Youth radio from the outside in: Taki Telonidis on Spy Hop Productions

[Jones Franzel]

For most of you, youth media is a familiar concept; you know the power of young people using media. But what about people who don't call youth media home? When we came across "Spy Hop: Making Music, Changing Lives," a profile of Salt Lake City-based Spy Hop Productions from producers Taki Telonidis and Hal Cannon of the Western Folklife Center, we had to ask: What can someone not in youth media tell us about how the field looks from the outside? And luckily, Taki was kind enough to sit down and tell us:

GPRX: As a non youth media producer, what drew you to the story of Spy Hop?
Taki Telonidis: While there are other youth media organizations, one of the things that makes Spy Hop unique is its emphasis on music. Music is the soundtrack to the lives of young people, and making music is an important milestone in self-expression, self-confidence, and earning the respect of peers. While I've worked on many radio stories about music and musicians, I'd never worked on a piece about young people and music.

GPRX: How did you pitch this story? Do you think the concept of a youth media group was unfamiliar to most listeners? What were some of the more surprising elements you discovered?
TT: The crux of my pitch was that Open Mic is a transformational program for at-risk youth that uses music to help these kids grow emotionally. Reporting this story was an important personal experience for me, and I was surprised and impressed by several things. One was the level of involvement and concern that Spy Hop staff have for these kids. They go above and beyond simply helping them with music; they are friends, mentors, and guardians. Spending time at Spy Hop also reminded me of how diverse my hometown really is. Despite its reputation as a homogeneous "white bread" place, this city is surprisingly diverse, with a significant immigrant population. And this diversity is well represented at the Open Mic program.

GPRX: Our perennial question: Why don't we hear more youth voices on the air? What would it take? Do you see a bridge between the student producers you met and public radio?
TT: While there ought to be more youth voices on the air, I do believe it's better these days than 10 or 15 years ago. The Youth Radio movement, begun more than a decade ago in San Francisco, has made important contributions to public radio. I know that in this piece, it wasn't until I met and interviewed Jeremy Johnson that I felt I had the makings of a powerful story. Though I'd interviewed other young people for whom Spy Hop was life changing, Jeremy's ability to articulate his story in a way that resonated with listeners of all ages was crucial. To some degree, I think that ability comes with age. Spy Hop is dedicated to putting more youth voices on the air. They produce a program called Loud and Clear on a local radio station, and are in the process of creating a new program to teach radio documentary skills, once again giving young people the tools to tell their own story.
We asked Spy Hop to give us a bit more background on their Open Mic Program. Here's the skinny:

The Open Mic Program: How many mics can you rip on the daily? Every Friday from 3-7 PM, all youth ages 14-19 are free to rip ours during Spy Hop's Open Mic. So stop in before your weekend, and find our studio bumpin' with a new group of teens each week dropping beats and jamming with an energy everyone can get down to. The wise intelligents who take advantage of Open Mic are free to record, mix, converge and create with other artists, receive instruction from trained professionals, and leave with a copy of their new creations burned to a CD totally free of charge. So come in, lay down your beats, record yourself or your band, and get your hands on some of Spy Hop's state-of-the-art recording equipment. Open Mic is not just for Hip-Hop! All music types allowed