Signal, November 2009: Name a New Feature, Playlists 101 & More

Photo: Ozh

YouthCast host Molly Adams has started a new, cool feature which we're calling... actually, we're asking YOU to help us name this feature. And we're offering a lovely PRX T-Shirt as a li'l thank you.

Here's the skinny: Molly is interviewing adult producers who started out in youth radio on how they got where they did. Her first interview with Marketplace's Jeremy Hobson covers how to break into radio (which he did at NINE years old), three rules for a good story and what you can learn from the morning oldies DJ. Take a listen, get inspired, then send us your suggested title by leaving a comment on the blog.

Great for bookmarking your favorite work, sharing recommendations, or creating your own radio special around a theme, playlists are one of those PRX functions that make the whole site more fun. But how do you use this helpful tool?

The PRX help desk has created a kind of Playlists 101 Guide, with details on how to create, manage and listen to playlists. Just think, right now you could be listening to your own specially-curated list on the popup player...

If These Walls Could Talk takes writings by the youngest members of America's prison system and, with the help of producer Susan Stone, "shoots their work into the sky" through audio, photography and the web. We were so bowled over by the work that we had to sit down for a virtual interview with participants to find out more.

GPRX: What drew you to writing poetry? How do you find an idea and grow it into a poem?
Members of Boys Units 4 & 6: The Beat Within [a weekly writing workshop in juvenile halls throughout the country] comes every week to the units. They provide the topics, the pencils and the paper. The topics help form ideas, and range from things like If We Could Rewind The Clock to If You Really Knew Me.... We talk together about what the topic of the day means to us, and sometimes it comes out a rap, a rhyme, or a short story. Our writings are turned into publications, including some of our illustrations, and the following week we see ourselves in print. That way we can reach out to others in juvenile hall beyond our individual rooms (cells), and know that we are not alone in our thoughts, hopes or dreams.

GPRX: How has the experience of writing and recording poetry affected you?
MBU4&6: Through our writing we find that we have a voice when most of the time others here inside (judges, lawyers, probations officers) speak for us. We read our work to each other, and learn how we see the world and how it sees us in different ways.
These walls talk! We still belong to the world.

Read the full interview on GPRX and learn more about If These Walls Could Talk.

The StoryCorp MobileBooth

Several years ago producer Dave Isay took a simple idea - asking people around you about their lives - and created the treasure trove that is StoryCorps. You may have heard some of these short, poignant interviews on the radio or on PRX (or even seen the travelling studio in your town). Now StoryCorp shares its techniques with a Do-It-Yourself Guide, video and even a custom Question Generator. You can listen to stories for inspiration, and share your own.

Hopi High Students at Arizona State University

• Spearheaded by former PRX intern Carman Dewees, Life-Play uses phone technology to play interactive theater games. The "half improv and half radio" games are often recorded as podcasts, and new participants are welcome.
• Our friends at Hopi High Radio are yet again bringing home piles of awards (12! Including three individual state champions) from the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association at Arizona State University. Nice work, broadcasters!
• There's radio magic happening over at Saltcast, the podcast from the Salt Institute for Documentary studies and PRX. Are you subscribed? It's gold for the listener and the producer alike.
• 
  

Photo: arbyreed

Try some of these upcoming events for inspiration and as a tool to pitch to stations.

Nov - Native American Heritage Month
Nov 11 - Veterans Day
Nov 9-10 - Anniversary of Kristallnacht
Nov 26 - Thanksgiving
Dec 1 - World AIDS Day
Dec 11 - Hanukkah begins at sundown
Dec 21 - Winter begins
Dec 25 - Christmas
Jan 1 - New Year's Day
Jan 3 - Festival of Sleep Day
Jan 18 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day