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digital skills | the audio skills toolset


The Project

In January 2001, Real Art Ways began offering digital audio training workshops in our new audio lab at 30 Arbor Street. The workshop participants (high school students, senior citizens, artists, teachers, and other members of the community) will produce original projects, including audio art, journalism, drama, poetry, music, storytelling, oral history, and sound design. As the projects are completed, they will be transformed into streaming audio files and archived on the Real Art Ways website. Visitors to our website can then listen to the audio projects on their computers.

To prepare for this project, we spent the past year examining best practices. We visited and spoke with audio, video and web access centers, youth radio projects, media educators, radio stations, audio artists, journalism programs, arts centers, educational software designers, musicians, business incubators for youth, streaming media specialists, and funders of technology, education and the arts. We looked at hundreds of websites and listened to dozens of web radio stations.

We have put what we learned into this toolkit, but it is only a start. There is more to be learned, more to be documented, more to be shared.

As you use this toolkit, we hope you will share your own discoveries. Please let us know of other programs, Web links, curricula, successes and problems, funding opportunities, innovative approaches, and so on. We will incorporate your information as soon as we can, so that others may learn from it. Let us know if our toolkit structure works for you. And, please don't forget to add links to Real Art Ways and this toolkit to your own website!

Send your comments to info@realartways.org.

This toolkit is made possible through the generosity of the Albert A. List Foundation.

DIGITAL SKILLS

Visit the Digital Skills Web site.

Interact with the Parkville Audio Map.

 


THE AUDIO SKILLS TOOLKIT

Getting Started

Audio and Radio Production

Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)
www.airmedia.org
AIR is a non-profit membership organization of culturally diverse independent radio producers; station and network based producers; audio artists; radio stations; educational and cultural institutions; media art centers; and others in public broadcasting. Website includes practical information, training opportunities, links to other useful sites.

Radio College
www.radiocollege.org
Radio College is a resource for freelance radio journalists, station-based and independent radio producers, providing information and education to newcomers in the public radio field and career development information for those at mid-level.

Sound Portraits
www.soundports.org
This independent, not for profit production company founded by producer David Isay provides a helpful guide to audio production, How to Make Broadcast-Quality Recordings.

How To Make Radio Stories
www.thislife.org
This guide, in comic-book format, book gives you an inside look at how the public radio show This American Life is made. But even better, it's a step-by-step primer on how to make a radio story. The book includes detail on where TAL finds its stories, how to structure a story, how to do an interview, how to hold the microphone, how to edit sound, how to write a script for radio.

National Public Radio’s Public Radio Ethics and Style Guidebook
www.npr.org

Society of Professional Journalists’s Code of Ethics
www.spj.org


Media Rites

Legacies Handbook & CD
www.mediarites.org
MediaRites is a non-profit multicultural production organization that promotes acceptance, understanding and education between diverse communities through a variety of media including radio, theatre, visual arts and interdisciplinary outreach projects. The Legacies Handbook & CD is a step-by-step guide - with audio examples - to creating oral and cultural history documentaries.

Atlantic Public Media/Cape and Islands Community Radio
Jay Allison - Tips for Citizen Storytellers
www.atlantic.org

Teen Reporter Handbook
www.radiodiaries.org
Written in reporter’s notebook format by Teenage Diaries series producer Joe Richman, this guide is designed to help young reporters document their own experiences. It contains practical information, a CD of teen-produced radio stories, and lists of youth radio training programs and other resources.

Youth Radio Manual
www.nfcb.org
This comprehensive publication, due out in 2001, contains program histories, practical information, and sample curricula.

ProTools Software - FREE
www.digidesign.com
Digidesign’s Pro Tools FREE audio editing software is now available for download from the Digidesign website. This free version of Pro Tools runs on qualified Mac OS, Windows 98 SE and Windows Me computers.

Video Production

National Alliance of Media, Arts, and Culture
www.namac.org


Community Radio

National Federation of Community Broadcasters
www.nfcb.org
NFCB is a national membership organization of community-oriented, non-commercial radio stations. The website includes links to community stations on the Web. NFCB hosts a Youth Radio Workshop at its annual conference. A Youth Radio manual, including sample curricula, is due out in 2001.

Free Radio Berkeley
www.freeradio.org

Amarc
www.amarc.ca


Broadcasting


Federal Regulations

Federal Communications Commission
www.fcc.gov
445 12th St. SW, Washington DC 20554
(202) 418-0190
fccinfo@fcc.gov


The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 as an independent United States government agency directly responsible to Congress. The Act, which has been amended over the years, charges the Commission with establishing policies to govern interstate and international communications by television, radio, wire, satellite and cable. The Mass Media Bureau regulates AM, FM radio and television broadcast stations, as well as Multipoint Distribution (i.e., cable and satellite) and Instructional Television Fixed Services. The FCC recently adopted rules creating a new, noncommercial low power FM radio (LPFM) service. The new service will consist of stations with maximum power levels of 10 watts - reaching an area with a radius of between 1 and 2 miles - and 100 watts - reaching an area with a radius of approximately 3 _ miles.

Low Power FM

Prometheus Radio Project
www.prometheus.tao.ca
P.O. Box 30942 , Philadelphia PA 19104
Named after the mythological Greek character who stole fire from the gods in order to share it with humans, the Prometheus Radio Project, is a not-for-profit association dedicated to the democratization of the airwaves through the proliferation of non-commercial, community based, micropower radio stations. This website has “how-to” information on LPFM, policy updates, and links to many other microradio and LPFM advocacy organizations.

Media Access Project
www.mediaaccess.org
Media Access Project is a non-profit, public interest law firm which promotes the public’s First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media. MAP publishes advocacy and research literature on LPFM.

Microradio Implementation Project (MIP)
www.microradio.org
This site has “how-to” and policy information, as well as links to other microradio organizations. Sponsored by the United Church of Christ, MIP is the largest LPFM clearinghouse organization.

Community Media Services
microradio.org/apply.htm
Under the direction of Nan Rubin, a 25-year veteran of community media development, CMS works with the United Methodist Church to assist community-based groups in applying for and building radio stations. Nan’s easy-to-follow instructions on how to fill out the technical sections of the FCC LPFM application and her introductory publication on building radio stations are available on the microradio.org website.

National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications
www.nlgcdc.org
NLGCDD offers legal services to LPFM applicants. It is chiefly responsible for the Broadcast signal labs study that convinced the FCC that LPFM was technically viable.

Americans for Radio Diversity
www.radiodiversity.com
ARD has worked extensively to promote the development of LPFM stations. The organization also spearheaded a campaign against NPR’s opposition to the FCC’s low-power radio initiative.

LowPower Radio Coalition
congress.nw.dc.us/lpr/
LPRC helps set up meetings for community organizations and individuals to discuss LPFM with members of Congress. The organization publishes email updates on Congressional activities and maintains a website listing simple, documentable ways to affect public policy.

Beginners Guide to Low Power Broadcasting
freespeech.org/lowpower/guide.html
Rick Harrison’s basic look at the technical issues of low-power radio. Thorough.

 

Streaming Audio

exploreRadio
www.exploreradio.net/bp/index.html
eXploreRadio is an online partnership between National Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio. It focuses on bringing online content, community and commerce to public radio station Web sites. eXploreRadio’s “Best Practices” contains useful information on such topics as streaming and staffing.

Microsoft Windows Media
msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/imedia/windowsmedia

Real Networks
www.real.com
RealImpact
www.realimpact.net
2601 Elliott Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121
206.674.2240
realimpact@real.com
RealImpact is a service of Real Networks that works with non-profits. RealImpact's services are broken down into three major areas: Streaming Media, Strategic Consulting, and Website Design. It also provides technical assistance to help organizations become proficient in understanding the Internet and streaming media.

Community Collaboration

Libraries for the Future - Youth ACCESS
www.lff.org/demo/youth.htm
Youth ACCESS is an afterschool program designed to enhance the educational, literacy, and employment skills opportunities of young people ages 8-18. Participants in Youth ACCESS work together to learn about their community and issues of importance to themselves, distinguish research from opinion, and communicate with the larger world by means of Internet-based media; to enhance their ability to look at the world from a scientific point of view, and to identify and publish stories about positive role models.

 

General Resources

Current
www.current.org
Current is a biweekly newspaper that covers public TV and public radio in the United States. Current Online includes information on Web radio, LPFM, audio streaming, public policy, and many other topics.

Linked Lists of AudioWebcasts and Newsletters
www.ontheair.com/Subscribe.asp
wmbr.mit.edu/stations
www.radio-online.com
w…\Ňetradio.com
www.live-radio.net/radio.shtml
web.engr.uark.edu/~kaw
www.internetradio.about.com
dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/place/abn39/index.html


Training Programs and Resources

Radio

Radio Diaries and Teenage Diaries
www.radiodiaries.org
Producer Joe Richman believes everybody has a story to tell. He provides people with audiocassette recorders on which to document those stories.

Harlem Radio and Photography Project
www.wnyc.org/newsinfo/arts/mccuneharlem.html
WNYC, One Centre Street, NY, NY 10007
(212) 669-2813 fax (212) 669-3312
listenerservices@wnyc.org
Seven students aged 12-19 spent six weeks learning to write, report and produce radio stories and to compose and take photographs. This journalism project was a collaboration between WNYC, Columbia University and the Photographic Center of Harlem. The stories aired on WNYC’s Morning Edition.

Radio Rookies
www.wnyc.org/new/index_rookies.html
WNYC, One Centre Street, NY, NY 10007
(212) 669-2813

Youth Radio
www.youthradio.org
1809 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94703
(510) 841-5123 fax: (510) 841 9804
youthradio@youthradio.org
Through hands-on practice, working relationships with industry professionals, and production of award-winning programming, Youth Radio students learn the basics of broadcasting. They bring youth perspectives to the airwaves, shedding light on the concerns and interests of young people. Youth Radio provides training, production and broadcast experiences, internships, mentorships, classes in the latest digital technologies, and a College Bound Program.

WRTE/Radio Arte
www.mfacmchicago.org/wrte/
1401 W. 18th Street, Chicago, IL 60608
312-455-9455
This educational radio station in the Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood of Chicago is the only bilingual (Spanish/English), youth-operated, urban community station in the country. Radio Arte trains young people (ages 15-21) from the Chicago metropolitian area in the art of broadcasting. The program is a youth initiative of the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum. Radio Arte’s sequential two-year training program stresses writing, journalism, voice training, FCC regulations, audio production for radio, and program design, development, and production.

Youth Media Project
www.wdiyfm.org
c/o WDIY-FM
Community Public Radio for the Lehigh Valley
301 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Bethlehem, PA 18015
610-694-8100 ext. 5 fax: 610-954-9474
WDIY-FM provided training in radio production and reporting skills for a group of teens. Students took classes in radio production, interviewing, writing, editing, commentary and vocal training. The youth reporters interviewed adults and other teens who were working to create safe and healthy neighborhoods at the grass roots level across the Lehigh Valley. The teen reporters produced news features for local broadcasts during National Public Radio's Morning Edition.

Youth Press/Rebel Radio
www.youthpress.com/org
871 25-3/8th St, Chetek WI 54728
715-924-4548
The approximately 200 students working in Youth Press study radio, video and print reporting. Local media professionals provide training, studio access, and internships.

Latino USA/Youth Spin
www.latinousa.org
(Learning Resources)
Communications Building B3.142
University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
512-471-2137
Youth Spin is a youth-produced program highlighting the work of young people in their community. The program is broadcast on KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin, TX.

WWOZ New Orleans/Student Imaging & Original Minds
www.wwoz.org
P.O. Box 51840, New Orleans, LA 70151
504-568-1239

KDNK/Youth Radio 2000
www.kdnk.org
P.O. Box 1388, Carbondale, CO 81623
970-963-0139

Youth Impact
www.kxcr.org
www.youthimpact.tsx.org
2023 Myrtle Ave., El Paso, Texas 79901
(915) 542-2900 fax: (915) 542-0679
kxcr@kxcr.org
Youth Impact promotes professional skills and leadership development with training programs and access to broadcasting studios, production facilities, and emerging technologies including computers and the internet. Students learn broadcast production, announcing, audio recording, news gathering and reporting, and website development. Participants in Youth Impact serve as producers, directors, announcers, writers, sound engineers, reporters, and webmasters. Youth have leadership roles in many KXCR-FM operations. They manage the station's production department and computer systems, are involved in KXCR's digital conversion project and spearhead the Remote Broadcasting Unit.

Kohanic Broadcasting Corporation/Alaska Native Youth Media Institute
www.knba.org
feedback@knba.org
Each summer since 1992, the Kohanic Broadcasting Corporation Training Center has conducted the weeklong Alaska Native Youth Media Institute in Anchorage. For each Institute, more than a dozen Native high school students are selected from throughout the state to receive hands-on instruction in media. Some of the country's best Native media professionals guide the students through writing, recording, and producing audio for radio broadcast and Internet distribution. By program's end, the students produce a radio feature program that is offered for broadcast by Native radio stations across the country. for more information.

Blunt/Youth Radio Project
www.portland.com/teengo
www.wmpg.org
P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME, 04104
207-767-1785
Blunt is a radio show produced by and for teens that airs on WMPG-FM in Portland, ME. The talk-radio show starts with a feature story and is followed by a call-in program.

Radio Bilingue
www.radiobilingue.org
161 S. Main Street, Salinas, CA 93901
831-757-8039

KZFR/Youth Programming
www.kzfr.org
P.O. Box 3173, Chico, CA 95927
530-895-0788

Kids Discover Radio
1706 Lexington Ave. #4, New York, NY 10029
212-987-8119

Audio

Voices of Youth
www.westfolk.org
Western Folklife Center
501 Railroad Street, Elko, NV 89801
voy@westernfolklife.org
In this fast-paced world, "lack of time" is a growing lament of today's youth. Voices of Youth, a program of the Western Folklife Center in Elko, Nevada, was designed to give twelve teenagers the opportunity to slow down and take the time to get better acquainted with their neighbors, friends and family -- and themselves -- through the arts of photography and sound recording.

Jackstraw Productions
www.jackstraw.org
4261 Roosevelt Way, NE Seattle, WA 98105-6999
(206) 634-0919 Fax: (206) 634-0925
danielle@jackstraw.org
Danielle Eidenberg-Noppe, Education Director
Thirty students at Kirkland's Finn Hill Junior High stepped back in time and into the shoes of their parents and grandparents during a language arts/social studies project at Jack Straw, an audio arts center in Seattle. The eighth-graders interviewed their elders and put their stories on tape at Jack Straw for a lifelong keepsake.

Video

The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC)
www.bavc.org
2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.861.3282 Fax: 415.861.4316
bavc@bavc.org
This nonprofit multimedia arts center in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District offers an array of video, education, and technology services to independent producers, artists, and organizations. Services include: state-of-the-art production facility, training workshops, seminars, publications, employment development programs, job listings, research and development projects, video preservation.

Appalachian Media Institute
www.appalshop.org
91 Madison Ave., Whitesburg, KY 41858
606.633.0108 fax: 606.633.1009
ami@appalshop.org
This is a program offered by Appalshop. AMI is a program to teach teenagers how to use film, video and audio production to help create a positive voice for Appalachia. Appalshop also has a community radio station, WMMT-FM, which can be heard on the Web.



Computer Imaging and Web Design

Plugged In Enterprises
www.pluggedin.org
2115 University Avenue
East Palo Alto, CA 94303-2224
(650) 322-1134 fax: (650) 322-6147
info@pluggedin.org
Plugged In Enterprises is a computer training and entrepreneurial development program for teenagers that concentrates its activities on the following areas: technical skills, employment experience, professional skill development. First, Plugged In Enterprises trains teenagers in the latest web design technology. The teenagers then use their skills to operate a web page design business that creates web sites for community members and paying commercial clients. Clients include Pacific Bell, Sun Microsystems, and the East Palo Alto Law Project.

Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild
www.manchesterguild.org/
1815 Metropolitan Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15233
412-322-1773
Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is a multi-discipline, minority directed, arts education and presenting organization that uses the visual and performing arts to educate and inspire inner-city youth to become productive citizens. Artists, educators, and counselors serve as mentors to young people through activities that stress the application of the arts in the community, experiential learning and higher education. MCG’s Apprenticeship Training Program (ATP) teaches inner city public school students the technical and aesthetic elements of ceramic art, computer imaging, drawing, painting and photography while providing guidance and support for students to pursue their long term goals. Personal and career counseling assists students to meet the challenges awaiting them beyond high school. MCG’s other programs include the Community Development Corporation/Arts Resource Initiative (CDC/ARI), Denali Initiative, Jazz performance and education program, broadcast-quality audio/video recording studio, and visual arts programs.


Funding

Youth

Open Society Institute
Soros Foundations Network
www.soros.org
400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019
(212) 548 0600 or (212) 757 2323
Fax: (212) 548 4679 or (212) 548 4600

Office of Communications at the Open Society Institute
New York (212) 548-0668
Children and Youth
Main Number:(212) 547-6918, Main Fax Number (212) 548-4610
After-School Programs
Main Number:212-548-0359, Main Fax Number 212-548-4601
The numerous nonprofit foundations created by the philanthropist George Soros are linked together in an informal network known as the Soros foundations network. The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that seeks to promote the development and maintenance of open societies around the world by supporting a range of programs in the areas of educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and often controversial issues. OSI has funded several youth radio initiatives.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation
www.ncf.org/
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
1926 Broadway, Suite 600, New York, NY 10023-6915
212.787.7300 fax:
Arts: arts@cummings.ncf.org
The goal of the arts program is to keep the arts alive by preserving and sustaining community-based arts education that benefits at-risk youth, as well as community-based and culturally-specific arts organizations during a particularly difficult period in arts funding; and to promote artistic endeavors that provide a deeper insight into and understanding of issues pertaining to health, the environment, Jewish Life, democratic values and contemplative practice.

Surdna Foundation
www.surdna.org
The foundation’s Arts program supports efforts in which young people have complex, long-term opportunities to create art with accomplished artist-leaders; young people gifted in an art form gain the necessary skills to pursue advanced professional training; young people explore difficult community issues through art making; arts, professional training, academic, and community institutions collaborate; artists, as well as their students, create art. The Arts and Education program supports “crystallizing experiences” - experiences that help young people focus, engage and deeply connect to something they care about. The Artist-leaders and Young People: Creating Works of Art program has funded media training programs.

Markle Foundation
www.markle.org
The Interactive Media for Children program “aims to help realize the potential for children to benefit from using interactive technologies, including computers, the Internet, interactive toys, and eventually digital TV. The program also aims to expand public, press and parental expectations for what these technologies can do to enhance children’s lives.”

Levi Strauss Foundation
www.levistrauss.com/index_community.html
P.O. Box 7215, San Francisco, CA 94120
415-501-6000
The foundation supports programs that involve youth in decision making at all levels of the organization; give youth a voice in their communities; provide youth with opportunities for meaningful service in their communities; foster youth empowerment models and projects; and focus on under-represented and marginalized youth. Types of programs include youth organizing, identity- and issue-based activism, community service, media/journalism training, and leadership and skills training.


Media, Arts, and Humanities

Ford Foundation-Media, Arts And Culture
www.fordfound.org/
320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY 10017 USA
(212) 573-5000 fax (212) 351-3677
The Media, Arts and Culture (MAC) unit provides funding to strengthen the arts and media as vibrant and crucial contributors to the communities and societies in which they function.

John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
www.macfdn.org
The foundation’s General Program makes grants in support of innovative media projects, especially those that increase the diversity of voices and viewpoints in film, television, and radio.

National Endowment for the Arts
www.nea.gov

National Endowment for the Humanities
www.neh.gov

Corporation for Public Broadcasting
www.cpb.org

Technology Education

U.S. Department of Education
www.ed.gov

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund - $2 billion nationwide over 5 years to states; 30 percent of funds should be used to provide teachers with the professional development they need to use technology effectively in the classroom.

Technology Innovation Challenge Grants - Partnerships between local school districts, universities, businesses, libraries, software designers, and others.
3:1 match by partners for fed dollars.

Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology- To help teachers integrate technology effectively into the curriculum and use the new teaching and learning styles enabled by technology. Possible activities include creation of technology-based teaching tools and resources; field experiences focused on teaching with technology.

Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships - Will support partnerships that may include colleges, universities, businesses, community organizations, or other entities to deliver quality postsecondary distance education.

Community Technology Centers - Funding for center start-up and expansion.

School-to-Work - Grants to states and communities for implementation of school-to-work programs integrating academic and vocational learning with work-based learning. Software and related technology-based applications can be supported through these programs.

21st Century Community Learning Centers - Grants to rural and inner-city public elementary or secondary schools to plan, implement, or expand projects that benefit the education, health, social service, cultural, and recreational needs of a rural or inner city community. Funds may be used for technology related programs.


RealNetworks Foundation
2601 Elliott Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 892-6644 fax: (206) 956-8249
www.realgiving.org
The foundation will consider requests that enable alternative voices or foster the right of free speech throughout the world, broaden access to technology among underserved communities throughout the world, and enhance the quality of life in areas where RealNetworks' employees live and work. In particular, the foundation wishes to fund proposals within the aforementioned program areas that include an innovative use of the Internet to achieve project goals. In general, the foundation seeks one-year grant proposals in the range of $10,000-$75,000. Application guidelines and eligibility requirements available online. Deadlines (pre-application letter): February 1, August 1.

Technology Development

U.S. Department of Commerce
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
www.ntia.doc.gov
Technology Opportunities Program - Matching grants to promote the widespread use and availability of advanced telecommunications and information technologies in the public and nonprofit sectors. Supports innovative an exemplary projects that cans serve as models for using information infrastructure in the public and nonprofit sectors. Projects should be nationally significant demonstration of how telecommunications and information technologies can be used to extend valuable services and opportunities to all Americans, especially the underserved. Projects should reach out to all members of a community and catalyze partnerships to help reduce the digital divide. Especially interested in building capacity of smaller, locally based organizations that both serve and represent underserved communities across the United States.

Microsoft Community Affairs New England Software Donation Program
www.microsoft.com/newengland
Microsoft has a number of corporate giving programs, including direct monetary gifts to non-profit organizations in the New England region, in-kind software donations, employee matching programs and national initiatives that support access to technology.

General Information and Resources

Council on Foundations
www.cof.org

The Foundation Center
www.fdncenter.org

Education Leadership Toolkit - A Project of the National School Boards Foundation
www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit
This website is well organized, with useful information on education technology and curriculum and assessment. The extensive list of funding resources also contains links to other funding sites.

Chardon Press
www.chardonpress.com
Resources for fundraising, free advice column, publications


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