The Third Coast International Audio Festival, ( TCIAF ) , held Nov. 1-3 in Chicago, was a warm host to 400 radio producers, podcasters and audio enthusiasts from around the world who immersed themselves in the art and craft of creating stories for radio and the Internet. Whether participating in one of the workshops or mingling during a coffee break, the vibrant community energy of the festival was palpable.
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Ira Glass (from This American Life) gives feedback on a story. Photo by Stuart Mullenberg
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Shiow-Jiau Yung, marketing staff of TCIAF, described it another way: 'This is the Sundance of radio and audio producing. Media is converging in these new beautiful ways, and Chicago Public Radio is excited to be in the center of it.'
Noah Miller, director of the San Francisco's LGBT youth series OutLoud Radio, has been to the festival four times. 'Sometimes indie media work can feel pretty isolating,' he said. 'I come away from here feeling refreshed for another year.' Miller recently developed the Intergenerational Storytelling Project, which connects queer youth with LGBT elders for weekly interview exchanges.
Conference workshops included The Emancipation of Sound, Story and Music and Crafting a Personal Documentary. One particularly engaging session was Documenter and Documentee, where Michele Norris, from the NPR program All Things Considered, shared the stage with interview subject and Hurricane Katrina survivor Sharon White. They spoke about their relationship and how it changed over the course of telling White's story.
There was ample opportunity to meet and learn from other veterans. Producers from This American Life, Weekend America, Studio 360 and Canada's Outfront were all in attendance, with a special presentation by European radio guru Peter Leonhard Braun.
In the session called How to Sell Out, a helpful media distinction was made: podcasting is not radio. A podcast is a recorded audio program, distributed via Internet download and listened to on demand. Another type of circulation is Internet audio streaming, where the sound stream comes out of your computer speakers in real time, like radio. In fact, an exciting audio project in Chicago is now combining these mediums. Vocalo offers training and airspace to anyone who wants to produce his or her own stories or sound art. Vocalo can be heard locally 2-5 p.m. at 89.5 FM, or online 24/7 via the Web site.
Founded by Chicago Public Radio in 2000, the annual audio festival is just one project produced by the Third Coast folks. Others include Re:sound, a weekly WBEZ program that showcases work from around the planet, and a series called Listening Room, where audiences listen to documentaries in public theaters and provide feedback.
Jay Allison, host of the NPR program, This I Believe, ended the conference with some of his thoughts on the power of sound: 'Sound is ghostly. We don't have lids on our ears. Sound gets in without our permission. Sound doesn't respect boundaries. It travels across the water and doesn't care.'
Resources: transom.org; Public Radio Exchange, prx.org; thirdcoastfestival.org; vocalo.org; Experimental Sound Studio, exsost.org; AIR, Association of Independent Radio.