Jennie's Secret

For Memorial Day, Transom is featuring an unusual veteran's story. "Jennie's Secret" is about a woman who posed as a man during the Civil War and went on to live most of her life as a man in the tiny town of Saunemin, Illinois. Over the years the town has been ambivalent about their most famous citizen and is struggling to figure out how to honor the memory of Jennie Hodgers/Albert Cashier. Producer Linda Paul became "obsessed" with this story and tracked down all sorts of interesting people to talk to. It's the kind of piece that was once easy to place in a public radio magazine show, but it's eighteen minutes long and it's not news. That makes it an orphan these days. It's worth pondering what we should do with stories like this--when an obsessed producer and a fascinating story converge, and the story isn't news and doesn't fit the mold.

Megapolis Festival 2009

Step right up. A full-blown audio festival right here in New England. Megapolis is a weekend-long celebration of audio art and craft (April 24-26), with workshops and events happening all around Cambridge, Massachusetts. The responsible parties are Justin Grotelueschen and Nick van der Kolk, familiar to Transom visitors from their past producing and blogging exploits. To chronicle Megapolis we’ve asked conference attendees Andrew Conner and Shawn Wen to post throughout. So, if you can’t make it, check in and post your questions for them. And if you can make it, pitch in. See you there, one way or another.

Megapolis Festival 2009 blog

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”

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."

Curtis Fox
Curtis Fox produces podcasts for The New Yorker, The Poetry Foundation, Parents Magazine and others. He got his start in public radio and it still resonates in what he does. In this issue of The Transom Review, Curtis lays out his podcast philosophy, plays samples, and answers all sorts of practical questions too. Come download the PDF of Curtis’s dispatch from this edge of the multi-dimensional new world of audio distribution.

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.

Recording Phone Calls
At last! For years, people have been asking Transom for advice on recording over the phone. Slowly, we've been acquiring phone interfaces and software tools for Jeff Towne to review and incorporate in his primer, and it is finally done. Jeff covers high and low tech options--analog phone couplers and hybrids, digital hybrids, cell phone taps, computer-based telephony like Skype, taping little mics to telephones, and instructions on configuring "mix minus". Various hardware and software options are reviewed, with audio samples. There are links to other resources. This is a really good rundown. You can stop asking now. Drop by to tell us about your own tips and ask questions.

Pro Tools Shortcuts
If you work in audio production, you end up having some kind of relationship to Digidesign's ubiquitous software, ProTools. Generally, the relationship is dysfunctional. We at Transom are no exception and we asked our TOOLS Editor to come up with a set of ProTools tips specifically for the public radio producer.

So, now we bring you the result of years of conversation and complaint about this powerful, troublesome software in a single guide, Jeff Towne's "ProTools Shortcuts," which comes with its own handy print-out to keep by your bedside. You know you need it.