RADIO PROGRAM: Praise from MPR Managing Editor
Bill Wareham, managing editor of Minnesota Public Radio (one of the most influential news organizations in America) recently visited the school and had some nice things to say about our radio curriculum and Professors John Dinges and Rick Karr:
Both fellows have distinguished bios - John is a former managing editor at NPR (the full bio is here) and Rick has done stints with NPR, PBS and more (full bio). But these guys may be doing their most important work ever at Columbia, where they’re educating the next generation of radio journalists.
The heart of the radio workshop is the weekly webcast, which comes together every Friday during spring semester at 4 o’clock ET. This mix of daily news and features is a pretty good replication of what goes on daily at public radio stations across the country.
What impresses me every year is how good these students are, even if they’re still a little rough around the edges. We’ve had several graduates of the program come through MPR (the latest, Jess Mador, started a couple of months ago), and all have been strong journalists.
You will be hearing many of these voices on public radio in coming years, but if you want to hear them now, the workshop archives its programs here.
Read the full item, with links:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/newsroom/archive/2007/04/hearing_the_fut.shtml.
Prof. Dinges, who is a terrific evangelist for radio, encourages all students to think about doing radio, even if they are not broadcast majors (we have courses of various lengths). He say, “Some students now seek out Columbia for radio, more each year as word gets out. But still the majority of our students discover the possibility of radio while here–including about half who started out with the intention of being print journalists.”
He’s right. Over the years, I have seen dozens of students had what I call their “radio epiphany” while taking a radio course here and go into careers where radio is their major outlet - or one of their major outlets. Increasingly, even newspaper reporters are asked to collect audio clips, make podcasts, etc. And when it comes to new media, radio and audio skills are especially invaluable.
If you are incoming student (or a continuing PT student): please do consider taking radio classes when you are here. More on radio at Columbia here: http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/radio/
