>>>>>>>> r We’ve morphed! Saltcast is now HowSound. Same content, same host, same backstory to great radio storytelling…. only the name has changed. Just as good, perhaps even better. But you need to subscribe to know for sure! Please, click on over to HowSound.org or log onto iTunes and subscribe. The Saltcast blog posts and free streams of the Sa…

Okay. First and foremost. Do. Not. Panic. Yes, this is the last Saltcast, BUT…. Saltcast is now HowSound. rBy Rob Rosenthal, SaltCast

Jeff Letellier demonstrates how to hold a pigeon. (Photo by Nicolas Tanner, courtesy the Salt Archive.) We talk everyday. But, step in front of a microphone, and everything goes to heck in a handbasket. We forget how to talk and, instead, launch into “reading voice.” What’s the secret to avoiding “reading voice”? Rachel James has some answers. Last…

Producer John Biewen interrogates John Steinbeck. (Photo by Diana Garcia) I seriously suffer from wanderlust. Summer comes and I want nothing more than to shunpike — make my way cross-country taking back roads. Can’t do that this summer, sadly. But, fortunately, I have John Biewen’s latest documentary to satisfy some of my road trip ya-yas. In 1960…

The English Channel On this Saltcast, further evidence of the infiltration of Radiolab into the ears of new radio producers. Matt Kielty interviewed the guts out of Pat Charrette, a 60-year-old woman who attempted an English Channel swim in 2008. Pat was a great talker and Matt thought assembling the story would be a cinch — until he listened to th…

Amy O’Leary wowing radio students with a four-hour, non-stop, mind dump of storytelling genius. r It all started with a vox pop about cheeseburger fries when she was a student at Salt in 2003. Now, Amy O’Leary is a Deputy Editor at the New York Times working on multi-media stories. Amy visited Salt this semester and let her mind all-hang-out — narr…

p Salt Radio has been invaded. Sonically. The welcome interloper? Radiolab. Some ten years ago, students arrived at Salt heavily influenced by Ira Glass and Dave Isay. While Ira and Dave continue to inspire, Radiolab’s producers and hosts, Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad, have now wormed their way into the hearts and ears of students. (By wormed, i…

Paul Schipper, “The Iron Man of Skiing.” Photo by Katherine Gnecco, courtesy of the Salt Archive. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting Greg Warner on the radio these days. The dude is everywhere. Just in the last few months, Greg produced a story for Radiolab, had a piece featured on Re:sound, and he assembled a series on health care in Russi…

“How the heck am I going to find a story?!” Students at Salt ask that question incessantly at the beginning of a semester. And trust me, they don’t always say ‘heck.’ To spark thinking on where to look for a story, for many years we’ve used “50 Places to Shop for Story Ideas” by Gregg McLachlan. I think it’s an excellent starting point. One thing m…

r At Salt, we use the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics to guide us through tricky editorial decisions. But, how’s a student supposed to figure out the best path to take when the teacher breaks the Society’s code around “avoid(ing) conflicts of interest, real or perceived.” I suggested a student interview my mother-in-law for a sto…

A toucan bit my mic once. Another time, a cow licked my mic. I’ve had to wipe fish guts and seaweed from it. O, the places my mic has taken me. Just in the last few months, with a microphone leading the way, I’ve been to a Rio de Janeiro ghetto, a nothern Maine historical society, a funeral and a prison in Malawi, and the American Folk Festival in …

The USS Cole towed to sea with a hole blown in its side.Photo by Sgt. Don L. Maes, U.S. Marine Corps. r On October 12, 2000, seventeen sailors were killed and dozens injured during an attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. Ten years later, Salt radio grad Matt Ozug produced a segment on the Cole for an hour-long documentary by America Abroad. Matt was so…

r Salt radio student Georgia Moodie turned part of Salt’s somewhat standardized production process on its head. Maybe it’s because Georgia’s from Australia? (Sorry. Couldn’t help it.) Typically, students write and edit scripts before producing a story in ProTools. Georgia produced a story first and wrote a script as she went. This isn’t a productio…

Carol Broebeck received this picture of her son from her social worker just after his adoption was completed. It was the last she saw of him until twenty years later when he turned up at her job — by surprise. (Photo courtesy Carol Broebeck via radio producer Shea Shackelford.) r “Where do ideas for radio stories come from?” In the case of the awar…

r My brain tingled while interviewing Dan Grech for this Saltcast. Dan is the News Director at WLRN in southern Florida. He’s also a producer for the station’s public affairs program Under the Sun. Early in 2010, Dan produced a story about four doctors who traveled to Haiti soon after the earthquake. One of the doctors videotaped part of the trip a…

r Producer Jamie York has decade long list of success in public radio. He’s worked with Dave Isay of StoryCorps fame, WNYC, American Radio Works, and Radio Rookies. He’s been at On the Media for six years. And, his first national broadcast was a doosey. In 2002. Jamie co-produced “Mohawk Iron Workers, Walking High Steel” as part of the Kitchen Sist…

r I hope you’re sitting down. I’m going to say something heretical. Ready? I’m kinda tired of StoryCorps. Let me explain. On so many levels, StoryCorps is genius. It’s the nation’s largest oral history project — ever. And, it’s peer to peer (mostly) with people interviewing one another. The stories are heartfelt and honest. What could be better on …

r Here’s what I’d like you to do after you hear this podcast. Nothing. Just sit there (or stand if you must) and do nothing but listen. In fact, listen until it becomes a bit uncomfortable, like you’ve listened long enough. Then, listen some more. Listen deliberately. Tell me what you hear. Really. Try it. Cheers, Rob PS – Below are links to the wo…

Irish radio producer, Ronan Kelly. r This Saltcast we break from the format a bit. Ronan Kelly, from RTE, Radio Ireland, visited Salt for a week in October. He hung out in class and worked with the students. What a treat! While Ronan was in Portland, we chatted on tape as he played DJ featuring clips from some of his favorite radio stories. You’ll …

r Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. That’s the sound of tyranny — the tyranny of the clock. Typically, radio stories need to fill a specific length of time in a radio program — no shorter, no longer. Right. On. Time. Lots of content from a story gets cut to meet those time constraints. One of the first things to go is the questions asked by the reporte…

Crow’s Lightwriter speech synthesizer. (Photo by Emily Bender) Crow bathes with a caregiver. (Photo by Emily Bender) Crow died of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2007. (Photo by Emily Bender) r A very successful radio and multi-media producer got her start at Salt. She’s worked for a major public radio program and a major newspaper conducting training…

“Why now?” Producers often dread this question. “It’s simply a good story” they might say. “It doesn’t need to answer ‘why now?’ This is a classic tale of (fill in the blank). It’s universal!” But editors ask this question all the time. They’re looking for relevancy, for why a listener should care beyond those important elements. I see the merit of…

A cypress knee — Jay Allison’s memento from a visit to Florida, a tour of a cypress knee museum, and a radio story about “an elevated, transcendent beauty we become aware of at death.” (Photo by Rob Rosenthal.) r “Cypress Knees” by Jay Allison is one of those radio stories that’s hard to describe. Even Jay kinda, sorta stumbled over explaining it w…

Katie West smiles to change the world. (Photo by Avery Moore.) r Radio producer Avery Moore heard the following mantra for *four* years at journalism school: DON’T USE MUSIC! Over and over, DON’T USE MUSIC was beaten into her. Journalistically speaking, the logic is simple — don’t use music unless it’s part of the story. If it’s not part of the sto…

President Franklin Roosevelt examines a model of the proposed Quoddy Dam, Eastport, Maine in 1935. The project barely got off the ground before it failed miserably. (Photo courtesy the National Archives.) Leslie Bowman and Normand LaBerge keep the dream of a dam in Eastport alive seventy-five years later. (Photo by Emily Friedman.) It’s hard to sta…

Guglielmo Marconi, inventor and early radio technology pioneer. r Radio producer Tony Kahn once said of an interviewee “She lives in her voice.” What a remarkably succinct way to say how one’s voice communicates more than just the words that are spoken. Cadence, pauses, inflections… all are non-verbal cues about character. I’m a fan of one non-verb…

Glenn Johnson’s business card reads “Dowser, Consultant to the Universe.” Photo by Katherine Hays (2004). A recent interview with This American Life host Ira Glass on Slate.com got me thinking about about an old Salt Radio piece called “Dowser, Consultant to the Universe.” It’s the story of Glenn Johnson, a dowser who makes a mistake. And, therein …

Rebecca Pickett smokes medical marijuana daily to alleviate her debilitating headaches. Photo by Leah Arsenault. r We could call this edition of the Saltcast “The Lexicon Show.” I define a few of the quirky phrases and words instructors at Salt use to help students focus their stories. Phrases like: Circling the Stadium – A story starts much too fa…

Diane Richard and her husband Todd Melby sure know how to pick a project with a long, uphill road to the finish line. Diane and Todd recently finished a one-hour radio documentary on sex offender policy in the United States. It’s called “No Brother of Mine.” The lengths they went to complete the project are surprising and inspiring. On this additio…

The Guerrette family of Pittston, Maine – William, Nicole, and Melanie. Photo by Sarah Craig. p The story featured on today’s Saltcast is not easy to take. People listening to the piece at a recent gallery show at Salt shook their heads in disbelief and cringed at the gory details. In 2008, two thugs broke into the Guerrette family home in Pittston…

You didn’t hear this from me, but sometimes the best approach to working on a story is to not have much of a plan. (cough) I actually can’t believe I just wrote that. I’m a firm believer in working with a penciled-in plan before embarking on a story. Starting out, a producer should have a pretty good sense of who to talk to, where to record active …

Nathan Dyer focuses hard — really hard — on the chandelier. Photo by Morrigan McCarthy. Ninety-nine percent of the time, using the pronoun “I” in a story is a journalistic no-no. The reasons for this prohibition are many. One is objectivity. Remaining aloof and distant helps a reporter achieve the goal of objectivity, or so the conventional thinkin…

r “You can do that with radio?!!” That was my overwhelming response when I first heard “Ghetto Life 101.” I still feel the same way even after listening to the piece dozens of times. “Ghetto Life 101” is a high-water mark for radio documentary and the story featured on this edition of the Saltcast — our fiftieth!! Dave Isay produced the piece in 19…

Jerry Blackburn, “The Junk King” of the Downeast region of Maine. Photo by Alexandra Marvar, 2006. r You just might end your subscription to the Saltcast after the following pun: Producer Josh Gleason wrestled mightly with how to “frame” his profile (get it?) of Jerry Blackburn, “The Junk King.” Jerry salvages and sells junk. Lots of junk. More jun…

r There are lots of different ways to start a story. Maybe the most common is what I call “Here’s-how-things-are (or were)-here’s-how-they-are-different.” Basically, the narrator describes what’s usual about a situation. Then they point to what’s different. A simple example is “Today was perfect. Bright sunshine. Light breeze. A couple of clouds. T…

Thought the limerick was a dead artform? A remnant of “ye olde days” that little kids still find humorous? Think again. Molly Haley brings us the story of a limerick revival, of sorts, in Maine. Beware, the poems featured in this Saltcast give ribald a new name. The circle of dots above are something new I’ve been doing in class. To illustrate the …

Icebergs ho! The bow of my kayak near Hay Cove, far northern Newfoundland. r Here’s the dirty secret about the audio postcard featured on this Saltcast: I recorded it twice. Armed with binaural microphones and advice about safety from local fisherman, I recorded a kayak trip around some icebergs at the top of Newfoundland. I paddled about a half ho…

Meatball sub anyone? Photo by Catherine Lovell. r Ovens and sinks and a fridges, oh my. No matter which way producer Audrey Dilling turned in the cafeteria kitchen at Biddeford High School, she was awash in sound, sound, and more sound. What’s a producer to do? Audrey has some answers on this Saltcast about hot lunch and recording. One answer to th…

r Click for a closeup of the cover. r Finally! A book about the craft and art of radio documentary. It’s about time!! John Biewen and his co-editor Alexa Dilworth have assembled Reality Radio, a collection of masterful essays by radio’s best producers. Reading this, I feel as though I’ve had a personal, one-on-one conversation with many of the cont…

p Carole Starr had a car accident a few years ago and her brain suffered an injury, one that’s had a profound effect on her life. Carole was diagnosed with hyperacusis, a severe sensitivity to sound. This would be traumatic for anyone, but for Carole it’s had great significance. She had to give up what she most cherished — playing the violin. Salt …

Graduation at Salt is not to be missed. At the end of a ridiculously rigorous 15-week semester, students, staff, faculty, family, and friends gather for a grand farewell. Really, it’s like no other graduation I’ve ever seen. Staff and faculty offer heartfelt missives. Students receive certificates. But, the highlight is the student presentations. E…

Make way for Tom Witkowski, the dean of delivery at Pizza Time, Portland, Maine. Photo by Rebeca Beeman r Mark Kramer is probably the intellectual heavy-weight of narrative journalism. Mark wrote Telling True Stories and he was the founder of the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Mark says if a story doesn’t have an obvious narrative hook,…

Hillary Hebert takes a break after talking about motherhood and bi-polar disorder. Photo by Keith Lane. r Radio producers have a many tools to craft a story. Narration. Writing. Quotes from interviews. Ambient sound. Active tape. Music. What about art? We don’t teach “sound art” at Salt, but we do wonder from time-to-time how a feature might benefi…

Watch a video tape as a prompt during an interview. r One simple way to help an interviewee open up during a conversation is with photos. Thumbing through a photo album or a box of old pictures can jog a person’s memory, help take them back in time. In fact, anything that might activate another sense during an interview may prompt a deeper, more pr…

Have tape deck, will diary. Josh Cutler, the subject of Joe Richman’s “Josh: Growing Up With Tourrette’s.” p Just over a year ago, I dissected “Dead Animal Man” by Ira Glass for the Saltcast. I think that episode got more responses than any other Saltcast. Since then, I’ve been meaning to dissect a piece in a similar way. It only took a year (!) bu…

Sound healer Sandra Chausse. Photo by Rebeca Beeman. p This is probably stating the obvious, but Salt teaches students to tell stories. In the radio track, we use Jon Franklin’s definition of story. Franklin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and he teaches at the University of Maryland. His definition of story goes something like this: A story is …

Robert King Wilkerson spent twenty-nine years in solitary confinement. Photo by Terry Foss. r When is the sound of a slamming door not a slamming door? When it’s designed. Radio documentary producer Claire Schoen learned “sound design” when she worked in film. She brings those unique and valuable skills to her radio productions. As a sound designer…

Rabbi Amita Jarmon lights a menorah. Photo by Hannah Fox. p Rachel Quimby is funny. And, she doesn’t turn off her wit when she produces a radio story. Even the title of her piece we’re featuring today is witty – “A Jew Grows in Rockland.” But, humor ain’t easy. And, on the radio, I think it’s particularly difficult. You have only your voice to make…

Dining at the swingers party. Photo by Jessica Sheldon. r I just shake my head sometimes. At least once a semester, usually more, Salt students find themselves in the most out-of-the-ordinary places. It boggles my mind. A couple of semesters ago, a student wound up on a deer hunt gone awry. Another semester, a student spent hours if not days in a h…

Breakfast with Margery Richard and her “flat son” Jarod. Photo by Kristin Wright courtesy the Salt Archive. p When Meghan Vigeant started crying in class, I knew something was up. The tears welled-up in Meghan’s eyes as she played us interview tape from her conversation with Margery Richard. Problem was, what Margery was saying wasn’t sad. Students…