“Doc & Bowl”: Feb 24, 2017 Listening Party for CJMP at Westview Bowling and Billiards
Around 25 audiophiles attended Powell River’s possibly first-ever Listening Party at Strikers Pub/Westview Bowling and Billiards last night, where 5 short audio documentaries were played, two of which had never aired on CJMP. The docs were produced through a CRFC Radiometres grant received by CJMP in 2016. All five producers [Janet May, Zoë Ludski, Ionanthan Waisgluss (Ioni Wais), Sandra Lopez, and Giovanni Spezzacatena (rabideye)] were in attendance at the event that was held with the financial support from a grant awarded by The Powell River Council for Arts, Culture and Heritage.
The surprisingly intimate gathering (seeing as it was held in a bowling alley) listened attentively, some with eyes shut, while the short documentaries played. The audience did not hold back on reactions to the material, providing a new an interesting way to deliver audio docs: in a live setting and with the producers present. A brief q&a period followed, where some audience members pointed out how inspired they were by the unique the multi-faceted docs, two of which prominently featured the T’a’amin Nation, and all of which really got to a very specific sense of “place”.
Many kudos to former CJMP News Director Carrie Swiggum who planned the event, acted as emcee, and who provided direction and assistance in the production of the docs.
This event also marked the close of the Radiometres grant period, that helped fund three part-time staff members [Carrie Swiggum (News Director), Mel Edgar (Station Manager) for 20 hours per week and Giovanni Spezzacatena (Community Engagement/Producer) for 8 hours per week], who were also joined in the summer of 2016 by intern Ioni Wais at 20 hours per week. The grant helped produce 7 months of weekly 1-hour CJMP News programs, two major fundraisers (Top the Tower and the Fall Membership Drive), CJMP presence at loads of public events (Canada Day, The 2016 People’s Prom, Movie Under the Stars, Blackberry Fest, and many more), community engagement via these events, monthly e-newsletters, maintaining of the CJMP events calendar, the production of a dozen PSAs for community organizations as well as internal promos and graphics, a serious uptick in new programming with 7 new programs, and the documentaries screened on February 24th.
This good work would not have been possible without the dedication, hard work and attention paid by the volunteer board that operates CJMP, the Board of Directors of The Powell River Community Radio Society.
To listen to the audio documentaries produced, visit https://cjmp.ca/radiometers-2016-radio-documentaries/ for links.
A dozen radioheads snugly learning about the craft of researching and producing radio documentary here at the Community Resource Centre on July 21, 2016. Presenters Claudia Medina, Carrie Swiggum and Ioni Wais did a great job covering everything from concept to post-production. Some of the topics covered were:
- Personal access to stories or topics; passion there and where the personal becomes public
- Storytelling craft (narrative arc and creating a ‘container’ for the audience to position themselves within a narrative)
- Audience considerations and the motivation of characters
- When to let your interviewees and materials collected lead you in different directions — and when not to let this happen
- Interview techniques
- Recording techniques and considerations (recording ambient sounds, wearing headphones while recording, eliminating external sound sources, etc.)
- Structure: leading with attention grabbers, and the need to have a clear initial ‘elevator speech’ topic or theme
- Pre-interviewing; not leading characters; avoiding ‘yes’/’no’ answers
- Embracing silence
- Letting interviewees know that it’s ok to have silence and that there will be editing involved
- Rule of 3’s: retell the central theme
- Sound editing essentials
and more, with samples too!
Stay tuned for more FREE audio workshops coming up soon.
LET’S TALK: CJMP News Director Carrie Swiggum was recently recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for a documentary radio feature.
CJMP News Director Carrie Swiggum was recently recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists with an award for her radio documentary, “Polka’s Not Dead” (linked here). Carrie undertook this work for KFAI Community Radio in Minneapolis, but actually completed the project amongst the hibernating bears in Lund last winter.
In addition to directing CJMP News content Carrie’s work has appeared in print media such as The Globe and Mail, The Tyee, Mental Floss, Utne Reader as well as on the air at the CBC.
This is not the first time Carrie’s excellence in journalism has been recognized. She also brought home a Canadian Online Publishing Award for a project she co-produced with CBC contributor Lisa Hale.
Carrie will be travelling to Minneapolis to receive the award later this month.
Way to go Carrie!