EarRelevant

What it's like to spend five straight days listening to the world's best radio

by Connor Walsh

Our European correspondent reports on the enviable experience of judging one of the world's most prestigious radio competitions (complete with audio links of winners).

The Prix Europa is a broadcasting award that has been running in Berlin for about 30 years. It's the combination of a number of other awards for European TV, radio, fiction and documentary –  with radio documentary remaining the prestige category. The venue is the splendid Haus des Rundunks, the 1930s building which now hosts Radio Brandemburg Berlin (RBB) – and, for that matter, a pater-noster. Sadly this year it was out of bounds, for safety.

Individual participation is free of charge, though European Broadcasting Union (EBU) broadcasters who take part may have some financial reaponsibilities. If a programme is selected for participation, a representative is expected to sit on the jury. Many of the 60 or so jurors though, like me, are not affiliated with any programme being judged. More about the programmes anon, but first, the logistics. 

The process of listening, discussing, and voting is a key part of the Prix experience. After a jury briefing and reception on Saturday evening, we're straight into judging at 9:30 Sunday morning. First thing is to grab a pack of transcripts – every entry has a transcript in the original language with an English translation on the opposite page, and English is indeed the operating language of the Prix Europa.

By 4:30 you've listened to six features in groups of two or three. There are two subcategories: Documentary, and Investigation.

The programmes are played without continuity announcements before hand, though there is always a printed synopsis or intro available in the paperwork. After a break, the discussions begin. Coordinated by docs units heads from NRK Norway (Kari Hesthamar) and the BBC (Robert Ketteridge), each programme is discussed for about 15 minutes – or as long as it takes. A representative of the production is there to answer, at the end, specific questions that relate to the judging.

After that, jury members vote, one to ten, on the following criteria:

Documentary: Idea; development of idea; production, use of medium and acoustic quality; listenability/connecting with the listener; overall appeal.

Investigation: Relvance of subject; investigative work; quality of information; production, use of medium and acoustic quality; overall appeal.

Later, it's already dark outside and time for the other type of discussions: informal, one-to-one or indeed boozy groups. As with all such occasions, these discussions and the social element add huge value to the process – from ambitions to criticism, tech skills to reflections on our respective radio traditions. And boozy tales of excess.

It continues more or less to this structure until Thursday evening.

Sample the Radio Doc and Drama winners in the 2013 Prix Italia

The champagne corks still litter the floor at the 65th Edition of the Prix Italia that just concluded in Turin. Get a sample of the winning entries at this page, where you can hear enough of what made them great. Better yet, listen to full versions of two Prix recipients.

 Sparkplug from Ireland's RTE is billed as a "surreal, rural blues comedy" (apparently a new genre). And the BBC must be justly proud of Tim Key and Gogol's Overcoat, still available on their site. Whether you call it a documentary or a feature, the word unique is the best description.

Here's a complete list of Prix Italia winners.

Don't let the title mislead you, this show is more about the real world than the netherworld

If Here Be Monsters, the edgy but earnest podcast now in its second season, were a restaurant, it would be that new place with limited seating currently creating a buzz around town. Run by an intense young chef, the ever-changing menu shakes up diners' taste buds with the daring and unexpected. 

Like the restaurant, HBM is finding a following, mostly through word of mouth. It's also beginning to earn praise from critics (at least that's what we'd call having an episode chosen for this year's Third Coast Festival's Filmless Festival.)

Sampling Here Be Monsters' meaty fare you might detect the influence of more established shows like Love + Radio. But HBM doesn't deal in shock value. Its stories range from the quirky to the inconsequential, yet almost always satisfy as a complete experience with a beginning, middle and end. 

And HBM sticks to its theme -- stories of fear and the unknown -- whether the scary element is the OMG! diagnosis of brain cancer or the mystery of North Korea's bizarre computer operating system. You also don't tend to forget about the show due to long waits between episodes. A new HBM usually pops up in iTunes before you've finished digesting the last one.

Jeff Emtman is the guy serving up the audio and fussing over every creative detail (including composing much of the show's music). Like many who changed course from another creative medium, Jeff is a photographer who discovered he had an eye for radio. He says the show was born out of the drive for self-reflection, though HBM is no ego trip. In fact, it's evolving as a showcase for producers and artists to shape and deliver a compelling story. Always the gracious host, Jeff sets up his featured act and never tries to crowd them out of the spotlight.

If HBM isn't on your playlist yet, here's a sneak preview of an upcoming episode. That's followed by our Q&A with Jeff as he opens up about a show that ought not to be an acquired taste. Not if you appreciate sound rich storytelling.  

What motivated you to create HBM?

Jeff: Here Be Monsters as a podcast spawned from a couple places.

I used to blame it on the cold sweats of a couple sleepless nights I had just before I graduated from college. They were the quintessential “what-the-$#%&-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-life???” moments that I think most college grads get. 

But now, I blame the inspiration for the show directly on my alma mater. I went to a college called Fairhaven School of Interdisciplinary Studies that was one of the few success stories in the boom of experimental schools in the seventies. They believe in small classes, lots of discussions, lots of reading, no tests…you know, “hippy stuff”.  And it really worked for me.

The thing that they really pounded into my head was the study of self-reflection. At the end of each quarter, instead of letter grades, we wrote evaluations of our own work in each class, and our professors would do the same of us. Having my successes and shortcomings honestly laid out in front of me was a new and difficult experience. And it’s one that, as I left academia, led to the creation my self-evaluation of society, which is called Here Be Monsters.

What's your background? Radio? Other media?

Jeff: Sometimes I wish I’d grown up reading comic books. If I did, I’d probably have a better origin story.    

Truthfully, my origins are pretty boring. I spent most of my childhood living outside a small town in Eastern Washington State. I ate whole wheat bread and listened to books on tape while I played with legos and Lincoln Logs (before they switched them to plastic). I was bored a lot and the stories those tapes told me was escapism. I went to public school, and public college. I grew up white, straight, middle class, politely religious, etc. I wanted to be a veterinarian and an NBA player, but I was too squeamish around dead things and too uncoordinated.

The thing I was really good at, though, was being absurd. At one point, I realized that some people call that “art.” So that’s the direction I ran in.

I wanted to be a photographer. And mostly, that’s what I put my academic efforts into. If you Google my name, the photos are usually the first things to show up. Despite that, I came to a point where the visual stuff began to seem a bit trite and underwhelming, so I looked for a more visceral medium, something that had more potential for storytelling.

My radio background comes largely from those books on tape, but also from a couple years serving as the News Director of KUGS-fm in Bellingham, Washington. I’ve also worked with Northwest Public Radio, KGNU in Boulder, Colorado and KUOW in Seattle, Washington.

What's your manifesto or focus?

Norwegian Police Psychologist remembers the challenge of getting inside the mind of a mass killer

Today is the second anniversary of the massacre of 77 people in Norway -- a shock to the system in one of the world's most peaceful countries. Here's the audio of police psychologist Asbjørn Rachlew speaking about trying to learn how a mass murderer thinks. And why.

DocuSound wants your best work

Somewhere around the intersection of two of our favorite radio sites, Transom and PRX, is a new web stop that popped up out of nowhere. Well, actually out of somewhere.

Italy to be exact.

Always eager to find another place to listen and read about our favorite medium, we saw that DocuSound does radio training in a growing list of countries. But they also showcase the work of producers -- some you probably know, others you'll be glad you discovered.

Short of a trip to Italy, we had to find out Che succede? And DocuSound's Fabrizia Galvagno was happy to oblige.

Docusound is a newcomer to radio producers -- at least in the U.S. When did you start and how would you describe the site?

Fabrizia: DOCUSOUND started in 2010, when myself and my colleagues Matteo Bellizzi and Andrea Vaccari (we all come from video documentary) decided to start working with a new perspective; we liked telling stories but we were looking for a fresh way to do it.

When we decided to crop the images out of our way of telling stories we turned to the Italian Union of the Blind to ask them to be our guides/mentors into their new world of sounds we were entering. The blind loved the project because it allowed them to be producer of their own content: working with sound puts the sighted and the non-sighted on the same level (actually the visually impaired have a much mo developed ability to listen and tell stories without images!).

From the very beginning idea was not to have an editorial line or an agenda, but rather to set QUALITY as our only rule: we feature quality products, no matter what the subject is, and we look for personal stories, personal approaches, unique angles. We are not journalists, in the sense  that we don not cover current affairs, we are after creative storytelling.

DOCUSOUND Is an international project, we aim at having chapters in every country of the world. For this reason we have 2 types of websites: the international one (www.docusound.org) and the national ones (we have Italy for now www.docusound.it, soon we will have Kenya and Senegal and hopefully we'll have the US as we'll, and France and the UK and so on).

The national sites feature stories in he language of the country, stories that resonate with the culture, the issues and the hot topics of the country. Some of them can be subtitled and be shared on the international sitewww.docusound.org

The site www.docusound.org is the "international" umbrella of the DOCUSOUND project: we feature a description of the project and a selection of documentaries in their original language, with or without subtitles.

We also feature our media literacy program, which is the way we start up chapters in the developing countries (or abroad, in a wider sense). The media literacy program is open to minorities and we are very proud of it because, to our knowledge, it is unheard of: usually minorities are non considered at all, or segregated in a specific initiative, whereas for DOCUSOUND it is key that we mix people from all backgrounds (including the handicapped, the ethnic minorities, the undeserved groups...). We think that working together is the best way to make barriers between groups crush and bias dissolve. 

The trainees are selected with a project and throughout 9 months they will write/produce/distribute their documentaries.

What are your goals?

Fabrizia: We have two goals:

1) to produce and distribute high quality inspiring professionally-produced stories that have an impact on the community

2) to get disadvantaged people to acquire the skills to advocate for themselves and share their stories. 

As I said before it was the need to get a fresh perspective on my job  that pushed me towards radio documentaries. I discovered a new way of telling stories, and I realized that certain stories are better told in audio than in video. It's still a new world I am exploring and I am excited at every small new discover! I am not a seasoned radio producer, I am learning.

You personally started in film and video doc production. What caused you to become a producer and curator of audio docs and features?

One musician's unique instrument: The Eiffel Tower

It could've been a cheap gimmick. Or quirky sounds produced during a stealth visit by a sound artist with a contact mic. But Joseph Bertolozzi is a serious musician and composer (samples here), whose goal was to "play" the world's most famous landmark. Imagine his delight when the Mayor of Paris said Oui. 

Bergen, Norway and the 2013 International Features Conference, or: Some radio people have all the fun

Every year radio documentary makers and editors gather for four days of listening, discussion, and socialising at the International Features Conference. Versatile radiomaker Connor Walsh of In The Dark was among them and sends this dispatch.

The International Features Conference (IFC) started 39 years ago in Berlin, and while it has grown greatly since then, it is still primarily a European gathering – indeed the European Broadcasting Union is a lynchpin. This year 108 people went to Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. The event is hosted by the local broadcaster – in this case NRK, and superbly so. Delegates from outside Europe this year included two regulars from the US – Julie Shapiro of the Third Coast Festival and Jesse Dukes of Big Shed. From Canada, CBC Out Front legend Steve Wadhams returned after a few years away. From the ABC in Australia, Kirsti Melville and others. Two staff from China National Radio observed, and the big breakthrough was sound artist and producer Joaquin Cofreces from the southern tip of Argentina.

Producers submit programmes for consideration and a committee commissioning editors (and that sort of level) from across Europe selects and schedules about 20 features for listening.

The whole conference is very sociable, with official events every night, and lots of groups dining and drinking together. This actually affects the conference in a couple of direct ways, which I'll elaborate on later.

The selection of programmes this year was particularly strong ('particularly' being relative of course, as this is only my third IFC). They are grouped by theme or idea, and all the participants listen together, with the trademark transcripts. Ah, the transcripts – you see, the features can be in any language at all. So the producer provides a transcript in both the original language and English. Everyone grabs a bunch of transcripts before the listening session begins, and then settles down to listen and read along.

Time is limited, so no programme goes beyond about 25 minutes. For many traditional public broadcasters a feature is 45, 50, or even 55 minutes long. Often they select the beginning, or the beginning and end.

The exception is the BBC where most documentaries are 27:30, and the whole thing can be squeezed in.

With a brief introduction from the producer, the pieces are played consecutively. Then a quick break – tea or coffee, fruit or cake, analysis or flirting.

And then comes the discussion session. The participants are divided into groups, which then alternate so you are with some people all week, some people for just one day. The producer of a piece under discussion is usually in one group or another – maybe yours.

"Part of the mandate of my show is to enable new work and to provide a structure...for producers to turn an idea into a great radio piece"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s part two of our conversation with Bob Carlson about his uncompromising approach to KCRW’s UnFictional.

Have you ever asked a producer to tone down a piece before it could air?

Not “tone down” in the sense that I think a story is too “weird.” But there may be a point during the editing process, that we have to work to make sure that anything we do is in the service of telling a compelling story. That often means making sure that a story has heart, stakes and a universal truth. I don’t like stories that are mean or condescending, where the humor of the story comes from simply laughing at someone. 

Also, anytime you’re trying to be unusual and inventive, there’s always a danger that you can veer into self indulgence and being “unusual” for it’s own sake. But that’s all part of the editing process, working with the structure and the elements of a story to make it great, sometimes experimenting, sometimes pulling back. 

Do you give priority to work that you can debut, that's never aired?

Yes, because part of the mandate of my show is to enable new work and to provide a structure and resources for producers to turn an idea into a great radio piece. That said, there’s a lot of material out there that has been produced for podcasts or local shows that deserves another outlet, so I welcome those stories. I also broadcast a fair amount of exceptional international work that American listeners may not know about. However, If a story has already aired on a big national show, I figure that a major chunk of the audience has already heard it. In the early days of my program I did air some nationally broadcast stories, but I do that a lot less now unless it’s a collaboration with that show.

Rather than one big tough decision, I make a lot of little tough decisions all the time. Even though I shoot for high quality production values on UnFictional, I’m operating with a microscopic staff (me and a part time editor.) So I often need to make tough decisions in order to keep things efficient and make deadlines. 

 What’s the toughest decision about the show that you ever had to make?

Bob Carlson is looking for radio with momentum that pulls the listener forward [and that's just for starters]

If you produce radio, Unfictional is one show you want to hear your work on. But getting a piece greenlighted by Bob Carlson is no slam dunk. The guy has high standards and a discerning ear. He views his weekly KCRW program as a showcase for indie producers. And like a jeweler gazing through a loupe, he picks the best of what sparkles with originality.

Here's part one of what Bob told us about his show, now in its third year, and the kind of work he's looking for.

Was UnFictional a hard sell to station management?

B.C.: No, it was not a hard sell at all because station management came to ME with the idea. Our station manager, Jennifer Ferro and I have been longtime fans of modern radio storytellers and documentarians. Even back in the 90s, KCRW was one of the first stations to air This American Life at it’s inception. Several years ago we spearheaded an artist-in-residence program here at KCRW that sponsored three different producers.

Then in early 2010, after Jennifer took over as the station head, she asked me to create a show to spotlight independent producers. She gave me no rules or directives, other than to follow my own taste.

Are they happy with how the show has developed over its two-year run?

B.C.: They are happy with the show. The point of the show is to be a showcase for great stories and radio talent and we’ve been able to work with some amazing producers. The show is so different from week to week, so the listenership will take awhile to build. Our audience continues to grow and the listeners I meet and hear from REALLY appreciate the show.

Has it gained a national presence due to the podcast and on-line listening?

B.C.: Yes, national and international. I get lots of feedback from areas far beyond Los Angeles where I live. I see a lot of Facebook “likes” of the show and people are podcasting the show from all over the world. Plus KCRW has an excellent mobile streaming app and I think a fair number of people listen that way. UnFictional is also on the Sirius XM public radio channel along with a few other KCRW programs.

What’s your background and how did you become producer for the show?

B.C.: I've been at KCRW for a very long time, and have done a little bit of everything.

KCRW is an incredible creative melting pot of artists and writers, and musicians and brilliant minds. I was originally hired as a production engineer, and ever since I’ve been completely transformed by soaking in all the ideas and inspiration. (On my very first day of work I met John Cleese and Michael Palin of Monty Python when they came in to be interviewed. They were two of my idols.) A few years later I became the head production guy. Since then I've recorded and edited thousands of interviews for the shows here at KCRW, mixed music from almost every genre for our music programs (like Morning Becomes Eclectic), hosted my own late night alternative music show, and produced talk shows and radio dramas. (We did a lot of radio drama at one time at KCRW.)

My first documentaries were about the construction of several arts centers that were built in Los Angeles in the last 15 years. The highlight of those experiences was the night I got to record the big concert organ at Walt Disney Concert hall. The only time we could get access to it was in the middle of the night, so I got to enjoy my own private organ concert at 1:30 in the morning.

One of the last duties I had before going full time on UnFictional was a podcast called The Guest DJ Project, where celebrities and luminaries tell stories about 5 of their favorite songs.  I really enjoyed finding the essence of a story and editing it down to be really tight and compelling.

Most importantly, I’m a major fan of radio documentary.

What kind of work are you looking for?

Awesome Aussie: Kyla Brettle

Annnnnd, we're back after a bit of a hiatus to feature one of our favorite producers.

Radio -- the sound-rich story telling variety that we showcase here -- needs Kyla Brettle. But for now, it must share the multi-tasking Ms. Brettle with her young son and her students in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University in Melbourne, where she teaches radio and convergent media production "with a little bit of TV thrown in on the side."

Let's hope this new mom can "have it all," so we can hear more outstanding work like 000-Ambulance (part of a series titled Emergency). To our mind Kyla's magnum opus, it's a spellbinding piece that puts you in the middle of an Australian version of a 9-1-1 call center. Keep reading and discover the massive effort of recording so many sources and an editing slog through miles of tape.

The first time our ears perked up at Kyla's work was in 2002, when she won Best New Artist at the Third Coast Festival for Affairs of the Mind. Here she follows a private investigator shadowing a two-timing husband. It includes a real chase scene worthy of a TV crime thriller.

Kyla's sound design skills come to the fore in The Trouble With Rick. Proving radio can be impressionistic, it's like an embed in the skull of a man whose life is turned upside down.

We recently had the chance to catch up with Kyla on her work and her life.

You started out producing documentary films, then veered off into radio. What caused you to make the switch?

Kyla:  I started producing radio because I found a story that had to be made in sound… at the time I was in my 20s - a struggling documentary filmmaker making ends meet by writing articles for the weekend papers. I was interviewing for a particularly shonky advice piece called, ‘I think my partner is having an affair, how can I tell?’ when I came across Steve Murray; a private detective who specializes in marital surveillance. I was spellbound – Steve’s eloquence, humor, perception and self-delusion was utterly compelling – he was everything a dramaturge would want in a character. I knew I would make something with him at the center…

A documentary film? Access would be difficult in vision, Steve wouldn’t want his face on national TV and neither would his clients - getting good shots of him under cover would be impossible. Also, Steve was a great talker and storyteller - film is hungry for action and isn’t the best medium for words.

A newspaper or magazine feature? This would be possible but a bit of a waste of someone so vibrant in the flesh – Steve would shine in time-based media, in print, he would come across as a caricature….

And then I thought – radio? In sound I wouldn’t have privacy issues and I’d be able to let Steve’s stories run free – but more than that sound would privilege how Steve sees the world (rather than how the world sees Steve) and it is the perfect medium for a tale of secrets and lies and standing on shifting sands … And so that’s how I fell into working with sound.

In 2002, you won the Best New Artist award at the Third Coast Festival with “Affairs of the Mind.” Later work like “The Trouble with Rick” suggest your approach and technique have evolved over the decade. True?