Claudia Rodriguez Biezunski

Only Here

The “Only Here” podcast provides an intimate look at one of the world’s busiest border crossings, where San Diego and Tijuana meet. Over time, the podcast has attracted an audience on both sides of the border with stories about the culture and creativity forged in this tense region. Hosted by a member of a bilingual hip-hop band in Tijuana, the podcast deepens understanding and connection between listeners on both sides of the border.

Jazz singer Emily Sage at the 2017 launch event for Amplifier

Amplifier

Amplifier is a biweekly podcast that shines a light on Charlotte’s local music scene. More than 500 musicians have submitted their songs and shared their experiences. It features everything from award-winning jazz singers to emerging pop acts, DIY venue owners to established record producers, and beyond. Amplifier was named Charlotte Magazine’s “Best Podcast”, and received a Webby Award for innovation in music/arts podcasting.

Small Studio Sessions

Modeled after NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and KLRU/PBS’s Austin City Limits, Small Studio showcases some of the best bands in Indianapolis, giving local and regional talent a chance to shine. National and regional artists have also performed in WFYI’s Small Studio, with an emphasis on bands and musicians with a connection to public media and/or the Hoosier state. The series is WFYI’s inaugural digital-first program.

Multimedia Utah Government Reporting Project

45 Days is a multimedia reporting project from KUER that covers local government in Salt Lake City and state government in Utah. The project includes a podcast about the 45-day Utah legislative session, an accompanying email, and infographics on kuer.org which compare and contrast candidates and propositions during elections.

San Diegan Allison Justice is applying her green thumb to a very green enterprise.

KPBS Explore Local Content Project

KPBS launched the “Explore” program in 2012 as an experiment to grow the station’s library of local programs while cultivating new, young and diverse talent. Every two years, KPBS opens a community-wide call for content ideas and offers seed funding to create local TV shows, web series and podcasts. The producers retain ownership of their project and are responsible for raising the extra funds needed to stay afloat. The program has spawned four podcasts and more than a dozen TV and web series.

The Bay

The Bay is a local KQED podcast about news and information relevant to the local community. The team has hosted several well-attended live events and has created spaces, both in person and digital, where community members can connect with one another and the podcast. It connects with younger audiences and fills a gap in KQED’s traditional television and radio programming lineup.

Peril and Promise

Peril and Promise: The Challenge of Climate Change is a reporting project from WNET in New York about the impact of climate change.

A Parent’s Guide to Public Schools (2019 Finalist)

A Parent’s Guide to Public Schools is a free magazine-style guide from Voice of San Diego that is distributed to 50,000 families annually. It aids parents in making decisions about their children’s education by providing an overview of every public school’s performance in easy-to-read charts and answering common questions about local public school options.

Matter Mobile

Matter Mobile is a portable, pop-up studio taken to different community events to conduct high-quality audio and video interviews about thorny issues like urban development. The collapsible studio is constructed of wood, soundproofing foam and windows made out of acrylic sheets. This structure offers interviewees more privacy than recording vox pops openly in the field.

Local Switchboard NYC

Local Switchboard NYC is a collective of women who produce multimedia content for and by the communities of New York City’s varied boroughs. Local journalists and community members are trained in audio production so they can cover their own neighborhoods and tell stories often overlooked and underreported by larger media organizations. This new initiative was piloted at WBAI-FM.

Classics for Kids

Cincinnati Public Radio’s Classics for Kids program introduces thousands of children to classical music in a fun way through lesson plans, online games, email newsletters for teachers and parents, partnerships with local music organizations, and events.

WBGO Media Fellows

WBGO Media Fellows is a paid fellowship program that opens the door for a public broadcasting employment experience members of our local community. Each year, two students from Newark are given a “hands on” opportunity to be mentored by our station news team and our Jazz Night in America production team for 8 weeks during the summer. Fellows learn first hand everything from pro tools to podcasting, meeting etiquette to interviewing techniques. They have real time deliverables and are paid a realistic working wage.

Strike a Chord

Strike a Chord is a campaign that aims to bring awareness to local issues in the New York metro area and connect volunteers with opportunities to make a difference.

RadioActive Youth Media

Now in its 16th year, RadioActive is an award-winning youth journalism and radio storytelling workshop at KUOW. Last year, RadioActive served 900 teenagers at 25 schools and community organizations study journalism, sound recording, editing, interviewing, script writing and speaking on the air. The initiative actively recruit participants who are underserved by high quality arts programs, including incarcerated youth, refugees youth, youth in low-income housing.

More to Say podcast

“More to Say” is a conversation between a journalist and a host that elaborates on a local news story, enriched with previously unheard tape and music. “More to Say” asserts that local stories deserve the same attention as national news. 

Sights & Sounds of East Oakland

KALW’s Sights & Sounds of East Oakland is a multi-pronged project that aims to shine a light on creators in a community often mis- or underrepresented in media. Through live community events featuring dance, music, storytelling and visual art, as well as multimedia presentations based on reporting from KALW’s newsmagazine Crosscurrents and community partners like Oakland Voices and East Oakland Youth Development Center, we celebrate grassroots creativity and build new connections within and beyond these communities. The project also encompasses community media training with youth and adults through our partners, and utilizes our Hearken-powered, crowd-sourced journalism project Hey Area to draw coverage and story ideas from East Oakland residents.

Looking Up Podcast

Looking Up is a locally produced podcast created and distributed by Cincinnati Public Radio. Looking Up brings listeners the latest astronomical discoveries, interesting personalities from the science and astronomy worlds and two rotating features in a fun, quick-paced format. Our hosts talk about the planets, stars, the universe and science and technology, plus answer questions from kids and respond to “crank file” correspondences from the Observatory. They throw in some pop culture to bring it all down to Earth.

TriPod: New Orleans at 300

To mark the city’s Tricentennial, WWNO New Orleans Public Radio produced TriPod: New Orleans at 300, a radio series and podcast that explores New Orleans’ lost stories and rich history. TriPod seeks out stories that haven’t yet been told, and voices that haven’t been at the table. TriPod is a collaboration with the Historic New Orleans Collection and the University of New Orleans Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies.

Out of the Blocks

Out of the Blocks is an immersive listening experience built from a mosaic of voices and soundscapes on the streets of Baltimore. In each episode, producers Aaron Henkin and Wendel Patrick make it their mission to meet and interview everyone on a city block.