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New Special Feature:
The Local Food Report
It’s no secret that the current system of national programming delivered by interconnected public radio stations is under threat. Stations are now too easy to bypass via the web and other delivery systems. Increasingly, every individual station must ask: "What do we add?" Any minute now (already?) local terrestrial broadcast of national programming will not suffice. We’ll need to bring more to the table.
The obvious added value of any station? Localness. We are on the ground. We live here. In many cases, we may be the only truly local media outlet in our communities. Localness gives us a key to sustainability and good health. The same could be said for food.
Our new Transom feature is Local Food Report with blogger Elspeth Hay, which we produce here on Cape Cod and the Islands. As Elspeth says, "It’s the local nature of the show that makes it work. I love that we can do a show on a certain kind of lettuce or tomato sold by only one vendor, and that listeners can seek it out at the farmers’ market next week. The show may be part of a national movement, but it’s the local stories that bring it home."
Think about starting a local food report in your community. We're happy to tell you how we do ours. By the way, after a year, it's now self-sustaining with local support.
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New Tool:
Blue Mikey
Radio producers have long been intrigued by the idea of bootstrapping an iPod or iPhone to make legitimate field recordings, even if only for backup or emergencies. Kludges have fallen short, but they're falling a good deal less short these days. Transom's Tools Editor Jeff Towne takes a couple of new devices for an extended spin. He says, "The good news is that in some circumstances, the Blue Mikey and the Alesis Pro Track can capture audio that rivals stand-alone audio recorders. But let’s not get carried away..." Come check them out.
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New Show:
Kidnap Radio
Annie told me her story over dinner. Her father was kidnapped in Colombia by the FARC guerillas. He was held in the jungle for months. He was rescued in a military raid. It was an amazing story, made more so by the fact that it was so common. Except perhaps for the Rescue part. Thousands of people are still missing down there, and there’s a radio station that broadcasts to them—messages from their loved ones. Shows like “Voices of Kidnapping” have been doing this for years and years. I asked if Annie would want to go back and tell the story of her father, and also of those who are still missing and those who love them. This is Annie’s first piece for radio and it’s a good one.
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Other Recent Updates by Category...
Cat Lady
Transom sometimes provides a home for things that don’t fit anywhere else, things we’d like to hear out of the blue on public radio, but probably never will. Cat Lady is one of those. It’s a portrait, a reading, a vocal impression, a story, a performance, etc. Artist Joseph Keckler says, “I had struggled for a year, trying to write a piece about my mother, about myself, about what I observed to be an awkward, even incompatible relationship between the roles of artist and mother, about a child’s inheritance of his parents’ pain and desire. I had a long and unfocused essay, which I put aside.” Instead, he made Cat Lady.
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In Verse: The Making of "Women of Troy"
One advantage of the modern age is that good work travels fast; you may already have heard and seen “Women of Troy.” But if not, get thee to Transom and spend a few minutes. Then pass on the link. This remarkable slide show/poem/radio piece is part of In Verse, which arose from AIR’s Maker’s Quest. Transom’s feature is about the Making Of… and it includes commentary from all the collaborators—radio producer Lu Olkowski, editor Ted Genoways, poet Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, and photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally. And, we’re posting more work from this series… three powerful duets, made from poems and recordings of the people who inspired them. All airing on Studio 360 this weekend. Highly recommended.
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Gregory Whitehead
We have had some lively discussion at Transom lately. Our latest downloadable issue of the Transom Review includes Gregory Whitehead’s Manifesto and the pursuant challenging conversation about the art of radio. I urge you to read it all. But you might begin at the end with Gregory’s final quote here and then circle back to the beginning.
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Doug Mitchell
Doug Mitchell affected the careers of many in the public radio vineyards, and they showed up at Transom to testify. Come download the latest Transom Review: Doug's Manifesto and conversation about his experience leading NPR’s Next Generation Radio project: “Finding Them and Keeping Them: The Next Generation of [Public Radio] Talent”
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Sean Cole
Come read the compiled, downloadable Manifesto on the use of the first-person in radio storytelling, including responses to all the good questions Transom visitors asked Sean during his tenure. This is a very useful back-and-forth, full of encouragement and caution. In responding along the way, Sean writes, "In my incredibly humble opinion, the only hard and fast and immutable rules are being accurate and fair, telling the truth as well as possible, and making sure that your storytelling choices benefit the story. To me, the facts are the structure and the rigor. And I think it’s almost incumbent upon us as radio reporters to at least try to use the medium to its fullest advantage and give listeners more than what they’re expecting, i.e. something memorable, beyond the information we’re conveying."
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Zoom H4n
Our Tools Editor Jeff Towne has subjected another new digital audio recorder to his rigorous examination. He says, “The Zoom H4n combines two strong points of the company’s previous audio recorders: XLR mic inputs on a small handheld device, and simultaneous 4-channel recording….Zoom made the H4n so versatile that the many options make changing settings more complicated than is ideal, but it still can operate fairly simply as a basic field recorder as well.” Jeff thinks it’s a pretty impressive machine for about $300. If you’re in the market, check his review, with lots of audio clips and photos, as usual.
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Tascam DR-Series Flash Recorders
Jeff Towne reviews three new portable digital recorders from Tascam (The DR-07, DR-1, and DR-100): “Tascam has released three smaller, less-expensive SD card-based recorders, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, but all offering good functionality and decent sound quality.” I won’t give it away, but one of them gets the nod as the best new budget recorder. Jeff also includes a mini-review of a relatively inexpensive omni field mic to match with the new generation of recorders, the Audio Technica 8010.
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Marantz PMD 661
If they keep making them, we'll keep testing them. Jeff Towne has been working with the new Marantz 661 Digital Audio Recorder, an update of the 660 (also reviewed on Transom). For radio production use, this machine has nice features like XLR inputs, AA batteries, and a 1/4-inch headphone jack. Jeff says the pre-amps are much better than in the earlier unit and that the 661 now uses SD cards. While it's bigger than a lot of the tiny new digital recorders, this one looks to be a good workhorse in the field. Check it.
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...more tools »
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