Friday, January 27, 2006
New volunteer opportunity
So WORT is now airing "Democracy Now" five days per week. It's an extraordinarily popular program among WORT News listeners, and the Programming Committee, after several years, found a way to fit it into the Friday schedule.
That makes for a new volunteer opportunity - being the on-air engineer during Friday's Democracy Now, 4:30-5:30pm. It's a very easy shift, mostly involving babysitting the recording and playing station promos during Dem. Now breaks. It's the perfect volunteer shift for Democracy Now fans who have some interest in helping at WORT and/or learning how to run the board. Just one hour per week of volunteer time. All training provided.
If you're interested, give me (Nathan) a call at 256-2001 or email newsfac(at)wort-fm.org (but change the (at) to an @).
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
UPDATE 2/19/06: It looks like we've secured an engineer for this hour, one Emily Ehlers. Thanks Emily! But there are still lots of other volunteer openings at WORT, so don't hesitate to call me at 256-2001 if you want to get involved.
That makes for a new volunteer opportunity - being the on-air engineer during Friday's Democracy Now, 4:30-5:30pm. It's a very easy shift, mostly involving babysitting the recording and playing station promos during Dem. Now breaks. It's the perfect volunteer shift for Democracy Now fans who have some interest in helping at WORT and/or learning how to run the board. Just one hour per week of volunteer time. All training provided.
If you're interested, give me (Nathan) a call at 256-2001 or email newsfac(at)wort-fm.org (but change the (at) to an @).
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
UPDATE 2/19/06: It looks like we've secured an engineer for this hour, one Emily Ehlers. Thanks Emily! But there are still lots of other volunteer openings at WORT, so don't hesitate to call me at 256-2001 if you want to get involved.
Winning awards, airing good programs
The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association held its annual awards banquet the day before yesterday, and I attended for the first time. It's the first time in a long time (if ever) that WORT has been represented at the WBA (except for Lea Zeldin the day before).
Now I typically don't put a lot of stock into WBA activities, since the organization tends to be more commercial-broadcast oriented. Many friendly, well-meaning people are involved, but they usually ask different questions than WORT tends to ask.
But I decided to submit a few WORT programs to the 2005 WBA awards competition, and I'll be damned, we came away with two Merit awards this year. Juan Ruiz's "Katrina Row," an excellent piece on the hurricane aftermath, won an award for feature-length documentary. Also, a 30-minute "2005 Spring Elections Preview" that I produced won an award in the "Special Issues Coverage" category.
So I'm pretty proud that WORT's all-volunteer news department managed to come away with a couple merit awards in the Large Market Division, facing professional, full-time news staff at all the radio stations in Milwaukee and Madison.
I also got to eat a free lunch and chew the fat with some other radio types. I found the WI Public Radio crew (not hard to do - most attendees were wearing dark suits; I was in tweed and WPR's Gil Halstead was in a sweater) and found some non-commercial radio solidarity there. The commercial radio folks I chatted with were amazed that we managed to air so much news and public affairs with an entirely volunteer-staff newsroom.
And it continues to astound me, too. Our volunteers produce so much amazing stuff, week after week, and we've been doing it for 30 years now. I'm listening to an excellent interview right now on "A Public Affair" with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It won't win any WBA award - there's not even a category for call-in interview program - but it's powerful, informative, and critical of the powerful people who perpetuate injustice.
That's the real measure of good programming - whether it builds and creates community, serves those underrepresented in other media, airs discussion and analysis of critical public issues, and places itself on the side of liberation.
WORT airs 21.5 hours per week of locally-produced news and public affairs. That's more than 1100 hours per year. We received two awards for 60 minutes worth of that programming, and I'm pleased that we did. The plaques are pretty. But the most important markers are the intangible ones, the ones you can't hang on a wall. And we do awfully well in that category, as well.
Now I typically don't put a lot of stock into WBA activities, since the organization tends to be more commercial-broadcast oriented. Many friendly, well-meaning people are involved, but they usually ask different questions than WORT tends to ask.
But I decided to submit a few WORT programs to the 2005 WBA awards competition, and I'll be damned, we came away with two Merit awards this year. Juan Ruiz's "Katrina Row," an excellent piece on the hurricane aftermath, won an award for feature-length documentary. Also, a 30-minute "2005 Spring Elections Preview" that I produced won an award in the "Special Issues Coverage" category.
So I'm pretty proud that WORT's all-volunteer news department managed to come away with a couple merit awards in the Large Market Division, facing professional, full-time news staff at all the radio stations in Milwaukee and Madison.
I also got to eat a free lunch and chew the fat with some other radio types. I found the WI Public Radio crew (not hard to do - most attendees were wearing dark suits; I was in tweed and WPR's Gil Halstead was in a sweater) and found some non-commercial radio solidarity there. The commercial radio folks I chatted with were amazed that we managed to air so much news and public affairs with an entirely volunteer-staff newsroom.
And it continues to astound me, too. Our volunteers produce so much amazing stuff, week after week, and we've been doing it for 30 years now. I'm listening to an excellent interview right now on "A Public Affair" with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. It won't win any WBA award - there's not even a category for call-in interview program - but it's powerful, informative, and critical of the powerful people who perpetuate injustice.
That's the real measure of good programming - whether it builds and creates community, serves those underrepresented in other media, airs discussion and analysis of critical public issues, and places itself on the side of liberation.
WORT airs 21.5 hours per week of locally-produced news and public affairs. That's more than 1100 hours per year. We received two awards for 60 minutes worth of that programming, and I'm pleased that we did. The plaques are pretty. But the most important markers are the intangible ones, the ones you can't hang on a wall. And we do awfully well in that category, as well.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
World Social Forum on the air...
The World Social Forum is happening right now in Caracas, Venezuela. For those of you who don't know about it, the WSF brings together activists, NGOs, grassroots organizers, and even the occasional government representative to disccus political-social issues and connect struggles from around the world. Participants range from social democrats to anarchists, with many stripes in between. The forum has been held in Porto Alegre, Brazil several times, in Mumbai, India in 2004, and now in Caracas. Actually, this year's forum in Caracas is one of three worldwide locations in the "Polycentric" forum for 2006.
WORT has five representatives at the forum this year: Norm Stockwell, Dan Jaffee, Mario Sierra, Yvonne Geerts, and Lenny Canter. You can hear all of them on WORT's airwaves throughout this week and next. I hosted an hour yesterday with Norm on "A Public Affair" and Mario was on "En Nuestro Patio" last night. Expect more updates from the forum with Norm, et al on "In Our Backyard" tonight and tomorrow (Thurs.), plus Lenny and Yvonne will be on Lea Zeldin's "A Public Affair" tomorrow at noon. It's a call-in show, so call up with your questions!
More about the forum at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.php?pagina=fsmMidiaEN
Good alternative media coverage at: http://wsf.amarc.org Scroll down to the Caracas section to see some of the reports that WORTistas are contributing to!
WORT has five representatives at the forum this year: Norm Stockwell, Dan Jaffee, Mario Sierra, Yvonne Geerts, and Lenny Canter. You can hear all of them on WORT's airwaves throughout this week and next. I hosted an hour yesterday with Norm on "A Public Affair" and Mario was on "En Nuestro Patio" last night. Expect more updates from the forum with Norm, et al on "In Our Backyard" tonight and tomorrow (Thurs.), plus Lenny and Yvonne will be on Lea Zeldin's "A Public Affair" tomorrow at noon. It's a call-in show, so call up with your questions!
More about the forum at http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.php?pagina=fsmMidiaEN
Good alternative media coverage at: http://wsf.amarc.org Scroll down to the Caracas section to see some of the reports that WORTistas are contributing to!
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Welcome to WORT!
My oh my, I've been dealing with that bottleneck of work that always seems to come this time of year. Just after the holidays. Everything seems to smack at once. But I've finally rounded the corner on my to-do lists, so the dust is beginning to settle.
This blog is sort of an inside peek into WORT's operations, at least from my perspective. I'll try to post something each morning when I come in to work, so feel free to check back frequently. I'll post super-current updates about volunteer opportunities, terrific program specials coming up, station announcements, my thoughts and reflections about WORT life, perhaps a couple notes about Madison happenings, and general groovy things. I've set up this blog to allow comments from anyone (not just blogspot members), so feel free to comment.
Hey, and if anyone knows of a local, reliable blog-provider, drop me an email: newsfac(at)wort-fm.org. I'm interested in serving this blog locally if possible, so let me know.
Take care and don't work too hard.
~Nathan
This blog is sort of an inside peek into WORT's operations, at least from my perspective. I'll try to post something each morning when I come in to work, so feel free to check back frequently. I'll post super-current updates about volunteer opportunities, terrific program specials coming up, station announcements, my thoughts and reflections about WORT life, perhaps a couple notes about Madison happenings, and general groovy things. I've set up this blog to allow comments from anyone (not just blogspot members), so feel free to comment.
Hey, and if anyone knows of a local, reliable blog-provider, drop me an email: newsfac(at)wort-fm.org. I'm interested in serving this blog locally if possible, so let me know.
Take care and don't work too hard.
~Nathan
