News Format Curator

Finding the good stuff

PRX Format Curators are here to help stations quickly locate radio pieces that are more relevant to their local air.

Format Curators are very good in their field: they have proven content expertise and have worked at local stations. They get the challenges of programming to a specific format and a local sound.

News Format Curator -- Michael Marcotte

Mike Marcotte is a well known figure in public radio. He's a public radio journalist with more than 25 years experience: news director at both KPBS and KPLU, president of Public Radio News Directors, Inc. (PRNDI), journalism educator at four universities, and outspoken proponent on news issues at local stations. Michael is consulting from his home base in Santa Barbara, California.

What Mike listens for in a piece...

Nominate a piece for Mike to consider.

PRNDI is working closely in this curatorial effort by contributing its programmatic and content expertise to PRX.

Mike's Picks for May 2008

Months are often time pegs for special programs and May is no exception. You have everything from May Day to Memorial Day, Asian American Heritage Month to Older Americans Month. And don?t forget your Mother?s Day!
It might also be a good time to roll out a new weekly series. To wit:

Hearing Voices

Executive Producer Barrett Golding employs a simple but powerful concept: bundle the best of public radio. His show and its stable of indies (Scott Carrier, Ann Heppermann, Larry Massett, Kara Oehler) has been around a few years -- but now it?s a regular one-hour weekly series. Each week has a theme. Sometimes you get archive, sometimes you get fresh, but you always get good use of the medium. There was the April Fool?s show featuring David Ossman and The Firesign Theater. You just missed a collection on aging and a fundraising special. If you hurry, you can cue up the Holocaust remembrance program. Also coming for the May annuals, you have ?All Mom Radio? and ?For the Fallen.? This series is a no-brainer for the news stations looking to plug an hour with creative spoken-word production. They mix it up and that?s the beauty of it. Some stuff may be drafted from This American Life, another station, the web or produced by the HV team. There?s a slight risk of airwave repetition, but it?s like having your own curator culling the best of PRX!

The Lemon Tree from Homelands Productions

Sandy Tolan has repackaged his poignant encounter between a exiled Palestinian man and the Jewish woman who took ownership of his abandoned home. Rereleased in time for Israel?s 60th birthday, this is neither homage nor attack of Zionism but a heartfelt attempt to hear a dialogue between two genuinely considerate people living within the Arab-Israeli conflict. Tolan has advanced this provocative and challenging story ? and its large historical framework -- not only in rewrapping his audio but also through releasing his book of the same name. News stations should be thinking about the anniversary and this one hour program as an opportunity to probe the past, present and future of the Middle East.

Secret Asian Woman by Dmae Roberts

If you are looking for a stand-alone half-hour and want to attach something meaningful to Asian American Heritage Month, look no further than Dmae Robert?s inward foray. With a precise ear for radio that talks, Roberts lets us know what it is to be offended by ethnic ignorance? or worse, xenophobic attacks. There?s an arc to this piece that bends from what was, to what will be, and in that there?s both forgiveness and hope. Give it a listen right on the PRX page.

Ian Shoales

His real name is Merle Kessler. Old timers will remember his work with Duck?s Breath, Doctor Science and frequently on NPR. He still lives in San Francisco where he performs and blogs?and he?s still making those fast-talking, dead-pan, two-minute commentaries that always end abruptly: ?I gotta go.? I love this guy and was delighted to hear his nasal political satire on PRX. His filing seems a bit sporadic, so I hope he continues and maybe he will if you?ll license his work.

I always like to add a few notes about radio programs I discovered along the PRX path. For news programmers who dip into radio theater, or like those programs that blend musical archive with knowledgeable hosts, you should know about these on-line audio offerings:

L. A. Theatre Works

Hello! This is quality acting, quality production, produced before a live audience and packaged beautifully as a two-hour weekly series. This production house has a built a following around the world. Give your station the sound of the performing arts. May schedule includes the recreation of H.G. Welles' War of the Worlds.

Footlight Parade: Sounds of the American Musical

Bill Rudman of the nonprofit Musical Theater Project hosts this one-hour weekly review of a famous show or a notable year. There?s far more musical archive than contemporary discourse, but a recent program on Carousel featured archival commentary by Richard Rogers and was quite informative.

AfterGlow: Jazz and American Popular Song

This suggestion may even stray into the music curator?s territory as the show is quite light on information and quite tight on the swing. I mention it because they have a Memorial Day production that captures the music and some news clips from World War II.

Have a great month. As always, if you see something on PRX you?d like me to spotlight, give me a shout: mm (at ) mikemarcotte (dot) com. Take care!

Mike's Picks for April 2008

Ahhh, springtime -- and the scent of great news on the radio!

Saving the Sierra by Catherine Stifter and Jesikah Maria Ross.

I'm a long-time Catherine fan. I didn't realize she was a two-time Peabody winner, I just remember how well she told stories with sounds and that she was a damn good trainer (back when training was abundant in public radio -- but don't get me started!). So, now we discover what Ms Stifter's been up to lately, Saving the Sierra. This is modern documentary with first person feelings to make it real. Hard not to feel drawn into the love of this land when you meet the many characters living there. The production is stellar - location-rich with music for moods. At the heart of this hour-long, three-part excursion, is the fragile landscape itself. Once sparsely populated and abundant with wildlife, this California treasure is being whittled away by developers for the likes of us city folk hoping for our own piece of paradise. You don't have to broadcast anywhere near California to appreciate this modern conundrum or the delicate legal-balance between business and environmental interests. A great one for Earth Day. Don't forget to mention the companion website.

Great Lakes Danger Zone and other offerings by the Center for Public Integrity.

I should have known that the much-admired Bill Buzenberg would make radio waves at the Center for Public Integrity. Bill was the former head of news at NPR and MPR. He now shepherds the investigating reporting team at CPI. Buzenberg himself narrates the feature-size radio reports available via PRX. Each report is a sample of much deeper work to be found on the CPI web site.

The Great Lakes Danger Zone will tell you about a CDC study of environmental hazards -- with potentially severe health implications -- suppressed by political and business interests.

The Longest Campaign sets up the money-feast being served up to Obama, McCain and Clinton this year -- with a look back at how we got into this candidate-for-sale system in the first place.

The War Card is a score card detailing 935 false statements made by President Bush and others in his administration while beating the tom-toms for war in Iraq.

Any news department can be confident of the meticulous journalism behind the Center for Public Integrity's work. And it strikes me that one way to use these would be to run them in series. Also watch for follow-ups.

My only beef here is that production values have slipped in these audio offerings. It is rather startling to hear funky phone tape, microphone plosives and generally clumsy production. I hope the radio work from CPI isn't an afterthought once the print people have been fed. From Bill Buzenberg, we wouldn't expect that and with investigative journalism on the run in America, we badly need Bill and his band of merry snoops.

CalEarth by Eric Molinsky.

Another April eco-treat for you. In our hunger for more earth-friendly ideas, we appreciate little discoveries with huge implications for greener times. Eric leaves his Brooklyn base for trip to the Mojave Desert where architect Nadir Khalili has built model dome homes like something from Riven or Myst. These earth babies are strong and efficient and apparently quite affordable. The story is featured on Studio 360, but on PRX it's a feature easy to drop into a magazine cut-away or use as talk show conversation starter. I was not familiar with Mr Molinsky but I like his easy-going delivery and whimsical but never cutsey story-telling. And I see by his website he's got more where that came from.

Shout outs for April

I always try to add a few notes about other laudable work on PRX. With Tibet under Chinese crack-down and certain to remain a pivotal pain-point leading up to the Beijing Olympics, you may want to check out the Tibet Connection on PRX. It's a pipeline for first-hand accounts of what's happening on the ground between the Dali Lama's outpost in Dharamsala, India to the heart of the matter in Lhasa.

Also, with Earth Day in April, I'll re-suggest the sciencey work of Quest out of KQED and The Environment Reportout of Ann Arbor.

Have a great April!

Mike's Picks for March 2008

This month, I wandered all over PRX for offerings that may not deliver capital-N news, but still offer strong appeal to your ever-curious and discerning public radio news audiences. Let me know what you think of these:

Rhythms of Zapata by Alejandro Reyes.

Wow! Here is your hidden gem of the month. This half-hour piece exudes color, culture and character unlike any radio I've heard lately. I can't say enough about the quality of this listening experience: the power of music, the clean script, the husky narration, the weave of voices, and the compelling story that emerges.

Reyes, a graduate student in Berkeley's vaunted graduate journalism program, working under the tutelage of veteran indie producer Claire Schoen documents vivid manifestations of the Zapatista movement as promulgated by Chicano artists in Los Angeles. Who knew those masked indigenous rebels in southern Mexico held some sway over urban Latinos two-thousand miles away? If you want insight into the parallels at play -- not to mention an excursion into the heart of an American cultural rebellion -- catch this beautifully rendered audio ethnography.

(Note: Reyes' doc was packaged and distributed in the weekly public affairs series Making Contact by the National Radio Project. I confess mixed feelings about the series. The decidedly left-leaning outfit is the pride of many community stations, and deservedly so, week after week providing earnest probes into a wide range of political, environmental and social justice issues. NPR news stations may stay away, preferring a more neutral editorial standard, which, in my opinion, retains a bolder credibility stamp. Yet Making Contact, like Democracy Now, plays an important role in the public radio tableau and should be commended for surfacing great talent, like that of Alejandro Reyes!)

Radio Lab by WNYC.

Is there anybody in the public radio universe who doesn't know about these hour-long sonically-interesting forays by Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad? It's time for a new season (a bundle of five shows) diving and frolicking around in such themes as why we laugh and why we lie. There's even a live-auditorium show that cleverly deconstructs Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. These guys are taking informative radio into new dimensions.

You can try this at home but you better have a fundamentally compelling (big) idea, a hip ear for layered production and altered pacing, and the yin and yang of two brilliant hosts. The producers suggest stripping all five shows across the week and hype it like hell. Why not!

After Oil by WFYI and Purdue University.

Sweeping, thorough, solid. A one hour search for new energy solutions featuring a wealth of experts. Driving the show, you've got a comfortable host in Barbara Bogaev. Behind the scenes, you've got the experience and talent of Richard Paul as producer and writer. This doc was issued in the middle of 2007 but is a testament to timely stuff in the PRX archives.

Extra Mentions

While spearheading KPBS' coverage of the San Diego wildfires last fall, I was lucky enough to attract the fabulous talents of two young reporters, Tamara Keith and Rene Gutel, who rushed in as fresh reinforcements. Tamara works for KQED in San Francisco. Rene is on staff at KJZZ in Phoenix.

But what they do in their spare time is produce a funky little hip hour called B-Side Radio. They've got a stable of helpers that formed a few years ago (where else? At Berkeley.) B-Side comes out regularly (there are a few seasons on PRX), takes an off-beat theme (from the b-side of life), and rolls it around with gentle humor and 20-something smarts.

I didn't set out to profile "emerging women in public radio," but here are two more young producers that caught my ear this month:

Addie Goss of Wyoming Public Radio

A recent graduate of Brown, Addie did a Next Gen stint at NPR, toiled a while for ATC and Day-2-Day, and had the good sense to land at a quality NPR-member station (where she's fortunate to have the mentorship of veteran news director Bob Beck). She only just arrived in Laramie, but already Addie's budding talent is apparent in such postings as High Costs Delay Clean Coal

Rebecca Sheir with the Alaska Public Radio Network

What is it about Alaska that attracts good writers? Two years ago, Rebecca got her MFA from the University of Iowa where she taught a radio essay program and produced for WSUI. Now at APRN, she's hosting the AK weekend magazine and filing feature drop-ins on PRX. Try her Going Solar Where the Sun Don't Shine, and you'll see (hear?) a rising star.

Mike's Picks for February 2008

Greetings PRXers! It's always an audio adventure around here. You never know when you'll encounter some ear-gems right around the corner! Here are my latest discoveries:

Phillip Martin and The Color Initiative

This former NPR reporter and editor is doing some strong and important work on racial issues around the world from his new non-profit home -- Lifted Veils Productions, which has a good grant thing going with the BBC, WGBH, PRI and a trio of big-time funders. Black History Month or not, you've got some well-made, issue-oriented, segment-length, drop-ins for use in your magazines.

The Color Initiative has yielded three "Color Reports" so far. All have aired on PRI's The World, all exploring race from compelling perspectives: 1) Race as a marketing tool, 2) Race in the movies, and 3) A two-part look at immigration and race.

Mr. Martin has additional offerings available on PRX including his "Standing Up to Hate In Europe" which features excellent tape, a range of scenes and perspectives, while providing a tight look at Europe's hate debate.

WUNC: Put to the Test

I doubt there's a public radio news programmer out there who hasn't heard of American RadioWorks. The APM/MPR outfit is undoubtedly the premiere producer of radio documentaries in this country. Every news station should be finding a way to feature their work. Now comes a series well-timed to help us understand the debate whether to renew "No Child Left Behind," the national education policy of the Bush Administration.

I'm delighted to see Steven Smith and his team working in tandem with local station WUNC in North Carolina on this project. Originally released as a one hour doc, "Put to the Test," is now available on PRX as a re-versioned, re-edited six-part series of drop-in modules. Expertly hosted by Emily Hanford, the series immerses us in a local school, tracking individual students up close, over time. The net result is a deep, and nuanced, understanding of the challenges facing teachers.

Bottom line: No Child Left Behind with its relentless pursuit of standardized test scores often leaves students falling behind.

Shout-Outs

Timely Campaign Feeds. If you act fast, you can often grab some newsy audio from PRX. Good examples of late are the election-related postings of WGBH, WAMU, WNPR, WAMC, NHPR and others. I encourage others to follow suit and post your stuff -- even if it seems perishable -- because you never know how helpful it may prove to be.

Karen Fritsche. This California-based indie goes for quirk and brings smart attitude. I couldn't help grinning during her Traitor Joe's report on an apparently growing phenomenon: deep disappointment by Trader Joe's shoppers when they find a likeable product discontinued. Good navigation between real reporting and personal perspective.

Peace Talks Radio. I inched out on this branch once before by endorsing The World Vision Report. Here again, you have a program with a purpose -- to explore peace and non-violent solutions -- but produced with open-minded balance and curiosity. Veteran radio master Paul Ingles gives your ears a comfortable place to settle in his monthly hour of interview and conversation. His March 2006 program is now available and corresponds with the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps. Check it out!

Final Thoughts

You don't have to spend much time on PRX to realize that the "personal-point-of-view" has become a dominant trait among producers today. That's fine for first-person story-telling. But, when it comes to journalism, it doesn't bode well when overused. I'm hearing too many program hosts cloaking themselves in the shroud of news and public affairs -- but they immediately dishonor the tradition by taking sides. As a listener, I'm bothered because they no longer serve as my gateway for intelligent, open-minded inquiry. It's as if Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing opinion-makers have spawned legions of left-wing equivalents!

Mike's Picks for January 2008

Happy NEWS Year!

Here's a pre-salute to you, the producer of this year's remarkable news offerings on PRX. (I'll be searching for your work, so be sure to tag it under the topic of 'news'.) And here's to you, the news programmer, who I trust to get many satisfying radio minutes from this rich repository.

Things got slow around the holidays, but here are a few PRX notable finds:

Northwest News Network
I could point to any number of pieces, but maybe I should simply point to N3 itself, the bubbly source of this steady stream of issue-oriented news. Granted, these feature stories generally exude the scent of the region, but you'll find strong reporting, good story-telling, and broad enough focus to allow many of these reports to work for stations outside the area.
Under the able editing of Cathy Duchamp, you have a fine cadre of reporters delivering the audio goods. Guy Hand is an up-and-comer from Idaho. Check out his story on that state's pitiful college attendance rates, or his look at how wine country is sprouting new upscale housing developments. Tom Banse, the roaming correspondent, is an old pro. Some of his recent offerings include ecotherapy for returning war vets, and an enterprise look at how this hydro-power-rich region promises a home to electric car producers. There's also a series from Elizabeth Wynne Johnson on rural health care, plus profile and trend pieces from Anna King.
As local news stations seek new ways to combine resources and form regional alliances, they'd be smart to emulate the Northwest News Network, which is proving that local stories can be framed for a regional and national audience.

Soundprint
This was a rediscovery for me. I still remember when Soundprint launched with much pubradio fanfare back in the 80s: NPR legend Bill Siemering promising the aural equivalent of great photography. Soundprint drifted off my mental map, partly because their outfit went through so many changes after Bill left, but it is good to see them alive and well -- here on PRX -- and to see they are still acquiring long-form independent pieces and distributing well-executed one hour programs.
Lisa Simeone is hosting again. Though sometimes she over-adds narration, she's a great host. And while the topics can vary in importance or interest, you can count on quality production. If you are looking for a high quality series, or even one-off specials, check them out.
My recent samples were Changing Face of Crime, Trapped on the Wrong Side of History, Born Free, and Out of their Hands.

Humpback Whale Song
I've been looking for more independent producers of news topics, but sometimes they find me. Heidi Chang invited me to listen to her piece on Humpback Whale research near Maui, and I was taken in by those bizarre, screechy whale voices. Heidi did a nice job with this piece last year; and it probably holds up well this new year, especially now that the whale breeding season has begun. It runs about 8 - minutes not counting the whale-inspired musical tag.

Speaking of music, I don't want to rant or anything, but I find myself rejecting a lot of news-like pieces because the producers felt compelled to lay a music bed beneath their otherwise interesting work. Call me old fashioned, but hearing a music bed signals to me that this is explicitly not news. It's more fiction than fact, more art than reality. If music is the story, that's different. And musical elements, like audio color, can work in some creative ways, though it is tricky to do. But running a music bed beneath your news is a turn-off, if you ask me.

Send me your feedback to this month's post, or any thoughts on what's making news on PRX!

Mike's Picks for December 2007

Finding Solid Ground
A documentary from producers Molly Peterson and Eve Troeh. Solid hour-long canvas of Louisiana residents still struggling to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. New Orleans is definitely still a vibrant story -- and the voices in this piece will validate your choice to air it. This doc shouldn't be dated anytime soon and could help sustain your holiday schedule.

Are e-85 Pumps Safe?
A segment-length news report by The Environment Report. Good reporting that funnels emerging questions about safe containment and transfer of new fuels using existing equipment. Now that the folks once known as Great Lakes Radio Consortium are casting a national net, more of us can check out their feeds. The standard length features are good for drop-ins, magazine segments or talk-show starters -- when you need timely news pieces aimed at environmental issues.

New Hampshire & Iowa Public Radio Exchange [Program One Economic Issues, Program Two Social Issues]
A three part series of one-hour cross-continent conversations about the presidential campaigns in these bellwether states. Poses a few programming hurdles for stations outside Iowa and New Hampshire, but worth surmounting for this unique comparison.Perhaps these could work in series, in lieu of your regular talk show. Give your talk staff time off for the holidays...or a week to work up some year-end specials. Stations should also check out all the raw audio from presidential candidates at the PRX Campaign '08 section.

Quest
Issue-oriented science and environment reports from KQED in San Francisco. I listened to the oil clean-up piece from last week and found quite an archive of earlier reports. These are consistently strong -- though stations would need to pay attention to the timely topics and locality concerns. Another handy-length drop-in segment... but like most pieces originally produced for a local show or station, you need to deal with how these are tagged. The lock-outs reference Quest. Rather than work to suppress that reference, you might just go with it. In this case, Quest has a prominent web presence so you could consider adding your own tag offering listeners more Quest on-line.

Special Mention:

SisterLove: Keeping it Real, Globally!
A compelling look at an Atlanta HIV/AIDS service. Has a raunchy but real edge about it and is timed as an 18-minute package. I think this is one of those immersive listening experiences that would do well inside a talk format. You could pop out of it and urge callers to respond. The issue: Is it time we get over social sexual taboos that inhibit us from dealing directly with the AIDS threat?

World Vision Report
Solid reporting and global in sweep, if you don't mind your radio imbued with a mission to help poor children around the planet. Half hours or story segments.

War News Radio
Spawned by Swarthmore College and thus not quite up to NPR standards, but compelling and ambitious all the same. Would certainly sound good on a college station. NOTE: Both World Vision and War News come in half-hour bundles and are produced on similar schedules. Since most stations seek one-hour productions, here you have a 30 and 30 with reasonable compatibility.

Station programmers need to listen to these programs before scheduling. Check 'em out, they might work for you, too!

© 2007, The Public Radio Exchange