Talent Quest Mentors Announced - A lot of help from Friends
Glynn, Al, and Rebecca are hard at work on their pilot programs, but they won't be doing it alone. We've paired each of them with an experienced radio pro - their own set of golden ears - to help them shape and develop their shows.
We're very pleased to introduce our three Public Radio Talent Quest Mentors:
Working with Glynn - Ben Manilla has grown a variety of companies specializing in production, distribution and consulting. Established in 1991, Ben Manilla Productions, Inc. (www.bmpaudio.com) is an award winning, digital production facility located in the Mission District of San Francisco.
In 2003, BMP’s thirteen hour documentary, The Blues, proved to be the most widely distributed special in the history of Public Radio International with over 330 affiliates carrying the programs. BMP has developed a diverse array of national and international series including:
Philosophy Talk from Stanford University
The House of Blues Radio Hour with Dan Aykroyd
The Blues with Keb’ Mo’
The Loose Leaf Book Company with Tom Bodett
The Putumayo World Music Hour
From the Archives of The History Channel
Drew Carey’s Hi-Fi Club
Lo Nuevo
Pazz and Jops from America
Health Talk with Dr. Nancy Snyderman
Merry Christmas from Walt Disney World
Working with Rebecca - Before starting rlpaulproductions, Richard Paul spent 14 years at WAMU-FM in Washington, DC, as: Special Projects Producer, Line Producer for the local newsmagazine "Metro Connection," Producer of "The Diane Rehm Show," Producer of "Good Dirt," and News Department Acting Assignment Editor.
Before joining WAMU, Richard was National Affairs Press Secretary for Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Press Secretary for the Senate Subcommittee On Children, Families, Drugs And Alcohol.
Richard's radio work has been recognized with awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the New York Festival. He has been a member of the musical political satire troupe The Capitol Steps for 20 years.
Working with Al - Taki Telonidis is the media producer for the Western Folklife Center in Salt Lake City. Since 1998, he and colleague Hal Cannon have produced more than 60 radio features about life in the American West.
In 2004 Taki was NPR’s field producer for the summer Olympics in Athens. Telonidis came to the West from National Public Radio in Washington DC, where between 1994 and 1998 he was Senior Producer of Weekend All Things Considered. In 1995 the show won the Overseas Press Club Award for Breaking News. Telonidis has also received the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold and Silver Awards, the Max Karant Award for Aviation Journalism, and a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award.
Welcome Ben, Taki, and Richard. We're thrilled to have you as part of the Talent Quest team.
delicious
diggA few observations about the competition so far and the next round.
* The judges comments were only posted once. The only time they were presented was when a slew of comments appeared questioning and criticizing PRTQ's choices. Could it be that the administration's decision to give us a peak behind the curtain had less to do with transparency than it did with fending off criticism? Sharing the comments could tell us why the judges chose Al Letson and Glynn Washington over Ann Baer and Chris de Ville. Did their departure's failure to generate much descent, make the admin feel they did not need to rationalize their decision?
* Rebecca Watson is lucky to have such a devoted following. The administration made it clear that she was not the one they would have picked. "The public vote grew increasingly important as rounds progressed - ultimately selecting Boston's Rebecca Watson as their "people's choice" in the final round, displacing April Baer who was the judges' third choice." - admin on September 27, 2007. Again the judges comments might enlighten us on why they would have picked Baer over Watson.
* Why was the total number of votes cast in each round only announced once? Certainly, if interest had increased, PRTQ would have wanted to publicize it. The vote totals for the contestants might have been interesting too. Did anyone ever challenge Rebecca Watson, who won every vote? Or was the Skepchik juggernaut overwhelming?
* The next round is going to be very tough. Launch is also putting up three potential public radio stars for production. It could be a bit intimidating to the PRTQ finalists that the show they were compared to, This American Life, has roots at Launch. Why deal with imitators, when you can work with people who helped create the real thing? The founders of Launch were also involved with the creation of A Prairie Home Companion and Speaking of Faith and they launched Studio 360 and American Routes. Now that Launch has announced their proposed shows (after a three month delay) it looks like the competition is going to be stiff. The proposed hosts are;
Mark Bittman - Cookbook author, PBS host, and newspaper columnist. He wrote the book, How to Cook Everything. http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/htce/Home/index.html
Majora Carter - Founder of Sustainable South Bronx http://www.ssbx.org/staff.html
Julia Sweeney - Actress and comedian. http://www.juliasweeney.com/welcome.asp
- "...The administration made it clear that she was not the one they would have picked."
- "Again the judges comments might enlighten us on why they would have picked Baer over Watson."
- "Did anyone ever challenge Rebecca Watson, who won every vote? Or was the Skepchik juggernaut overwhelming?"
Now the judges comments are up and you can compare the OVERWHELMING support for April by the judges - it makes it even more questionable. What the???!?!?
This competition needs a SERIOUS overhaul in that regard. Good to see Julia Sweeney's show is coming, though.
Actually, there's still a lot of stuff we want to post from Round 4 and the announcement/party at PRPD: we've got judges' comments, audio from the phone calls, pictures and video from the conference . . . the problem is finding the time to organize and post it! We hope all of this stuff gets up later this week.
We're but a wee staff here at PRX, so it can take us some time to get things done on the site. We're trying to make this process as transparent as possible -- because it's a.) interesting and b.) more fun -- within our time constraints. Stay tuned!
While we wait for the winners demos, past finalists are producing new broadcasts;
bee jellyfish is co-hosting the weekly Daily Lights show (http://www.dailylights.com).
And Chuck Mertz, on this week's abbreviated one-hour This is Hell (http://www.thisishell.net/) will be inteviewing Cynthia Stokes Brown, author of "Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present" (New Press http://www.thenewpress.com/)
And Jeff Dorchen (http://www.mejeffdorchen.oblivio.com/) will deliver a Moment of Truth.
And on Saturday, October 20th, This is Hell will be back with a four hour show. Guests will include David Cole, co-author of "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror" (New Press http://www.thenewpress.com/)
The 10/13/07 This is Hell is now available anytime as an MP3, but with a new guest.
From Mexico City, Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Policy Program at the International Relations Center. She has been working as an analyst and writer in Mexico for over two decades. Her recent writing includes the articles, "Plan Mexico and the Billion Dollar Drug Deal," "Opposition Gains Strength as Pro-CAFTA Forces Caught in Manipulation Scheme," "Agrofuels Trap," and "Extending NAFTA's Reach," which can all be found at http://www.americas.irc-online.org.
And Jeff Dorchen still delivers a Moment of Truth.
Cynthia Stokes Brown, author of "Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present" (New Press, http://www.thenewpress.com/) will appear on the four hour October 20th show. Along with another Moment of Truth.
to hear a full show from these three. Those five minute demos were just teasers! And fine choices of mentors to assure that high quality NPR sound we all know and love. Go to it!
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