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Current Article on Talent Quest Winners
CPB has announced that they will fund two of our talent quest winners.
Current, the newspaper about public broadcasting, has a new article about the announcement. Here is a highlight:
“We’re not saying to any one of the three, ‘Here’s a bunch of money — go launch a program in the next six months,’” said Kathy Merritt, CPB’s director of program investments in radio. “We’re going to give all the people involved time to look at the concepts and make sure they’re matched to their personalities and what they want to do, then figure out how they will produce the programs."
delicious
diggBig News from PRX and CPB
Thought we'd forgotten about you, PRTQ fans? We were just getting ready for this big announcement...
CPB has decided to fund two of our winners! Al Letson and Glynn Washington will each get a year's worth of funding to produce new episodes of their shows.
Check out the official press release and follow these links to hear the pilots that got Al and Glynn their CPB honors. And, be sure to watch Al and Glynn give previews of what's to come in this video.
The Final Round: Pilots Are Here!
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Yes.
After (what we hear were) many weeks of grueling effort by both the finalists and their mentors, scheduling interviews and editing, throwing monkey poop and editing . . . this is it. The final round of the Public Radio Talent Quest. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet your official hosts:
The Final Deadline Looms - Pilots Coming Today
Hi folks,
Remember Al, Glynn and Rebecca? They won this little contest back in September. Well, today is the day they deliver their final TQ challenge - the full length pilots for the shows they want to host.
As I type, I'm listening to Rebecca's program and it's quite great. We'll have her show, and work from Glynn and Al up on Friday night for your weekend listening pleasure.
There's no voting this time around, but your comments are welcomed and encouraged.
While you're listening to the future of public radio, don't forget to rate public radio present. The networks are listening:
[Rebecca] The Last Weekend of Editing!
The Talent Quest web site wasn't feeling very well this past weekend, which happened to be the last few days I had for editing. So, I liveblogged the process over on Skepchick! Here it is.
7pm
Coming down to the wire, the pilot is almost finished! Thanks again for all your suggestions for show names, slogans, and neurosurgeons. (It turns out, I don't need a neurosurgeon after all. Whee, last minute changes!) We're editing everything together tonight and fine-tuning it, and it's sounding great. A lot of the show is made up of interviews, as well as some recording out and about at the psychic fair, but then there's a lot of voice over work to do. In the grand scheme of things, doing the voice overs really isn't that difficult. I've already written the bulk of what I'm saying, and whenever I flub I can just do another take. The thing is, the more I do it, the more I become hyper-aware of how I say every word. And the more I think about what I'm saying, the more I screw up even the simplest sentences. Here's a list of all the things I do that annoy me, most of which I knew about before and have tried (and failed) to eradicate:
[Al] The Return to the District
So I’ve been working hard and heavy on the pilot, and I like where it’s going. When I hear a show on Public Radio, it’s really easy to forget all the people that make it happen. Working on the pilot makes me appreciate them even more. There is so much that goes into making a show work, and without people like my mentor Taki, I don’t think I could do this.
Taki is great cause he knows what it takes to make a show. After we talked about my vision for the show he set the tone in creating my vision. I couldn’t be happier with my choice. So tomorrow I head back to DC to finish up on some segments. I’m excited because this time out I have a really feeling for the show. I know exactly who I need to talk to, and timing it all out has worked out pretty well. Once again WAMU is helping me do some of the heavy lifting.
[Rebecca] S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!
I normally prefer to spend my Saturday nights like most people --
meeting Tiny Michael Jackson,
watching roller derby bouts,
(Glynn) Home Movies . . .
People have asked me, "Glynn, why are you not blogging! What are you up to?"
Well . . . all kinds of things. But, in my spare time, I started a new sport. It's called "Parkour". Incidentally, I recently changed my name to David Belle.
You can see me practicing here:
PRX and Talent Quest On Tour
. . . Well, not on tour, exactly, but about as close as we get: public radio conferences!
From PRPD in Minneapolis:
PRPD (that stands for Public Radio Program Directors) is where we announced the winners of the Talent Quest. But wait, there was more. Here are some audio highlights from the sessions:
[Al] Here Comes the Sun
The first time I wrote a play, I’d never really seen one. Hadn’t gone to highschool productions, and though I lived close to NYC in my early childhood, I never went to any play, except a musical called “Your Arms are to Short to Box with God”, but I’d never seen “Death of A Salesman” or any of the prerequisite drama productions to consider yourself a lover of theatre. But I wrote it because I had to. Later I went out and did a crash course on theatre and have been writing for the stage ever since. I had no idea what I was doing at first, it was all instinctual, but the fire that drove me to write has served me well. I didn’t know what I was getting into at all. How crazy it was for a neophyte to pick up and decide to be a dramatist? For me it was exciting, overwhelming, and beautiful. On the night of the opening of my first major production I was scared, happy, and tired. Most importantly I did it.
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