Next Generation Radio

This year, Next Gen Radio will have a total EIGHT boot-camps around the country, returning to where we were before "The Great Recession" and the elimination of the program by NPR in 2008. This program has existed since 2000 when I went to Yahoo Domains and bought (rented) several iterations of next generation radio for what I call "cybersquatting." I wasn't going to use them, but I didn't want anyone else to use them either. I still do this today so don't tell anyone :)

Some history: Traci Tong is fond of calling us "The Antiques Roadshow," having worked together training students for more than 20 years. Next Gen was named in 2000 by me, because I could. I was producing a news-magazine at NPR so the training was at first a side hustle. We were shooting video, photos and producing stories for web-based streaming long before it because what it is today. I was using iMovie when it first came out so I could shoot, edit and post video files of my then boss, talking about how to pitch a story or one of our engineers talking about how to get good sound....on a cassette. Serious. Back then, there was no YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat. Facebook was for students-only. There was no universal broadband, WiFi was beginning to take off and yet, we were what they now call "digital-first." NPR stations were extremely hesitant to put any student work on the air. So, we built sites in each location, I brought in an NPR staffer who knew how to build sites (even tho' it wasn't her day-job) and our "M.A.S.H" unit approach to student training was born.

Guess what happened on the way to the analog gatekeeping? What was once highly radical has now become normal and anyone can produce anything at anytime and the cost of doing such is almost nominal.

I like to brag about my people so here are some alums of this program:
Lee Hill, Managing Editor, Digital New York Public Radio
Nicole Beemsterboer, Senior Producer NPR Investigations, Washington DC
Latoya Dennis, Reporter, WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio
Erika Solomon, Middle East Correspondent, Financial Times of London, Beirut, Lebanon
Rita Garcia, Morning Anchor, Fox 26 Houston Texas
Christopher Nelson, Assignment Editor, NBC News New York, New York.
Gabriela Saldivia, News Assistant, NPR Washington DC
Shereen Marisol Meraji, Reporter NPR's "Codeswitch" Culver City CA
Celeste Headlee, Host, "On Second Thought" Georgia Public Broadcasting, Atlanta GA
Audie Cornish, Co-Host, "All Things Considered" NPR Washington DC.

Oh yes.