This summer's six week trip back to wonderful Winston-Salem, NC is drawing to a close and I have had the best time meeting new people and helping 88.5 WFDD running their Radio Camp programs for middle school and high school students.
Radio Camp is a fantastic program which allows middle school students a first look into the world of NPR radio broadcasting. It lasts just one week, but by the end the campers have each produced their own radio story which they can take home and keep. The stories are also broadcast on air and published on the WFDD website. How many kids can claim to be published radio journalists before their fourteenth birthday?? To start with they learn about how to conduct and interview, using mobile recorders and about working with digital audio. They are each given an interesting local person to interview, this year we had a national television host and a former MLB All-Star pitcher to name two, and they conduct their interviews independently. Once the interview process is complete it's back to the digital audio production, learning about narration and producing a final product which is shared during a listening party at the end of the last day!
Rock Radio Camp has also just finished, aimed at older kids (up to eighteen) this camp focuses on live music with additional radio journalism elements. The main event happened on the Thursday of camp when the campers put on a live lunchtime show for the public at The Garage in downtown Winston-Salem. The band Aquatic Ceremony played six songs split over two short sets. Campers were split in to two teams with half interviewing the band In between sets while the other half worked the sound desk, before switching roles halfway through, allowing everyone to have a go at each element.
Overall, it Radio Camp has been a hugely positive experience for me, helping the campers and watching them learning and enjoying themselves has been a lot of fun. I really hope that circumstances will allow me to be involved again next year!
Radio Camp is a fantastic program which allows middle school students a first look into the world of NPR radio broadcasting. It lasts just one week, but by the end the campers have each produced their own radio story which they can take home and keep. The stories are also broadcast on air and published on the WFDD website. How many kids can claim to be published radio journalists before their fourteenth birthday?? To start with they learn about how to conduct and interview, using mobile recorders and about working with digital audio. They are each given an interesting local person to interview, this year we had a national television host and a former MLB All-Star pitcher to name two, and they conduct their interviews independently. Once the interview process is complete it's back to the digital audio production, learning about narration and producing a final product which is shared during a listening party at the end of the last day!
Rock Radio Camp has also just finished, aimed at older kids (up to eighteen) this camp focuses on live music with additional radio journalism elements. The main event happened on the Thursday of camp when the campers put on a live lunchtime show for the public at The Garage in downtown Winston-Salem. The band Aquatic Ceremony played six songs split over two short sets. Campers were split in to two teams with half interviewing the band In between sets while the other half worked the sound desk, before switching roles halfway through, allowing everyone to have a go at each element.
Overall, it Radio Camp has been a hugely positive experience for me, helping the campers and watching them learning and enjoying themselves has been a lot of fun. I really hope that circumstances will allow me to be involved again next year!