The Art of the Audio Essay
PWR 2 Winter Quarter 2006
Jonah G. Willihnganz
Stanford University
Web Resources
On this page you will find links to major web sites that showcase audio essays and to resources that will help you produce your own. You will also find, a bit further down, links to web sites devoted to the history and analysis of radio. This page will grow as the term progresses. If you have a link to suggest, let me know.
Reference and Readings
Transom.org
Maybe the best resource for students in this class. A "showcase and workshop"
for producing audio essays and documentarys—great information, advice,
and programs. Also accepts submissions. Begin with the "more on how it
works" link at the bottom of the page or click here. Check out interviews at Transom with writers, interviewers, and artists who create audio essays and documentaries —including Norman Corwin, Studs Terkel, Chrsitopher Lydon, Sarah Vowell, Jonathan Goldstein, and David Isay, and producers of NPR program such as On the Media, The Connection, and Fresh Air.
Air Media's Radio College
Created by documentarian Robin White and run by an alliance of independent audio
producers and writers, this is a terrific "how to" and showcase site.
Great articles and tips on interviewing, recording, editing, etc. They bill
themselves as "an online training and resource center which exists to provide
information, inspiration, technical support..."
National Public
Radio's "How to do Radio 101"
A good set of links to some basic instructions and advice in producing news
and commentary audio. Part of NPR's Next
Generation Radio Training Project.
Audio Essay Sites
American
RadioWorks
This production company creates documentaries for National
Public Radio and Public Radio International. ARW also produces documentaries
for online broadcast. Check out the many documentaries they have available on-line.
As they ARW creates documentaries, series projects, and investigative reports
representing "a sustained effort at explanatory and investigative journalism."
This American Life
They say it best themselves: the program's "mission is to document everyday
life in this country. We sometimes think of it as a documentary show for people
who normally hate documentaries. . . Each week we choose a theme and invite
different writers and performers to contribute items on the theme." Nearly
every show they have ever done is available. Explore. Frolic.
Third Coast International
Audio Festival
A premier site for feature and documentary audio essays
heard on radio and via the internet. Each year Third Coast hosts a competition
and a conference. Created and run by WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio.
The Kitchen Sisters
Some of the best radio there is. They specialize in narrationless documentaries. From their site you can check out their projects, Hidden Kitchens, Lost and Found Sound and The Sonic Memorial Project. To hear audio of the Hidden Kitchens go to this NPR page. Try especially the piece "The Club from Nowhere:Cooking for Civil Rights."
Sound Portraits
Sound Portraits is a non-profit production company founded by David Isay "dedicated
to telling stories that bring neglected American voices to a national audience." Its radio documentaries are heard on NPR's All Things Considered and
Weekend Edition. We will listen to and read scripts from a number of
programs (which run anywhere from 5 minutes to a half hour) but check
out the others here.
Soundprint
Soundprint is "the aural equivalent of photojournalism." The documentaries
they help produce and air feature inventive use of sound. We'll listen to some
of the award-winning projects and series they produce but also check out the
full archive from 2000-2004.
To see the descriptions of the programs listed for each year (the web
pages initially just show a list of titles), click the tiny link in the title
bar that says "click here for descriptions." Also note that most documentaries
have additional materials such as bibliographies.
CBC/Radio-Canada's
"Outfront" Program
A showcase of documentaries made by ordinary folks like us. Accepts submissions
and pays! See especially the Radio
Documentary Tutorial section which contains a number of instructive audio
pieces with commentary.
Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries is a program that helps ordinary folks produce oral histories
and short memiors for public radio. Their mission is give voice to those typically
underrepresented by the media—the elderly, teens, inmates— and "to
find extraordinary stories in ordinary places, and preserve these voices for
generations to come." Check out especially their Handbook:
How to Make Your Own Radio Diary.
Hearing Voices
Their tag line is "Where Journalism Meets John Cage."Innovative and
definitely not typical audio documentaries. The latest projects are listed on
the first page. We'll listen to and discuss "Prime Candidates" but
have listen to the mind-expanding "The Earth Sings" and the funny
and disconcerting "Jim Morrison's Grave." The programs devoted to
Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster
Fuller are also terrific.
Lost and Found
Sound
A special year long series of stories "that capture[s] the spirit and sounds
of everyday life in this century." Focuses on recordings re-discovered
by people from all over the country and documenting America's aural past. Created
and produced by the Kitchen Sisters, two of the best known and innovative public
radio producers.
WNYC's
Radio Rookies
Check out audio essays by folks starting out, just like you. Some great stuff.
Audio
Essays from "Multimedia Writing: Radio Essays"
These are the latest audio essays produced by students in John Porter's class
at the University of Iowa. Listen also to past course archived
essays.
Youth
Radio
A terrific program run out of Berkeley that trains high school age students
in radio and helps them produce audo commentaries and features. Students' pieces
are heard on local stations like KPFA, KQED and KCBS as well as on PRI and NPR
programs such as Marketplace. This link will take you to the page that lists
on-air archives. Try listening to the perspective
pieces produced for KQED. Or try listening to the commentary
pieces produced for NPR prgrams like All Things Considered.
Other
KZSU 90.1 FM
Stanford's radio station. Your long-form audio essays will be aired here at
the end of term. But listen before that, at 90.1 on the dial or by stream over
the internet! Great programs across the spectrum.
Stanford's
Archive of Recorded Sound
An array of audio collections, some of which have already been converted to
digital format. Sample pieces in the "Bytes" section.
Library of Congress
Recorded Sound Reference Center
Begun in 2000, this project of the LOC collects rare and culturally sound. Check
out especially the recordings
available on line. Also check out the 2002
National Recording Registry, a list of what the LOC has decided are the
most important sound monuents to preserve. The list includes recordings of artists,
politicians and performers such as T.S. Eliot, Bessie Smith, Franklin Roosevelt,
and Elvis Presley.
Library of
Congress American Memory Historical Collection for the National Digital Library
A tremendous collection of text, photographs, and recordings. Especially useful
if you are interested in researching and documenting the arts (drama, music,
dance, etc.). To see what is available begin with "Collection
Finder."
Oral History
Online
Located at Berkeley, a large collection of oral histories—first-hand accounts
and personal perspectives on historical events. Mostly transcripts and texts.
Old Time Radio Web
Ring
A list of over 100 web sites devoted to "Old Time Radio" (radio programs
and culture from 1920s-1950s)
Marshall McLuhan
Research Network
If you are interested in McLuhan, this is the place to start. See their links
page for more resources
Radio and Media History
U.
of Minnesota's Media History Project Site
(A terrific site with timelines, histories, summaries, links, etc. on print,
electrical, mass, and digital media)
U.C. San Diego History of Technology Links
Think Quest's Evolution of the Mass Media Site