The Great Northeast Radio Rally:

A conference for audio producers of every age and stripe

brought to you by Blunt Youth Radio Project

Who: Audio producers from near and far, and hopefuls who are interested in getting more involved in radio.

What: The Rally will feature a lot of listening and sessions that inform, ask questions, and inspire. The conference will end with what may be the world’s first Audio Slam, a friendly but serious competition—with a cash prize! (More details below.)

When: Sunday, January 16, 2011 (the day before Martin Luther King Day),  from 9 am to 4pm, with our grand finale event from 7 to 9 pm.

Where: The daytime portion of the conference will take place on the campus of the University of Southern Maine in lovely Portland, Maine. The Slam will be happening at the Space Gallery in downtown Portland.

How to Get Involved:

—Make a presentation

—Enter a submission in the Slam

—Plan to attend!

1) Call for Presentations:

Proposals deadline: Monday, December 27, 2011 at 5:00 p.m

Blunt’s Radio Rally crew is inviting audio producers to pitch a presentation for the conference. We’re looking for people to host listening sessions and to propose ideas for various radio/audio-related workshops. Each session will be about an hour and fifteen minutes. You may also suggest an idea for a panel (whether or not you have other panelists in mind).

We’re looking for sessions that are interactive, fun, scary, thoughtful —something that might get us thinking and inspire us in midst of the legendary Northeast winter!

It’s easy to send us your ideas — and we really want to hear your ideas, so don’t be shy! Just send an email to Claire Holman at cholman@usm.maine.edu with your idea and any relevant information (a brief bio, links to your work), with the subject line “Rally Presentation Proposal.” Be sure to include your full name, email address, and a phone number where we can reach you.

Proposals deadline: Monday, December 27, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. Please email your idea to:

Claire Holman

cholman@usm.maine.edu
Feel free to call me with questions 207-650-5835

2) Audio Slam Throwdown — fun, fame, and modest fortune!!

Audio Slam entries deadline: Monday, January 10, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Our Audio Slam competition is kind of like a poetry slam, but with a few twists. Producers will enter a piece, and we will play the entries and judge them in one-minute rounds, for a total of 4 rounds. So, no matter how long your piece is, we’ll only be judging 4 minutes of it. You can enter a 4-minute piece, or pick which individual 4 minutes you want us to play of a longer piece. Or, if you have a longer piece, you could consider doing a shorter version for the Audio Slam.

The judges will score the pieces right then and there and determine which ones advance to the next round. So, in round one, we hear minute one, and in round two, we hear your chosen minute two. This means that each minute has to be compelling enough that we’ll want to hear more.

Entries may be any style or genre, and it’s perfectly fine if they have previously aired elsewhere. There will only be one winner, and the prize is $500! In addition, all entries will air on Blunt, the weekly show of Blunt Youth Radio on WMPG, Greater Portland Community Radio. You don’t have to be present to win, but it sure helps! Only the first 30 entries will be accepted.

Not sure if you should enter? Enter, enter, enter. This will be great fun—we’re not snobs, and your work is really wanted!

To enter, please send us a CD, email us an audio file, or give Blunt Youth Radio access to your piece on PRX. We need to know the title of your piece, plus your name and contact information. If your piece is longer than 4 minutes, you need to specify which minutes you want us to play.
Audio Slam entries deadline: Monday, January 10, 2011 at 5:00 p.m.

Send your entries (or links thereto) to:

Claire Holman –  cholman@usm.maine.edu

Blunt Youth Radio –   http://www.bluntradio.org

Feel free to call with questions 207-650-5835

 

 

 

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Country: Bangladesh

Project Description:  In honor of Rebecca Lipkin’s dedication to broadcast
journalism and her work as a Knight International Journalism Fellow training
journalists in Eastern Europe in 1999, the International Center for
Journalists will send a fellow to Bangladesh in early 2011. For
approximately a one-month period, the Rapid-Response Fellow will support the
development of the Television News Agency (TvNA <http://tvnabd.com/new/> ).
Launched in 2009 by the Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and
Communication (BCDJC <http://www.bcdjc.org/> ) and Knight International
Journalism Fellow Kawser Mahmud, TvNA is the first women’s broadcast news
agency in Bangladesh. In partnership with BCDJC, the fellow will help women
journalists produce quality programming on issues that affect women and
children for TvNA. The fellow also will help TvNA and its partners develop
better newsroom management practices. The ideal candidate will have
broadcast journalism and media-management experience.
 
Requirements:
10 years of broadcast journalism experience
Media-management experience
Demonstrated understanding of best journalistic practices
Journalism training or teaching experience

To apply: http://knight.icfj.org/GetInvolved/FellowshipOpenings/tabid/73/Default.aspx

Thank you!

Best, Pedro

Pedro J. Rodriguez – Program Officer, Knight International Journalism
Fellowships
T 202.349.7638, F 202.737.0530 www.knight.icfj.org
<http://www.knight.icfj.org/>
@ICFJKnight <http://twitter.com/icfjknight>  | facebook.com/ICFJKnight
<http://facebook.com/ICFJKnight>
 
International Center
for Journalists
Advancing Quality Journalism Worldwide

Dear This American Life friends and contributors,

We've got a new round of themes-in-progress and we're coming to you for story pitches, thoughts and suggestions for our upcoming shows.

How this process works: When you send in a story idea to me, I'll respond with a generic email letting you know that I received your pitch and that I've read it.  I promise.  I read every pitch.  (I won't send you the auto response until I've read your pitch so expect a day or two delay sometimes to get that email.)  If we think the pitch is right for us, or if we need more information from you, I'll send you another email asking for more info on the story or letting you know we'd like to commission the story. But if you don't hear back from us within two weeks, beyond the initial auto-reply email, it means the story just isn't right for us or for the needs of that particular show.  The idea of doing it this way is just to get through pitches and get back to everyone a little more quickly.

Like always, these themes are shows we're actively pursuing right now but we're always on the lookout for new stories or ideas.  So if you've got a story that you think would work especially well for us but doesn't fit a specific theme listed below, please send it along anyway.

Thanks so much for your pitches.  All of us here are very appreciative.

Best,
Julie
(julie@thislife.org)

SLOW TO REACT: Stories about delayed reactions to pretty huge events.  We have one story about a 12 year old boy who sees the benefits of his father’s death – missing school, sugar cereals flow, he gets to watch R rated movies – but seems to entirely miss the actual consequences of the death, until years later.  We’d like to find more stories about people or organizations who either don’t realize or purposely ignore seminal moments, only to have to deal with those happenings sometime later.  Maybe a great “one who got away” story?  Or a story about not realizing a crisis is happening when it’s happening?  Or just a story about extreme lethargy or laziness, just not wanting to deal with something until it’s too late?

BREAKTHROUGH: This is a show about the search for a cure for cancer.  We’re not planning anything comprehensive – no “Giant Pool of Cancer” or anything – just a collection of stories about people working to find a cure.  We’ve got two pretty long stories already so we’re almost set for this show but we’d love another one or two shorter stories.  Maybe interesting or unexpected anecdotes about cancer research over the years?  Or a story that illustrates the often nonsensical ways that cancer research is funded?  A story about navigating the maze of FDA approval?

WILL THEY KNOW ME BACK HOME?: We may change the title of this show but essentially we’re looking for stories about people going through experiences that make they feel they’re a part of something larger.  And maybe struggling with that decision or change.  We did a show about the war in Iraq a few months ago and had one story left over that we still really love.  It’s about an Iraqi woman who, before the war, considered herself just a very normal housewife.  Her world was entirely domestic – raising kids, cooking, being a wife.  But after the invasion and her husband losing his job, she reluctantly becomes an interpreter for the American military and slowly becomes overwhelmed – excited – by her role at the center of everything.  Her family suffers for her job, obviously her safety suffers, but she essentially becomes a new woman and it’s exhilarating.  We’re hoping to find more stories about these experiences or moments where a person or a group or a company gets sort of sucked into something so much larger.  And maybe that’s not a good thing?  The “larger” can be totally relative here, too.  Maybe a story of moving from extreme isolation into the world?  Or maybe a story about trying to move back to the smaller world?

RELATED CRIMES: We’re looking for stories about committing crimes against one’s own family.  We’re working on one story about a son who murders his abusive mother and then his brothers turn him into the police.  So you can’t get much darker than that.  At least, we hope you can’t.  What would be great for this show (besides something a little lighter) would be something along the lines of “crimes” committed against family members.  Maybe a really great story about a family member framing someone else for a crime?  Or a sibling stealing another sibling’s identity?  Maybe a family tries to recover from a crime committed in the past?  Suggestions for short fiction would also be great for this show.

SEE NO EVIL:  One night, a 23 year old woman fails to show up at work and immediately her family knows something is wrong.  Something has happened.  The police, of course, think the family is being hysterical.  The next day, the police discover the woman’s car, but no woman.  Still, though, they think the family is overreacting and everything is fine.  Even when the family finds the woman’s driver’s license and blood in the car, the police refuse to entertain the thought that a crime has been committed.  For the next three days, the family is thwarted at every turn in their search for help – the police believe the woman has run away, the media won’t get the word out because the police won’t comment and even friends and neighbors think the family is crazy.  No one will acknowledge anything bad has happened.  We’re looking for other stories where everyone pretends like things are fine, even when they clearly aren’t.  Maybe a story about refusing to acknowledge something has failed or that a person has bad intentions.  Maybe a story about inventing an elaborate scenario to justify obviously bad actions?  A classic head-in-the-sand story?

OH, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE:  Stories about gratitude and gifts.  We’re working on one story about a woman who has an Amazon “stalker.”  Mysteriously, over the past year, somebody has been methodically buying and shipping the woman items from her “wish list” on Amazon.  So far, she’s had to build an entirely new book shelf to hold all of the books her stalker has sent her.  She’s not quite sure what has prompted this gift-giving, but she suspects it’s a ‘thank you’ for a small kindness in junior high school.  We’d love more stories about gestures of kindness or thanks.  Maybe a story about an inappropriate or over-the-top gift?  An unwanted or undeserved gift or award or promotion?  Maybe a story about trying to express gratitude but just not finding the right way to do it?

HOW DO YOU CREATE A JOB?:   During the election season there were a lot of promises to focus on “job creation.”  But what does that even mean?  How do you create a job?  Is it even possible?  For this show, we hope to check in on some workers who lost their jobs a few years ago and find out who ended up where and where the jobs did and didn’t go.  If you know of someone who worked in large company or factory that closed five or ten years ago, will you let us know?  Or maybe a worker who dropped out of high school thinking their life would be okay but now it’s not?  We’d also like to spend time with someone who actually is charged with “creating” jobs – an interesting Economic Development Officer or a local legislator.  Even better: maybe a person at a factory who makes the decision to add a third shift? We’re still in the pretty early planning stages for this show so any suggestions or guidance for this show is greatly appreciated.

KID JURY: In the late 80s H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff, showed up one day at the newly-opened Nixon Presidential Library and, weirdly, made his case to a bunch of junior high kids.  Basically, he pleaded with them to see things from his perspective – that he was a scapegoat, that Watergate wasn’t really that bad, and that, besides, everything he did was because of love and loyalty to the President.  The kids were confused not only because they didn’t really understand who in the hell H.R. Haldeman was but, also, they didn’t know what he wanted them to do about his plea – how was any of this their business?  For this show, we’re looking for stories where kids are put in powerful positions and asked to make decisions, or take sides, or take action.  Maybe stories where a group of kids have acted as judge and jury against an adult or a teacher or a parent.  Or kids who all decide that one parent is the bad guy when the evidence clearly points to the other parent?  Maybe a story about a kid who is uncomfortable with a big decision that is being left up to him or her?  Interesting school councils or disciplinary committees could work well for this show, too.  Also, we’re thinking of maybe assembling a jury of kids to weigh in on the big issues that are often debated in their name (“think of the kids!”) like climate change or deficit spending or gay marriage.  If you’ve got any early teens you think might be game, please let us know.

The East-West Center is accepting applications for three study-tour fellowships for American and Asia Pacific journalists: the new Pakistan-U.S. Journalists Exchange; the Senior Journalists Seminar, which looks at US-Asian Muslim issues; and the Japan-U.S. Journalists Exchange. Details can be seen at http://www.eastwestcenter.org/journalismfellowships.

 
We would appreciate your assistance in getting information about these exciting journalism opportunities. Please let us know if you have questions.
 
Thank you very much.
 
With aloha,
 
Susan Kreifels
Media Programs Manager
East-West Center
(808) 944-7176
kreifels@eastwestcenter.org 

WGBH Lab Announces a new Open Call
Deadline: February 14, 2011

I'm excited to tell you about our latest opportunity for all storytellers and new media makers. In partnership with the PBS show American Experience, which is airing the film Stonewall Uprising next spring, we are asking you for videos that tell us the story about the gay rights movement happening today in your community. Help us share news about this important civil rights story by contributing your own view.

Your video could be one of five to win a $1000 prize and maybe even a chance to air on PBS after the film. Video submissions will become part of a contest and guest judges, including prominent gay rights advocates Cyndi Lauper and Dan Savage, will help decide who wins. You can find out more about them, about the application process and what makes a winning video on the open call home page:

http://www.thewgbhlab.org/open-call/stonewall

I can't wait to see your story.

Sincerely,
Christopher Hastings
chris_hastings@wgbh.org
WGBH Lab

About Us
The WGBH Lab invites you to help shape the future of public media.

Consider this an opening, a chance to share your fresh ideas as the next generation of independent and public media makers. We encourage emerging talent, aided by the latest technology, to lead us into new ways of making and interacting with content.

The engine of the Lab is innovation. Participate in our Open Calls, and take your work to a new level to win prizes or a chance to make it on-air, and contribute to the content we distribute to our partners in broadcast.

The WGBH Lab stands at the intersection of broadband and broadcast. The creative results of the Lab may appear on WGBH TV, WGBH.org and, as our partnerships expand, more broadly on PBS. What remains the same is WGBH's commitment to substance, quality, and independent voices.

Welcome to your public media.