Thinking Big & Stories to Grab You: Signal May 2012

May 2012

Lessons Learned from Bullied
What We're Listening To
StartEmpathy
This Just In

Connect.

This month, we're helping youth radio programs thrive and reach audiences everywhere. We're also building connections within this far-ranging community of radio learners, makers and teachers. Check out our database of youth media groups' social networks and add your own so we can find you. GPRX will be sure to help spread news of your group on our Facebook and Twitterfeeds and our eagerly-anticipated new website (coming soon!).

Happy reading & listening,
Jones, GPRX Project Director

KUOW RadioActive: Scaling Up

RadioActivian
Mawusi Kudu

KUOW's youth radio training program realized it had a problem: At the end of every summer, students wanted to stay involved, but there was nothing for them to stay involved in.

Co-Directors Jenny Asarnow and Nathan Friend took on the challenge of scaling up to year-round, and RadioActive Youth Media was born. Strategies, audio and how it all got started on the GPRX blog. Excerpts below:

Making A Youth Radio Program Year-Round Fabulous:

1. Make sure the desire to scale up the program is coming from the youth you work with. We all want better programs with more reach, but at the end of the day this is about the youth we serve, and any changes in your program should reflect their needs.

2. Have a few clear goals laid out.Don't over-commit or overstretch yourself when you're deciding on how to scale up the program.

3. Bring in key stakeholders and keep them involved.This gets institutional support for your changes and gives you good ideas for how to be successful moving forward.

4. Celebrate your successes!Have parties with your youth when they produce great radio. Get the word out to your colleagues. Celebrate the important work you do!

More great stuff from RadioActive on the GPRX blog, including audio, tips, and a new idea for workshops they're launching next year.

Stations will be programming around these events and subjects. Let us know what you have that fits!

May – Memorial Day
June – Gay & Lesbian Pride Month
June – Father's Day
Summer
July Fourth

Listen to YouthCast: "Little Lost Fish," from Marga Blanco of Youth Media Project. A dreamy exploration of feeling small.

YouthCast on iTunes |

YouthCast RSS feed

Lessons Learned from Bullied

Factors that influenced licensing

At 23 licenses and counting, Bullied: Teen Stories from Generation PRX has gone PRX platinum. But what made the special so successful?We decided to poll the stations that aired the show to find out. A few highlights:

Timeliness matters.Every station that weighed in on the poll said that part of what made them license Bullied was that the issue is in the news right now.

Barriers to airing youth work

Go long.Stations have a much easier time programming hour-long specials than they do shorter drop-in segments.

Quality, quality, quality. Some stations hesitate on licensing youth work because they feel the quality is uneven. Prove 'em wrong! Taking the time to polish your audio matters.

What We're Listening To

Desert radio

Tucson-based City High Radio keeps hitting gold with their thoughtful, category-defying pieces. Hear "I Don't Call Her Mom" and "My Family, Foreclosed."
Blank on Blank finds lost, unheard interviews and shares them with new audiences; it's beautifully produced and full of surprises – catch them on their PRX podcast. And! They're looking for tape. Let them know if you have archives to share.
Photo: dnnya17

The PRX office has been a little obsessed with Jeff Cohen's "Two Little Girls Explain the Worst Haircut Ever," which chronicles how his five-year-old cut off his three-year-old's hair, as told by the girls themselves.

StartEmpathy

A division of the Ashoka Foundation, StartEmpathy is a new project that treats empathy – the ability to understand the feelings of others – as an important skill. As part of the project, they're featuring young people's stories on bullying from PRX. They're also looking for youth-produced stories about empathy. Tell them what you've got.

This Just In

Rookies accepting Alfred I.
duPont Finalist award

Radio Rookies is going to need to make space for all these awards! The group was recognized for their Coming Up in 2011 series and for Our 9/11, produced with PRX.
Ready to take the deep dive into radio? The fall 2012 Transom Story Workshop is open for applications. 8 weeks of radio in Cape Cod with master teacher Rob Rosenthal? Yes please.

The Third Coast Competition is on. Submit your best work by July 9th, 2012, for a chance at prize money, Hindenburg software and free registration to the Third Coast conference (where we will personally high-five our congratulations!)

Generation PRX