Workshop descriptions follow for the WGXC/Prometheus Radio Project Station Barnraising Sept. 24-26 in Hudson, New York:
Friday, Sept. 24
1-2:45 p.m.
Automation: The In/Visible Programmer
Nick Ring (WBCR)
Automation system keeps the music and the programming going even when you can’t have a live DJ in the studio. Learn how automation can help your station be on the air ‘round the clock.
Drawing out the Wisdom in Groups and Meetings
Cory Fischer-Hoffman (Prometheus), Andy Turner (Cornell Cooperative Extension/WGXC)
This workshop is designed to give people the opportunity to explore different tools for working with groups. Through participatory exercises, sharing, and reflections we will learn together about techniques that can
be useful in any group, and especially when facilitating or leading workshops. Anyone who wants to begin to build on their skills for working with groups as well as experienced facilitators are welcome.
The Campaign for More Low Power Radio
Pete Tridish (Prometheus), Diane Foglizzo
The Local Community Radio Act is getting close to the finish line! The bill has only a few months to pass before the legislative session ends, and we would have to start from scratch. If you would like to start a community radio station in your town, or want your LPFM station to be treated with more respect by the government, this is the workshop for you! Learn more about how you can get involved to help pass the LPFM bill once and for all, and also view testimonials from the People Powered Radio Project.
Radio Theater Workshop
Andrew Joffe (WGXC)
Radio Theatre is a key component of any community radio station. station. Thespians and non-theatre people alike, come join us to help to produce a radio play for our opening broadcast on Sunday! You can then utilize all your radio drama experience to produce radio in your own communities.
Arts & Crafts: Making Banners for Barnraising
Kids track.
The Nuts and Bolts of Building Your Base
Twa-le Abrahamson, Kaya Weidman (WGXC)
Is anyone listening? Facilitated discussion about strategies for diversifying listener and membership base for a community radio station.
3-4:45 p.m.
Build an Itty Bitty Transmitter, Part 1
Pete Tridish, Allan Gomez, Sharp Hall
This is a hands on workshop where we will build some of Tetsuo Kogawa’s “simplest transmitters.” These transmitters have 12 parts and run on a nine-volt battery. They have a microphone and can be hooked up to an audio source and broadcast up to about 30 feet, if the wind is blowing right. They are great for learning the building blocks of radio electronics. We will also work on slightly larger versions which will be used in the launch event.
The Nuts and Bolts of Building Your Base
Twa-le Abrahamson, Kaya Weidman (WGXC)
Is anyone listening? Facilitated discussion about strategies for diversifying listener and membership base for a community radio station.
Prison Radio: Connecting Families
Nick Szuberla, Lillie Branch-Kennedy, Marcie Crim Thousand Kites
Join this exciting workshop that explores the power and impact of producing grassroots programming for those inside our nation’s prisons. Learn strategies for working with families and friends of prisoners in a process of creating powerful cultural and human rights programming that bring communities together. Participants will learn approaches to building local community support, as well as outreach strategies to prisoner families, corrections staff, and prisoners. Media examples, and stories, will be shared, along with a series of hands on exercises that will explore different approaches for creating programming for your station.
Fighting Poverty and Media Injustice
Aliza Dichter, Tina Sharpe, Antoine Haywood
What’s needed to solve poverty-related problems in our region, and what’s the media role? From phone costs and affordable internet to information access and media coverage, what are the issues for our neighbors struggling to become self-sufficient and improve their life conditions? What can we do as community media builders?
Making Speakers with Electromagnets
Kids track.
Hosting a Show and Sounding Good
Karen Michel, Sakura Saunders
What’s the role of a radio host? How much is pre-scripted, how much extemporaneous, how much does it matter? Differences between dj-ing, talk, and news shows. Using your voice to create conversation and a connection with the audience: some voice exercises, some practice.
Saturday, Sept. 25
9:15 – 11 a.m.
Build an Itty Bitty Transmitter, Part 2
Pete Tridish, Tianna Kennedy (free103point9)
This is a hands on workshop where we will build some of Tetsuo Kogawa’s “simplest transmitters.” These transmitters have 12 parts and run on a nine-volt battery. They have a microphone and can be hooked up to an audio source and broadcast up to about 30 feet, if the wind is blowing right. They are great for learning the building blocks of radio electronics. We will also work on slightly larger versions which will be used in the launch event.
Covering the Distance: Rising to the Challenge of Rural News Coverage
Paul Smart (WGXC), Lisa Phillips
Rural news unfolds at its own pace in a somewhat archaic mix of monthly meetings, sudden news events, cultural activities, and corrosive rumors. Yet today’s listeners also want to hear the loud issues of the day reflected in what they hear. This seminar presentation by two veteran rural news editors and reporters, from both the print and radio worlds, will explore the ways in which rural population’s news needs are met in an entertaining and enlightening fashion, highlighting the many challenges inherent in this often-overlooked niche market. Facilitated discussion will expand the workshop’s horizons to engage participants’ questions and suggestions.
Interviewing and Recording for Community News
Anabel Khoo, Candace Mooers
Learn how to present a focused brief news/current affairs radio interview that inspires social change. It includes a section on pre-interviews, the difference between a topic and a focus, how to order your questions, and interviewer etiquette for allied media-makers. Also, learn how to capture the best sounds for radio using a digital recorder. Participants can attend the Digital Editing workshop to learn how to edit their pieces.
Legal Clinic for Non-commercial Broadcasters
Michael Couzens, Alan Korn
Key Legal Topics, Mainly Intended for Programmers and Hosts: Inde-
cency - Safe Harbor - Underwriting Announcements - Political Broadcast-
ing - Copyright - Program Ownership - Libel and Slander - FCC Record
Keeping and Compliance - Using the FCC Data Base and FCC Web Site.
The Long March to Community Media
DeeDee Halleck, Nicole Hummel
Community media can take many forms-- from scroll painting singers who go village to village in India to laser graffiti against the World Bank in Korea. This workshop will see samples and discuss how people around the world communicate to their villages and barrios.
Listen Up!
Karen Michel, Adi Gevins
We are our own worst critics. In Listen Up! participants will bring work in
progress, completed work, ideas to hear and discuss. Adi and Karen will
also bring some pieces they think are transcendent radio to listen to and
feed from. Please note this workshop will not be at St. Mary’s but instead
take place nearby at 348 Warren St Hudson, NY 12534
11:15 a.m.– 1 p.m.
Antenna Masts, Towers and Poles
Al Davis (WGXC), Allan Gomez
The most important factor in radio coverage is height of antenna. So how are you going to hold that thing up? Get the skinny on tall things.
Volunteer Love: Preventing Burnout
Aliza Dichter, Sandra Valentin
A strategy session to develop recommendations for the radio station and other groups on how to support and sustain each other as volunteers, plus ideas for groups and services that can help.
Oral History Workshop: Method and Practice
Suzanne Snider
The workshop will be a whirl-wind tour of all that oral history has to offer us. We’ll cover interview techniques, ethics, and oral history project design, with an eye/ear toward the exciting ways in which radio can make use of oral history and vice versa. We’ll discuss life histories, community histories, family histories, institutional histories, testimony, and other sub-categories, while looking at the range of subjects that oral history can address (public health, war crimes, gentrification, memory...). I’ll be introducing some innovative and unusual project designs, including the oral history chain letter.
Radio as a Tool to Organize and Build Community/Radio: una Herramienta para Construir Comunidad
Oscar Otzoy, John Jairo, Candace Mooers, Andalusia Knoll (Prometheus)
What is community radio’s role in community transformation? How are radio stations across the country using innovative programming to strengthen community organizing? In this bilingual session, Oscar Otzoy
from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will speak about the role their LPFM station Radio Conciencia has played in their fight for economic justice, John Jairo from Radio Callejera will share stories about radio and immigrant rights and Candace Mooers will talk about the role radio plays in Anti-Poverty organizing in Canada. This discussion will be moderated by Andalusia Knoll of the Prometheus Radio Project. Participants will walk away prepared to utilize radio in their hometowns in ways that serve to catalyze community engagement and empowerment.
Start a Summer Radio Camp for Youth
Aaron Lakoff, Neil Griffith
This workshop will cover the ins and outs of creating a fun and enriching summer program for youth at your community radio station. For the last two years, CKUT radio in Montreal has been running week-long sessions for teen-agers to come in, get hands on experience, and go on the air with their own productions. The camp councilors from CKUT will share their experiences with this radio camp (and some audio clips of the kids’ productions too) in the hopes of inspiring other stations to start their own.
Get on FM: Legal and Tech Clinic
Gavin Dahl
Representatives from groups with FCC construction permits will have the opportunity to ask experienced engineers and attorneys all their legal and technical questions. What does the FCC think about this? How do you get your signal over a mountain?
Movement and Music Theater
Kids track.
1–2 p.m.
NCE Full Power Caucus
This will be an opportunity for new NCE Full Power stations to share their experiences applying for licenses, getting CP’s and getting on air including challenges, success stories and more in an informal lunch caucus setting.
2–3:45 p.m.
Building Your Station’s Web Presence
Galen Joseph-Hunter (free103point9), Gabriel Farrell (WGXC)
How do you integrate your website into your general station operations and engage your audience through it? How do you link it to social media, live and pre-recorded programs, community calendars and more. Listen to
a few case studies of stations similar to yours who have built themselves successful websites and online communities and are developing new programming using online technology.
Calm Down, Breath, Now Let’s Talk About the Conflict
Erubiel Valladares Carranza II, Melissa Roberts Weidman
This is a workshop that is interactive with attendees; Warning! high emotions, some profanity and a new way to learn and most importantly having fun while doing so. Conflict inevitably arises in every organization and
project, and radio stations are no exception! It’s how we deal with and address those conflicts that make the difference in whether they become crises that wear people out, or opportunities to learn and grow the relationships that make a project flourish. Come learn about conflict resolution techniques and communication strategies from some folks who’ve worked as mediators, and first hand from a member of KPCN in Woodburn, OR about conflicts that have arisen there and how they’ve dealt with them. This will be an interactive participatory workshop.
Organizing Your News Department
Vanessa Graber, Molly Stentz
To prepare newsroom producers and aspiring newsies for planning, producing, and leading an effective community news operation.
Making Policy that Works for Us
Brandy Doyle
How will communities access spectrum in the future? Who should be eligible for an LPFM license? What can we do to protect our stations from encroachment? This workshop will focus on the policy issues that matter
most to this community. After tallying the votes for a participatory workshop agenda, we’ll facilitate a conversation about our shared priorities and policy goals.
Youth Radio
Emily Bennison
For teens interested in learning how to produce a radio show, this is the workshop for you! Brainstorm ideas for show segments, listen to examples from other youth producers, hear from experienced producers, and
practice making radio.
Making Musical Instruments
Kids track.
4–5:45 p.m.
Intro to Audio
Stephanie Alarcon, Robin Collier
What are all these audio plugs and how do they work? How does my voice get from a microphone to speakers? How can I keep feedback from ruining my day, and why can I use headphones as a mic in a pinch? Come learn the basic science of sound, how to wire up a mixer, and how to troubleshoot common audio problems. We promise that by the end you’ll know an RCA cable from an XLR.
Behind the Scenes: Community Approaches to Radio Governance
Norm Stockwell, Sharmeen Khan
You got the license, the equipment and the people but how do you organize the station? This workshop will look at various ways of organizing the structure of your station, governance models and ways of getting things done. This workshop will also address how to create egalitarian and empowering stations when you have a combination of staff, volunteers and board members.
Digital Editing with Free Software/ Edicion Digital con Software Libre
Ana Martina, Vanessa Graber
In this workshop you’re going to experiment mixing and editing sounds, and words, the raw material radio!! Create your own audio collage with a free software open source, you don’t have to pay or have any brand computer to create your audio masterpiece! Close your eyes and open your ears. Ideal for those who attended the interviewing workshop who can then learn to edit their pieces.
En este taller vas a experimentar con mezclando y editando sonidos y palabras. Puedes crear su propio arte de colaje con software que es gratis. Sierra sus ojos y abran sus orejas. Este taller es ideal para los que van
a asistir al taller de intrevistas porque pueden aprender como editar sus piezas.
Inclusive Media in Divided Communities
Marcie Crim (WMMT)
This workshop will focus on the ways WMMT is in constant negotiations with staff, programmers, and listeners in order to be truly “fair and balanced” in an extremely polarized region.
Hacked FM Transmitters: ExiTrip
Ed Bear, Lea Bertucci (free103point9 Fellows)
For this workshop, we will teach participants to hack the iTrip Nano so it will work with audio inputs other than the iPod. By repurposing this device, we give new life to an otherwise obsolete generation of consumer
electronics, expanding its potential for subversive and creative actions. No prior electronics experience is necessary.
¿No pasa naranja? La noticia explicada
Mariel Fiori (Bard College, WGXC)
Todo periodismo empieza con la noticia ¿Pero qué es la noticia? ¿Lo que se lee en los diarios? ¿Lo que el editor dice que es noticia? ¿Cómo se escribe una noticia? ¿Qué es la estructura de la pirámide invertida? A través de ejercicios prácticos y divertidos en el taller responderé a estas preguntas, y otras que puedan tener los participantes.
Sunday, Sept. 26
9:15-11 a.m.
Streaming and Podcasting
Ana Martina, Fred Nagel
In this workshop you are going to learn how to do audio streaming, that means to broadcast live to all listeners with access to internet in the world. Also you will set up your Podcast, so if listeners don’t have time to be in front of a computer, they can just download your show, and take it with them in their audio device.
Grassroots Fundraising Strategies
Twa-le Abrahamson, Norm Stockwell
Most community stations do it. So should you. For many stations, this is the biggest fundraising strategy and the way they acquire the most new members. When you’re trying to reach people, remember, you run a radio station. Get on the air and ask for what you need! We will provide an overview of the questions your group needs to ask and the preparations that need to be made before undertaking this. We will also have some short video clips from an on-air fund drive that has taken place a week before this training event at a community radio station in Spokane, WA.
Asuntos Comunitarios
Jose and Rosa Briceño
Asuntos Comunitarios. Una charla que toca estas temas: ¿Como podemos ayudar nuestra comunidades? ¿Como podemos usar este opportunidad del radio?
Brainwave Music
Zach Layton
An introduction to brainwave music, this workshop will introduce, display and sonify brainwave data. Participants will be given an opportunity to make music with their brainwaves, learn about the different rhythms that correspond to various states of relaxation and explore concepts of mental telepathy through the interface between radio transmission and biofeedback.
Arts and Crafts: Making Signs and Banners for WGXC Parade
Kids track.
We Begin by Listening: Methods of Transformative Community Organizing
Diana J Nucera (Allied Media Projects)
Allied Media Projects (AMP) has been bringing people together to share models for how community media can be used for community transformation. Over the past 12 years we have learned form our network that the best strategies are rooted in a set of shared principles. The most import of these principles is: “We begin by listening.” In this workshop we will use popular education to break down the principles that guide the AMP network and share examples of what these principles look like in practice.
11:15 a.m.-1 p.m.
Studio Transmitter Links: How to Get the Audio From Here to There
Andy Gunn
The methods for sending audio from a radio studio to the transmitter site have expanded and changed over the years. As Plain Old Telephone Service fades in to history, what are our options for the future? What won’t break the bank? What can we do ourselves, and when do we have to pay for it?
Diversity and Power-Sharing at Community Radio Stations
Nan Rubin, Sharmeen Khan
Because community radio stations rely on a large and diverse cohort of volunteers, there is always a question of where the power rests over policy and programming decision-making. Often there are equal but conflicting interests jockeying for control, and entrenched positions which keep people away can be hard to alter. How can community radio stations address accessibility and diverse political interests that are empowering and fulfill the mandate for ‘alternative’ radio? This workshop will examine how different community radio stations approach diversity and anti-oppression through policy, practice and programming. Hear stories of workshops, programming decisions and other approaches, along with their outcomes -– both positive and negative -– in efforts to strengthen the responsiveness and access of various interest groups to a community voice.
Writing for Radio
Selina Musuta, Adi Gevins
Writing for radio’s special, not like writing for print, blog or TV. We’ll explore writing with sound, leading with the ear not the eye. We’ll discuss truthfulness vs. truthiness; balance, perspective, and voice. We’ll play with painting pictures, setting scenes, and presenting characters. We’ll also talk about the role & character of the reporter/narrator/host. Be ready for sharing: Discussion, Small Groups, and Exercises.
Experiencias de Radios Hispanas
Juan Basilio Sanchez
A traves de este taller los participantes podran exponer sus logros, sus obstaculos, el caracter participativo de los esfuerzos y los retos en un país, en el que la cantidad de medios de comunicacion, no se corresponden con la cantidad de hispanos recidentes.
Circuit Sniffing
Philip Stearns
Electronic devices silently emit gobs of electromagnetic energy, their signals leaking out into public space and permeating the world around us. In this workshop you’ll learn how to make “Circuit Sniffing” devices that let you literally listen to what is going on inside a circuit! Once we’ve put together our circuit sniffers, we’ll create an improvised musical performance using the electronic devices we have available to us in the workshop environment.
Young Producers Project
Jeremy Thal, GideonCrevoshay
In this workshop, young Hudsonites will develop a one-minute radio short, featuring music, poetry, and interviews. We’ll learn how to record, edit, and mix sounds using Ableton Live. This workshop is for youth only.
Magic Show
Kids track.
1-2 p.m.
LPFM Caucus
This will be an opportunity for Low Power FM stations to share experiences, challenges, success stories, jokes, stickers and more in an informal lunch caucus setting.
2-3 p.m.
PTFP Clinic
Nan Rubin
PTF-what? Interested in learning more about this federally funded program for public radio stations? PTFP expert Nan Rubin will be on hand to explain this funding opportunity and answer questions.
Insights Into Hispanics in the Hudson Valley
Mariel Fiori
Are you aware to what extent Hispanics influence life in our counties and what services and programs these Hispanics are being offered? Find out more on Sunday, September 26. Mariel Fiori, journalist and three time recipient of the Ippie award for best overall design from the New York Community Media Alliance, will be speaking both about her magazine, La Voz, as well as her insight into the Hispanic presence in the Hudson Valley.
Also a few short workshops will be announced at the last moment for this time period.
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