KALW Targets Vibrant Future; Audio Academy Tells Stories of Vibrancy, From Poetry to Street Play
By Guest Blogger Ben Trefny, News Director, KALW Public Radio
On Saturday, KALW held a retreat to determine a station-wide strategic plan. While it was the culmination of a two-year-long process, it also marks the beginning of a new era. While we, as a station, will continue to present the best public radio programming from around the world, and we will produce the award-winning local programming we’ve come to be known for, we will also be honing in on five key areas during the next year:
– reviving the “Friends of KALW” advisory group
– seeking a new facility for KALW
– studying who our audience is
– marketing the station to new audiences
– strategizing more live events around the Bay Area
These gatherings we’ve held at CompassPoint – our non-profit advisor – have been invigorating, and this last one, where we really came together around our future plans, was particularly inspiring. Several current and former Audio Academy members attended, including Marlo McKenzie, Raja Shah, and Liz Mak, along with almost all of the news department’s key staffers. We’re truly looking forward to helping our vibrant station become an even more integral part of the Bay Area, and now we’ve got a clear roadmap to follow and a big team to drive us.
Meanwhile, the work of this year’s Audio Academy really took off this week:
– Liza Veale made a beautifully sound designed piece about poetry that came out of the Occupy Oakland movement. It aired Monday during a show devoted to The Lithography Project, which was created by Hannah Kingsley-Ma‘s mentor, Ninna Gaensler-Debs
– Marlo McKenzie‘s first feature aired Wednesday, along with two other pieces produced by Audio Academy participants. It’s about the significance of play for kids and adults, both, and included some really fun sound elements showcasing creative games played on the streets of San Francisco
– A few days after Oakland Tech alum Marshawn Lynch could have, should have, would have won the Super Bowl, Olivia Cueva produced an interview about the long and rich history of great athletes who’ve come out of Oakland High Schools.
– Academy fellow Liz Mak told a story about an all-encompassing live performance experience in which a person has all their dreams come true
– And Liza Veale was back, Thursday, with a story exploring the origin of a new and unofficial jazz district in Oakland
The Academy is really rolling, now, on the air and behind the scenes. Take a listen.