Sonic IDs

I'm back at the Broadcast Centre for a little while, filling in at Radio Syndication. On my way out today, I ran into a colleague who's working for CBC Radio One's new Sirius channel. I don't have a satellite radio, so I haven't yet heard the channel. But apparently, it's mainly repurposed Radio One content, minus any local information. This, of course, leaves gaps to fill. So what do you fill it with? I immediately thought of American Public Media's Sonic ID project. Basically, a Sonic ID is an extended station ID:

short portraits and stories that weave the broadcast day of WCAI/NAN/ZAI with the voices, sounds and stories of our region.

They run a minute or two apiece, and are a good way of getting new and different voices on the air. I don't know why CBC doesn't commission a ton of these at the local, regional, and national levels. They'd be great. And for filling some of the gaps on Sirius, they'd be perfect. I produced three Sonic IDs for CKDU a couple of years ago. Have a listen to the IDs on APM's site, and if you want more, listen to mine:

• Carol on thong underwear (my favourite)
• Frank on planting a red maple tree
• Shawn on cutting the eyes off fruit flies

MicroTrack review

Via createdigitalmusic.com, Mark Nelson's review of the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96. I picked up one of these units about a month ago, and am working on my own, radio-producer-POV review. I'll also be bringing my MicroTrack to Tod's Toronto podcaster meetup if you want to check it out in person.

Why doesn't the CBC podcast more?

Over at Dose Magazine, Hugh has written an excellent article on the CBC and its podcasting strategy. It seems to be based mostly on conversation with Tod Maffin on his cross-country podcasting tour, and is especially good at explaining some of the reasons why the corporation doesn't do more podcasting. Not surprisingly, the main reasons aren't technical.

Radio Documentary Opportunity

This arrived in my CBC email yesterday afternoon, and since then approximately one zillion people forwarded it to me saying, "Dan, this is right up your alley." Indeed. I sent my letter yesterday afternoon. I'm passing it along here for others who might be interested:

December 1, 2005 IN YOUR EAR – DOCUMENTARY OPPORTUNITY I'm writing today to let you know about an exciting new production and mentoring opportunity that CBC Radio is launching in January. It's called "In Your Ear" and is all about documentaries – specifically giving tailored mentoring to upcoming documentary makers in Radio. Steve Wadhams, a distinguished documentary maker who most recently won the prestigious Luminary Award at the Third Coast Festival, will be leading the project. The goals are, first of all, to find and develop the people who will be CBC's leading documentary producers and editors in the years to come and, secondly, to create radio storytelling which fully exploits the potential of the medium - radio which draws on journalism, drama, music, poetry and literature but which is not limited by the conventions of these more established genres. We will be giving three people the opportunity to work with Steve and be mentored by him. Each will get the opportunity to produce at least one substantial radio feature (up to 30 minutes) of their own and will also contribute fully in the development and production of the work of their colleagues. The work will air on IDEAS. The production commitment for each participant will be 40 days between January and June 2006. Because of the nature of this type of radio feature, participants' production time will be spread out as evenly as possible over the entire six-month production period. Participants and their supervisors will be expected to create and abide by an appropriate work schedule. The intent is to bring the group together in January 2006 for a one week extensive "boot camp" in Toronto. After that, participants will work at their respective CBC locations. Interested participants should send a short letter outlining their background and why they should be one of the three chosen for this. Any samples of existing work would be appreciated. All of this goes to Steve Wadhams, CBC Radio, Room 3F402, Toronto Broadcasting Centre. This is a great opportunity and I look forward to hearing the final results of this documentary initiative.