Let’s Make Some Radio
by Jason Wilson
Through my time at journalism school I learned plenty, which I’m sure is the point. One thing I learned that didn’t have anything to do with the practical nature of reporting or the form a story takes or how to come up with ideas or subjects or interviews is that I want to stay true to myself. This may seem like a no-brainer, and maybe I’m overly critical of the industry I so dutifully desired to venture into, but I didn’t want to compromise and so far I don’t think I have.
Specifically, I could have taken internship positions at a BNI publication like the Gleaner or the Telegraph (for those unfamiliar with New Brunswick newspapers, I apologize) but I didn’t. I instead took a reporting gig at the Carleton FreePress, an independent weekly paper where I was free to essentially do as I pleased as long as I had enough copy to fill up the damn paper come Monday morning (at the latest). For every beauty pageant or otherwise uninteresting (to me at least) event I wrote about what books mattered to individual people, the revitalised vinyl side of the record industry and local plays written by local playwrights.
My editor Bob Rupert gave me responsibility and didn’t hold my hand but at the same time didn’t dictate what I could and couldn’t do. For example, I wrote consecutive negative film reviews. One of the managers of the movie theatre, who knows our publisher fairly well, showed up and requested I not be allowed to write any more reviews. He feared my negativity would effect (or is it affect…damn) business. Both Bob and our publisher Ken Langdon stood by me and encouraged me to write further and maintain my honesty regardless.
Onto the matter in the headline. Oh how my professors would cringe at this. I didn’t get to the point in the first paragraph, hell I didn’t get to the point int he first THREE paragraphs. Big no-no for those counting at home (cliche alert!). The reason I started Unfiltered Smoke in the first place was to keep things on my own terms. And while I wouldn’t argue that the website has been a house of journalism, it has at least been a house of different perspectives. Sure, some of the articles certainly wouldn’t be a hit with certain crowds but that’s exactly the point. The writers and contributors here do not compromise and I want to finally bring this aspect to the audio side of things in an Unfiltered Smoke podcast or radio show (yes! I finally made it to the point of this article!).
I’d be lying if I said I am not inspired and influenced in this idea by This American Life. It is easily the best radio program I have ever listened to and I thank my former professor Philip Lee for showing it to the class. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, it tells stories of slices of Americana in several acts in an hour-long show. While it airs weekly, the amount of work one show requires makes it impossible for a new show to debut every single week. The show has aired since 1995 and is still going strong for WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International.
Host Ira Glass is fantastic. He is rarely the center of attention but he bleeds the stories together with ease, as he should as he’s been doing this for decades. Just check out the show so I can stop short of heaping too much praise on the show because it’s only part of the point here.
I want to do a similar thing with Unfiltered Smoke Radio. While it may not be weekly, hell, depending on the amount of work involved we may be lucky if the thing airs monthly, but I want to do what I can to accomplish what matters most to me in journalism. Tell people’s stories. Or in some cases, get them to tell their own.
The fear is that radio doesn’t have the same impact it once did, at least not on a grand scale. While I am infatuated personally with radio shows like This American Life, Ideas, Definitely Not the Opera and Wire Tap, I can’t say the same for many others. The people I know might even be in the same group as I am so I don’t even know how the masses look at radio. It may be some arcane device that serves little purpose but damn it, I love it so I’m going to do it even if it’s doomed to fail.
The first show, the process which hasn’t even begun beyond the conceptual stages, will focus on the medium of radio itself. As I pontificated about the validity of the medium I realized that I’m just so unsure so I’d like to talk with people who work in the industry as well as people who listen to radio and even to those who don’t in order to figure out what it all means. A portion of the show will also be dedicated to the history of radio; where it began, where it went and even where it’s going now.
Ideally I’d interview Ira Glass as he is one of the main reasons, if not the catalyst, that I’m ploughing ahead with the show. So stay tuned, hopefully this is going to fly.
- Jason
