Do whatcha Do

Well, things have been interesting here, to say the least. The non-profit I work for is in the middle of restructuring its relationship with the radio station whose license it owns, but which is operated by the volunteers at the station. We lost our Station Manager over the controversy that led to the restructuring so I have been working out of the radio station so as to help answer phones, get mail, put us back on the air when we fall off for whatever reason etc. This has put me in an awkward position which I won't go in to in any detail, but it has also given me the opportunity to learn more about how radio works and how stations operate: everything from receiving the satellite feed for Democracy Now and getting it on the air to testing microphones for a phone interview which accidentally went live on air (and yes, I was singing "hello"!).

Aside from being on air more and working with Cool Edit Pro and recording equipment particular to our station, I have been cultivating a group of volunteers to get them involved with the station and the Journalism Project. I had to kind of restart this process after the drama occurred between the station and the non-profit.

I have also been working on a few grants in partnership with other non-profits in the area. These relationships are promising as they are mostly directed towards youth, some "youth at risk," to build media literacy curriculum and get them civically engaged. I also will be beginning training sessions at a public housing development here on how to use Audacity.

I have been building relationships with a few oral history projects in Asheville that are telling stories about urban renewal, immigration, and over development in our area. I want these groups and their work to be heard on our station, but because of the politics involved with the non-profit and the station at the moment, I don't know exactly how this will all unfold.

On other notes, I have been training at a place called URTV, a public access tv station where I am learning how to use video cameras and editing programs. Coming up I will be taking a special seminar on preproduction preparation from a woman who is a well known documentary film maker (sorry, I don't have her name).

Also, I just returned from Hickory, NC where I was at a festival for Black Mountain College. If you are interested in art, poetry, and innovative educational philosophies, you should check out http://www.bmcproject.org/. I was there audio recording the event and doing interviews with contemporary poets and historians. It was pretty amazing.

In the meantime, I am trying to "do what I do," as they say, and where all of this will land, I don't have total control over.

Peace,

Abigail