re doing and pay attention.  Sometimes the new thing is just the fact that you’ve discovered a great talker, but nine times out of ten it’s a unique premise or plot element. If we feel like we’ve heard this one before (maybe not this precise story, but something super similar) we’ll probably pass.    

     

    How Should I Structure My Pitch?


    There's actually a really simple trick to this: Don’t pitch us a public radio story. Pitch us a MOVIE.  A typical public radio pitch invariably describes what a story is broadly about, more often than not some kind of compelling concept; a movie pitch summarizes a sequence of events.  Give us the enticing premise, introduce the compelling characters, then describe the thing that sets the story in motion, the rising stakes, the unexpected development, the third act twist, and the ending that somehow feels unexpected and inevitable at the same time.  Okay, it doesn’t need all those things, but you get the idea. Anything that sounds like a movie (or a short film) will definitely get our attention.   Because that’s what we do, we make cinematic stories that just happen to be audio-based — usually from a first person perspective.  And if you can’t pitch your story as a sequence of events?  Well, then, it probably wasn’t a Snap story in the first place.

    Whom Should I Pitch To?


    Send your pitches to the same address: pitches@snapjudgment.org.  It will be read by either Joe Rosenberg or Anna Sussman — we are both content producers for the show, and we try hard to provide constructive criticism when a pitch shows promise but misses the mark.  We also try to get back to everyone, even with a pro forma rejection just to let you know, within 2 weeks of your initial email.  NEVER BE AFRAID TO PITCH US AGAIN AFTER A REJECTION.   You can send us nine terrible pitches in a row, but if we like the tenth one, 

    we're going to want to produce it.
    Pitches

    CBC’s “How To Do It” wants 5-7 minute stories

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    Great opportunity from the CBC. Thanks to AIR for the heads up!
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    The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio show How To Do It: The Guide to Everything Else is looking for submissions for upcoming episodes.

    How To Do It is a half hour radio show that explores how to do the things you never learned in school, by hearing from people who have lived through these situations.

    To get a sense of the tone of the show and the kinds of stories we like you can check out last year's series www.cbc.ca/howtodoit

    We are looking for approximately 5-7 minute radio stories based on the topics below. These could be stories you tell about yourself or pitches about people's stories where you would gather the tape.

    We are open to creative interpretations of the topics and any ideas for innovative use of tape to enhance the story telling. But our show really puts a premium on surprising and unexpected stories — think about ordinary people living through extraordinary situations.Please be sure the story has a clear beginning, middle and end.

    Please send a paragraph describing the story you would like to tell to streleaven@gmail.com

    We will pay CMG (Canadian Media Guild) rates.

    How To Deal With People You Hate
    We want to hear stories about how you've dealt with people you loathe – a colleague, a public figure, a random stranger. What lengths have you gone to avoid them, punish them, reconcile with them? How have you managed to go about your life when it requires interacting and confronting people you despise?

    How To Escape
    We're looking for your stories of escape, How have you broken free – either literally or figuratively? Maybe you broke out of prison or out of summer camp, or had to escape a failed vacation or family reunion, or cult.

    How to Keep a Secret
    Keeping your lips sealed can sometimes be easier said than done. We want to hear stories about how you've managed to keep a secret — and at what cost. Or maybe someone else let your secret out. How did your life change as a result? What happened when you got a burning secret off your chest or let it burn up inside you.

    Pitches

    UnFictional call for submissions

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    Call for pitches from KCRW's Unfictional. I've heard good things about them – drop a line if you want the inside scoop. -Mia
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    Hello past and future UnFictional contributors!

    We’re coming up on the 4 year anniversary of this radio program/podcast! Our audience is slowly building, we’ve won some awards, stories from the show have been featured on other radio programs both here in the US and around the English-speaking world. All in all it’s been an exciting and rewarding run, and it’s due in no small part to the contributions of fantastic audio producers like yourself. We hope we’ve made a fun place to make interesting and unusual stories. We want to do more!

    We’re looking for great story ideas to produce over the next few months. We’re open to anything as long as it fits the show tone as laid out in submissions guidelines:

    Strong sense of story, a little weird, emotional, funny, strange twists and surprises… First-person non-narrated stories are always great. If the story has good sound components that’s a big plus.

    We pay decently for a local show!

    If you have any friends or colleagues who produce great work, feel free to forward this message to them as well. You can send your pitches to me at this address or to unfictional@kcrw.org

    Look forward to hearing from you!

    Bob Carlson
    UnFictional producer



    UnFictional is a program of storytellers and documentaries that cover the ground between the sophisticated and the profane. Audiences will hear captivating stories of real life told by writers and performers with a talent for tales that will suck you in. The program also features documentaries created by the most talented producers from around the country.UnFictional is one part of the Independent Producer Project, an initiative to cultivate and support the work of independent radio producers and other writers and artists. The idea is to create a clearinghouse of creativity both online and on the air.

    The program is hosted and curated by KCRW producer, Bob Carlson. He has an ear for compelling radio stories that are funny, sad, sincere and often dark. Listen for stories of hometowns and family secrets, as well as tales of drugs, sex, and aliens (both extraterrestrial and earthbound.) The stories on UnFictional will stick in your head like a memory.

    pdf icon UnFictional-submission-guidelines.pdf

    Pitches

    Latino USA call for pitches – special projects

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    Some great projects in the works from Latino USA. Details below. Pitch deadline May 16.

    ++++++++++++++

    Latino USA has several special projects coming up that we’d love to have pitches for.


    The pay rate is $125 a minute, and pitch meetings take place on Friday mornings, eastern time.

    Please send all pitches directly to: pitches@futuromediagroup.org.


    If you’re pitching for the first time, please include some information about yourself and a couple of audio samples.

    Thanks!

    Leda

     

    Leda Hartman

    NPR’s Latino USA

    919-542-0008

    ledahart@mindspring.com

     

    Outdoor Adventure and more

    These stories are part of an ongoing series on outdoor adventure involving Latinos.

    If the stories have an environmental angle to them, all the better. For example, LUSA recently ran a piece on an ice fisherman in Colorado who has had to seek out lakes at higher elevations because climate change is shortening the ice fishing season down below.

     

    In-state tuition vox pops             

    Florida just became the latest state to allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition for college.

    LUSA would like to put together a montage of vox pops from students who can now afford to go.

    We’re especially interested in hearing from Oklahoma, Utah, Minnesota, and Kansas – or other states that aren’t the “usual suspects” like Texas or California.

     

    Stories from the heartland

    LUSA is doing a special program on changing demographics in the heartland.

    We’re especially interested in ideas from the Midwest and the West, but are open to hearing about what’s happening anywhere between the country’s urban coasts.

    Possibilities include:

    First-hand stories of Latinos living in rural areas or small towns – for example, a meatpacker or a cowboy;

    A tour of a town that now has a Latino majority – including the back story of how and why immigrants came, and how the flavor of the town has changed;

    Fresh angles on immigration in the heartland;

    Lighthearted or positive stories;

    Under-reported stories.


    Please send all pitches for heartland ideas to LUSA before May 16.

    Pitches

    Latino USA call for pitches

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    From the lovelies at Latino USA.

    Latino USA has the following themed shows in the pipeline:

     

    Report Card (5/23/14) —Stories about education, but also discussions about how things are going in terms of Latino issues.

     

    Push It (5/30/14) —Drugs, people, and limits.

     

    Pretending (6/6/14) —Stories about make-believe, fraud, lies, and making it up.

     

    Move It (6/13/14) —Migration, physical activity, and fast-paced situations.

     

    Kids (6/20/14) —Stories both tragic and fun involving children.

     

    Innovation/Inspiration/Tech (6/27/14) – Stories and conversations about Latinos innovating, particularly in the tech field, and barriers to Latinos within that field.

     

    My Country (7/4/14) —Stories of patriotism and American identity…however you define American.

     

    The show is looking for pieces that include people’s personal stories, lots of ambient sound, lively writing and unexpected twists.


    The pay rate is $125 per minute plus $25 for a photo for the web site.


    Please send your pitches directly to: pitches@futuromediagroup.org.


    Pitch meetings are on Fridays, and we try to respond to all queries by early the following week.