KPFT Notes

For you hardcore audiophiles, a new audio Wiki.

Speaking of nice audio, the volunteer MD packs are equipped with Sony MZ-R37s and Shure VP64s. Speaking from experience, I highly recommend the VP64s. I joke that I will be laid to rest with mine. Great microphone, with a sleek look to boot.

Former Pacifican Marc Cooper cut loose on his former radio network in this piece, following the selection of new ED Greg Guma. Intriguing in some instances, but mostly curious.

In June, KPFT will be discontinuing support for Sonic Foundry Vegas 4.0 in favor of the open-source Audacity. The reason is simple: upgrading and maintaining costs quite a bit per terminal, and KPFT can’t afford to cover the expense, especially in light of adequate open-source software.

Duane and I wanted to give all of you lead-time to learn Audacity before Vegas is eliminated from KPFT computers in a few months.

This is a reminder that February 24 is the deadline to register for the National Youth in Radio Training Project, April 20-22 in Portland, Oregon.

You can register at http://www.nfcb.org/projects/nyrtp/conference/conference.jsp

If you wish to be eligible for financial support, you must register your group by February 24. If you don’t know all the names of the attendees, you can do the initial registration as Student #1, Student #2, etc., and send in the names later.

Also, people who register by February 24 have the first crack at the Saturday intensives. Information and sign-up sheets about the Intensives are mailed out to all who register right after Feb. 24.

The Programming Committee of the national board recently released the following document on principles of Pacifica programming. It’s very intriguing, and I’d like your thoughts on it. I’d love to get your detailed feedback. The national board is looking at this, so your ideas would be incredibly helpful in shaping Pacifica’s direction.

http://www.kpft.org/programmers_only/pnbnetworkprogrammingpolicy.doc

http://www.kpft.org/programmers_only/pnbnetworkprogrammingtasks.doc

The Programming Committee of the national board recently released the following document on principles of Pacifica programming. It’s very intriguing, and I’d like your thoughts on it. I’d love to get your detailed feedback. The national board is looking at this, so your ideas would be incredibly helpful in shaping Pacifica’s direction.

http://www.kpft.org/programmers_only/pnbnetworkprogrammingpolicy.doc

http://www.kpft.org/programmers_only/pnbnetworkprogrammingtasks.doc

The 2006 KPFT Summer Youth Program is shaping up to be a very exciting session! Last year opened the youth program, but this year, I’m working with Volunteer Coordinator Gina Miller, intern Jayn and Eric and Luke, two of our most ardent youth volunteers, to bring a much stronger program to fruition.

This year, youth will be engaged in more structured activities and have summer blocks of time available to participate. KPFT’s Summer Youth Program participants are involved in a variety of projects, including:

• Writing and producing announcements for various community and station events.

• Participating in and being responsible for aspects of daily operations of KPFT, such as program transitions, engineering, producing, etc.

• A biweekly (first and third Thursdays) one-hour noontime program wholly hosted and produced by youth volunteers. Programs will be composed of non-poetry segments\, features, interviews, call-ins, etc. Each show’s programming format will be determined collectively by youth. Engineering, reporting, editing, hosting, producing and other roles will be distributed on a rotating basis.

• A biweekly (third and fourth Thursday) companion podcast. Similar to the on-air program, youth volunteers will produce a program to be aired via our streaming website, KPFTI.org.

• Opportunities to create and distribute segments that will be shared nationally via Pacifica’s affiliate network and to other community stations.

• Collaborating with staff to stream monthly Listener Station Board meetings, which are held at Alliance Francaise, 427 Lovett, next door to KPFT. This will expose youth to streaming technology as well as the LSB, KPFT’s board of directors.

• Developing, scripting and editing video training guides in bringing adults up to speed on various technologies.

• Other projects as assigned to youth volunteers.

Topics for programming are determined at whole-group planning meetings. During these meetings, members work in groups of two to eight people to generate a list of possible topics. Adult staff comments on the show ideas like everyone else but don’t participate in the voting and have no veto power. Students who do not attend the planning meetings are given assignments based on their training and what we know about their interests. At the end of every broadcast, youth conduct a critique, and the adult professionals participate.

We’ll also see a number of returning youth, including Eric, Luke and Madison. I expect a number of students from Waltrip High School to also join us. Should be a great summer. Stay tuned!

GLOBAL WOMEN SCRUTINISE WORLD MEDIA

On 16 February 2005, the world’s news media came under scrutiny when hundreds of people in over 70 countries monitored the representation and portrayal of women and men in the news on television, radio and in newspapers.

This third ‘Global Media Monitoring Project’ (GMMP) is organised by the Women’s Programme of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). The Global Media Monitoring Project findings will be released 15 February, 2006, to launch WHO MAKES THE NEWS? (Three Weeks of Global Action on Gender and the Media) from February 16 to March 8, 2006.

Described as ‘one of the most extraordinary collective enterprises yet organised within the global women’s movement’, GMMP is a unique part of the ongoing struggle to promote gender equality in the media.

The GMMP 2005 will

* Produce an up-to-date research study useful for gender-sensitisation, media literacy, education and training purposes.
* Examine any changes in the coverage and participation of women and men in the world’s news since the 1995 and 2000 studies.

* Provide a tool for activists to lobby for more gender-sensitive communication policy and media reform.

The new website becomes available on www.whomakesthenews.org at the end of January 2006. The survey, targeted at journalists worldwide, is part of the WHO MAKES THE NEWS? Campaign and hopes to identify factors in career advancement for journalists. All responses are recorded anonymously.

Additional instructions for taking the survey are provided at the start of the survey. Survey findings will be made available once the results have been analyzed. If you are a journalist and would like to take part in this survey, please go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=872551491092

The survey takes 5 to 8 minutes depending on your answers. Thank you for your participation!

Myriam Horngren WACC Network and Advocacy Coordinator 357 Kennington Lane London SE11 5QY United Kingdom Direct line: 44 (0) 207 587 3018 Fax: 44 (0) 207 735 0340
web: www.wacc.org.uk www.whomakesthenews.org
email: mh@wacc.org.uk

Deadline February 15, 2006
Fellowships are available for radio journalists from Mongolia or several Southeast Asian countries to attend courses online and on campus in the Philippines. The fellowships are open to journalists from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Mongolia. There are 15 fellowships. They cover the costs of a radio training program at the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism (CFJ), in partnership with the Ateneo de Manila University. The hybrid learning program consists of online and campus courses beginning with two online courses: Writing for Radio (Feb 27-April 8); and Basic Radio Production (April 24-May 3). It concludes with a course on campus: Advanced Digital Audio Production (May 22-July 1).

The program is open to broadcast journalists, as well as print journalists who hope to make the jump to radio. Contact newsroom@admu.edu.ph, or phone (632) 9263253 or 426 6001, or click here