Press Clippings
Giving Public Radio a Hand
Boston Globe
Globe Correspondent Clea Simon
Jay Allison is concerned with putting the "public" back in public radio. When he founded the Cape and Islands Community Radio production company in Woods Hole 10 years ago, he made sure its broadcast stations aired bits of local "found sound," aural images from the lives of people on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. Those "Sonic IDs," as they are now known, still air regularly on WCAI-FM (90.1) and WNAN-FM (91.1). But now that those stations are being managed by Boston's WGBH-FM (89.7), Allison's nonprofit company (which has been renamed Atlantic Public Media) has expanded to a more grass-roots effort: training the public-radio contributors of tomorrow.
The training ground - or doorway - that he's opened is transom.org, a website that offers expert advice, community support, and a showcase for radio features produced by new and emerging voices. This week, for example, the site features a piece by first-time producer Jason Rayles. Called "Jimmy and Jewel: A Love(?) Story," it concerns Rayles's grandfather and a woman who came to his funeral whom Rayles had never met before. This feature was developed through transom.org as part of the site's "occasional artist-in-residence program," which is precisely the way the website is supposed to work, says Allison. The initial inspiration for this kind of open training, says Allison, came from a meeting with the environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben. McKibben came to talk to Allison "about the possibilities to increase citizen stories on the air," says Allison, "which has been my driving interest for many years. That planted the seed." Like all nonprofit ideas, it took about a year to get funding, and the search for grants is ongoing, but three years ago the site was launched.
What it provides, says its founder, is help every step of the way. "Say you're a citizen and you've got things to say, which to me is part of the point of public radio," explains Allison. "You could go to transom.org and find all the instruction on where to get and how to use all the tools you need, from minidiscs to microphones." Even a quick skim of the site reveals open discussion forums as well as archived chats by each month's guest media experts, who range from Christopher Lydon to Studs Terkel and filmmaker Errol Morris.
The site has already created at least one generation of new radio professionals. Pieces produced through transom.org have been aired on "Morning Edition" and "This American Life," among other public radio shows. Although some new producers have moved on to bigger outlets, many still hang around.
"There are always beginners coming in," says Allison, who estimates that several thousand visitors log on regularly. "Some of the people who were beginners when the site started are now the mentors. Now they'll answer the questions, which is nice."
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