Radio Journalism Continuing Education Program Offered at KALW News Audio Academy

Introducing ACE’s newest partnership – KALW News Audio Academy, an adult continuing education program at KALW News.

This free radio journalism-training program is designed for self-motivated individuals with, as KALW reports, “a passion for non-fiction storytelling.” The first 10-month session begins in September, and KALW is accepting enrollment applications until July 15.

This program isn’t about chatting up Rose Aguilar, “Your Call” host; or just grooving with Emmanuel Nado and Edwin Okong’o on Thursday’s “Africa Mix.” This is a serious, hands-on education in one of the finest community newsrooms in the U.S.

Training and developing new talent isn’t new to KALW. It has been a part of the mission since 1941 when it went on the air as San Francisco’s first FM station. During World War II, KALW was one of the first places offering broadcast operations training to women. From the 1950s through the 1990s, generations of Bay Area broadcast engineers received training and FCC licensure through coursework at KALW.

With the new century, the station launched a local news department with a community newsroom that offered one of the most comprehensive models for training youth and adults in every aspect of audio production. The free program offered community members a rare opportunity to get a graduate level education in audio production and reporting, without paying tuition.

And now that training program takes a big step forward with the KALW News Audio Academy, featuring an expanded and formalized curriculum and an active recruiting effort aimed at bringing in a broad and diverse group of participants.

Academy students will work closely with reporters on developing stories, producing original feature stories for broadcast, interviewing potential guests/sources, researching topics, fact-checking, script writing, recording sound for pieces, story structure, voicing, live radio production, digital production, engineering, and sound design. Training will take place inside the collaborative and supportive KALW community newsroom. The editors and engineers, along with other Bay Area public media producers, will lead workshops on every aspect of production specifically for the Audio Academy.

“KALW has been a pioneer in this unique approach to creating the public interest, community newsroom,” said Matt Martin, the station’s general manager. “Many of the people who trained and developed their skills at KALW have gone on to careers in public interest reporting, production and audio engineering.”

Students will be trained to produce content for daily news programs, including “Crosscurrents” and “Your Call.” Appropriate student work will be broadcast during their KALW News Audio Academy session.

Okay, that does include working with Rose Aguilar. But if you stay late on Thursdays, you could possibly chat with the “Africa Mix” team and suggest some favorite songs. Allo Allo Africa!