It’s Graduation Time for KALW Audio Academy, and Each Grad’s “Radio Final” is an Entire Show
By Guest Blogger Ben Trefny, KALW News Director
Glynn Washington, Host and Executive Producer of NPR show “Snap Judgement” was the keynote speaker at the Audio Academy 2015 graduation. Matt Martin, KALW General Manager (white shirt) grins in the background. Photo credit: Ashleyanne Kriebaum
It was a real pleasure to celebrate the Audio Academy Class of 2015 last night with a graduation party. The Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco’s Mission District was a fun venue; the wine, beer, and Mexican Rivieras were flowing; and it’s always a real pleasure to bring everybody together. I especially appreciated hearing all the mentors talk about their individual relationships with Academy members Chris Hambrick, Marlo McKenzie, Colin Peden, Marcy Fraser, Jack Detsch, Olivia Cueva, Liza Veale, Hannah Kingsley-Ma, and Raja Shah. Wonderful. It was an honor to be able to recognize everybody at a memorable event.
This week, on Tuesday, we got to hear the first of the whole Academy shows. It was about how we live with species struggling to survive, and it was brought to us by Marlo, with assists from Colin and our managing producer, Julie Caine. I thought it was beautifully vibrant, thought-provoking, and really well constructed. Very nicely done!
Next week, we get to hear Colin’s punk rock show. The following week it’s Marcy’s show about garbage in San Francisco. Over the next month or so, we’ll get them all on the air!
This week, we also heard a story from Rachel Wong, who graduated with the Academy class of 2014. She made a piece about the Idriss Stelley Foundation which deals with police misconduct. It’s part of the upcoming Sights and Sounds of Bayview, which is our department’s biggest live event of the year. It’s this Friday evening, June 19th, at 7 p.m., and it’s free! You can learn all about it by clicking here.
I want to make note, too, about the great summer volunteers who have started their training with us. Welcome Allison Lee, Berenice Freedome, Catherine Girardeau, Emma Nobel, Kaiden McAllister, Lezak Shallat, Rafi Ronquillo, and Tim Lou Ly! And welcome back Holly J. McDede and Rhian Miller, who was also part of the Academy class of 2014! I’m very happy with how much the outgoing Academy stepped up to make sure they all know (pretty much) what they’re doing, and I think that’s really going to help everybody get a great jump.
Finally, I want to share a nice note I received from Rebecca Rosen Lum, who works with the Pacific Media Workers Guild:
Ben, it’s summer internship time again, and I’m wondering if we can prevail upon you to host another KALW tour. I was really moved to see that the station was No. 1 on all the students’ wish lists for places to visit — way ahead of other radio and TV stations and traditional news organizations.
We will very happily provide another tour, to share what we do with as many people as possible!