Soggy Musings of Day Two in a Dimly-Lit Starbucks

Yesterday after our sessions had ended, a few of us wandered into the Church of Scientology. Needless to say, this could be one for the grandchildren. However, since this blog is principally for our sessions, this story shall have to wait for another post.

The first session of the morning was by far the most enlightening look into the current state of the recording arts industry that I've encountered since Lars Ulrich's legal assault on his Napsterite fans. Samantha Murphy's 10am "P2P: An Artist's Perspective" was quite inspiring in that many of the points she brought up were entirely relevant and at times eye-opening. Murphy, the host of one of the oldest artist-driven podcasts on the 'Net, is entirely free of record label influence and has turned down a recording contract. She is turning her website smtvmusic.com into a legal filesharing website for college students to experience new music from both signed and unsigned artists who have pledged their support of this project. The basic message of her session is that we as broadcasters need to fight to keep the Internet free so that artists can continue to release their art.

The 11am "Ins and Outs of Resumes" session was jam-packed with those eager to make their resumes better and more noticeable. In a fiercely-competitive job market, having a resume that lists your flexibility and willingness to venture into any avenue of journalism is a must as the profession continues its dramatic change. Basically, showing off your strengths can become a plus when you're being considered for a job.

The noon "Truth About Jobs and Internships" session dealt with your options in searching for either a job or internship. It was hit hard on us that experience when looking for both internships and jobs are an absolute must; I'm still unsure if I want to continue toward a Broadcasting degree or if I want to switch to News-Editorial, for I enjoy writing immensely but I also enjoy certain aspects of broadcast production as well. However, I think I'll go for internships in both areas just in case. In this session I learned that for print internships/jobs, campus experience isn't the only experience you should have. Time to get cracking ^_^

The 1pm "Sum of All Fears" session was quite informative, as it dealt with listener reactions to the September 11 attacks and the 2004 Hurricane season. Ned Waugaman from Arbitron (the radio equivalent to the Nielsen television ratings) stated that in general, listeners were very pleased with the radio coverage of the September 11 attacks and radio was the preferred source of information during the 2004 hurricane season.

More soon
-Richelle Stephens

P2P: An Artist's Perspective

I was actually really excited to attend this session. Not only was the speaker, Samantha Murphy, a singer/songwriter, but also she has interviewed one of my favorite musicians, Elvis Perkins. Importunely, this session was not printed in the original booklet, which is why only about 8 people showed up. Murphy had a very interesting view on artist and their promotional need.

Murphy has created not only her own podcast, but also a website (SMtvMusic.com) that is a legal alternative to file sharing. This site is made for the "poor" college student to be able to listen to new artist without paying the huge corporate record companies. Basically what she is doing is providing free publicity for bands that she believes are talented enough to be in the public eye.

She had some very good ideas, but I did agree with her on some of her ideas. For instance, her views on record companies are that the larger companies steal from their artist, which they do. A band makes about $2 or maybe a little more off their CD. Larger companies are also more prone to control their artist. I know bands that had to change most of their songs and clothes in order to comply with the label's standards. However, there are record companies who are doing it right. I brought up the point of Saddle Creek Records, a closely-knit record company out of Omaha, NE. Getting a Saddle Creek artist at KNWD is like Christmas for me. The label is mainly artist run and is most likely one of the fairest labels out in today's society.

I think it is good to have someone like Murphy in that industry that is in it to truly benefit the artist and also college students.


Mary Manno

College Broadcasting and the FCC

Talking about rules and regulations may not be the most exciting thing to discuss at 9 a.m., but I figured I should attend this session due to some recent problems at KNWD. FCC commissioner Michael Copps really did not get into specific regulations for radio stations. Instead, he concentrated on the future of radio stations and how it can affect broadcasters. Most people know that you can travel across the country, and hear the same 50 or so songs playing on different radio stations. That is the main reason I stay clear of corporate radio stations and throw in a CD. I can only stand to hear Sean Kingston on needed occasions. Copps related this problem to radio stations owning a lot of other stations. This problem is making all stations generic. Localism is being taken out of the stations. Stations no longer have to prove to the FCC that they are meeting the public interest. The old rules required stations to come in every 3 years, where they would answer many questions to make sure they are serving their purpose as a station. That rule now only requires stations to return a post card sent out by the FCC every eight years.

Mary Manno

Intro to Underwriting

In all honesty, this session made me a little sad. One of the instructors talked about how strict they were on their staff. After one excused absence at the station (as in missing their shift without notifying a manager ahead of time) they received a warning. The second time they lost their shift, because 700 students were on a waiting list to fill that spot. I wish somehow students would get that excited about KNWD! I cannot even imagine a waiting list that long! I did take note that deejays were dismissed for missing their shifts, since it can be a problem at our station.

The main thing discussed in this session was how to create an effective media kit to send out to advertisers. The main thing to remember is to keep it simple and client-centered. We also learned about effective times to contact certain businesses in order to make an ad sell.

Mary Manno

First impressions of our nation's capitol ... a day late

As this was my first visit to Washington D.C., I couldn't help but peer out of the window of the airplane when we began our descent into Reagan National. The brake lights of afternoon traffic pockmarked the soaked streets of our nation's capital...unfortunately we would encounter traffic of our own. We happened to board the Metro subway right as Washington's corporate bees left their metaphorical hive. Apparently masses of people crammed into tiny subway cars bring out the worst of people in this city. Regardless, this has been quite an educationally valuable trip (more on the visual spectacle later) as we attended our first sessions today.


At 9 a.m., I attended the "Whither Magazines" session with National Geographic magazine's Keith Bellows, who discussed the future of magazines. He essentially stated that reinvention must occur if magazines are to survive. Writers must become more well-rounded in terms of what they can do for the publication; they must be willing to write for the print and online mediums. They must be willing to produce narratives that engross the reader.

At the 10 a.m. "Intro to Underwriting" session with NPR's J.C. Patrick, we explored the basics of radio kits to present to potential advertising clients. Radio kits should be personal and user-friendly to the prospective and should sell a benefit -- not a feature -- to the prospective client.

At the 11 a.m. 'Breaking into Magazines" session, we learned that query letters really help gain the attention of magazines to your story, as many submissions lack a query letter and magazines have little time to sort through them all. The session was focused heavily on the query letter. We also learned that if we wanted to start submitting now, it's all right to state that we're still writing for our school's newspaper.

The 12 p.m. "College Press 101" was a basic outline of significant court cases involving student journalists with follow-up on how it affects us today. The SPLC's Adam Goldstein was very knowledgeable of his craft, as he deals with the bulk of calls from student journalists to the SPLC; he said that he deals with at least 1,000 calls per year, which surprised me a bit.

Perhaps the most energetic session of the day was hosted by Jason Levine. The 1 p.m. session by the self-proclaimed evangelist for Adobe software was filled with exhibitions of his "prowess". Oohs and aahs serenaded his glowing ponytailed and mutton-chopped aura after he made a seagull disappear from a video clip in the Adobe After Effects program. I was personally engrossed in the new software that enables users to make their videos suitable for broadcast on everything from cell phones to YouTube.

More on the sights and sounds of D.C. in a later post. My fingers hurt.

--Richelle Stephens