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To schedule your Sprouts production or for information, contact producer Ursula Ruedenberg
PRODUCING A SHOW FOR SPROUTS
Sprouts provides an excellent way for producers across the country - even the world - to meet, speak, and collaborate. Production is done on a volunteer basis. Any community-based producer or station that contacts us with interest in producing a Sprouts show may do so. Production rotates between stations to feature the variety of unique approaches that exist. We welcome new producers and provide training, support, and feedback via conference calls and other forms of communication.
If there is a program that you have produced locally that you think merits being showcased nationally, consider making it into a Sprouts show. Or if you would like to produce an original show for Sprouts that will bring national attention to an artist, an issue, or a breaking news story contact us also. We maintain a flexible schedule and can accommodate a timely story that needs immediate national attention.
PRODUCING A SPROUTS SHOW IS A SIMPLE PROCESS:
Sprouts is Coordinated and distributed by Pacifica Radio. Coordinator: Ursula Ruedenberg
1. Sample some Sprouts shows in Audioport to get a sense of how the show sounds. Decide if this is for you.
2. Contact the coordinator to pitch your show and agree on an airing date.
3. You will receive an instruction sheet after approval, giving you the script for how to open and close the show and ID it in the middle.
4. Make the show. The content is up to you! You can produce the whole show yourself or you can invite other producers to contribute segments to your show. GRC and NFCB and Pacifica list serves are good places for finding other people to work with. Don't forget Indymedia centers and community radio in other countries as well. Also, check AudioPort to find producers that are working on topics of interest to you. For information on how to access list serves or ideas on how to solicit collaboration from other producers around the country, contact the coordinator. If you need help with anything during production, let us know, too. We'll help.
5. Contact the coordinator on the Monday before showtime to confirm that your show will be ready.
6. Upload your show into AudioPort by Wednesday at 2 PM EST and contact designated Pacifica staff.
7. Provide a written release using our boilerplate for the coordinator to promote your show.
8. Monitor the statistic box, peiodically, in AudioPort, next to the download button for your show, to see how many people are downloading your show! Sprouts shows are often treated as evergreens by station who do not regularly air it, so statistics will climb significantly during the first two weeks and then continue to climb slowly but steadily throughout the next 6 months.
Below is an example of the instructions you will be sent when making a Sprouts show. This is not a complete checklist. If you decide to make a Sprouts show, please contact the coordinator for complete instructions.
SPROUTS PRODUCTIONS INSTRUCTIONS
Sprouts doesn't have paid staff to undo confusion. So the glue that makes this show work is collaboration and cooperation. It is essential to adhere to the conventions and procedures given below to hold Sprouts together.
Pease read all of this document and please remember to make a written release using the model for a release on page 3! Do not forget to do this.
Good luck, and enjoy. Thank you for contributing to Sprouts. Let us know when you would like to contribute again! If you know of someone who could make a valuable contribution to Sprouts, tell them to contact Ursula.
If you have questions or need help, there are many of us here to help. Contact Ursula@pacifica.org 718-857-2394, cell: 510-812-7989.
Sprout is distributed via the Pacifica satellite and is also downloaded by stations from AudioPort. If you wish to put it somewhere else as well, that's okay with us.
Sprouts producers have a list serve. If you wish to join, contact Ursula and she will invite you. It is sparse and will not clog up your mailbox.
Editing Your Show
Upload deadline is Wednesday at 2:00PM EST
Target length for entire show: 29 minutes
Encode final result as a mono 44.1 kHz 64 kbps (or higher- most prefer 128) .mp3 file
Content: Your show can include segments from producers from other stations. This is Sprouts signature sound and we encourage this. However, it is not required if your own segment utilizes the entire 29 minute of Sprouts.
If you include segments from other producers in your show:
Find out the length of their segment(s). Be sure, in your script, to introduce their segments and credit them. Credit them at the out-tro of the show as well, at the end of the show.
Send them the "encode final result" info (given above).
Tell them to upload their sound for you to retrieve in the Sprouts workroom at http://audioport.org. Tell them to log in as:
Email: sprouts@pacifica.org
Password: [contact Ursula]
Important - Tell them to check the box on up load page step 3 (top left) that designates this as for the private workroom. If they have questions about how to upload their sound into AudioPort, have them call or write Ursula.
You can download their segment to edit into you show, using the same passwords, given above.
Intro & outro.
To listen to a sample Sprouts shows, go here .
Opening: (Theme music with fade-out) "Welcome to Sprouts, radio from the grassroots, a weekly program that showcases the stories and radio productions from this and many other community stations across the country."(Many people put some teaser sound from their program in here)
"I'm (your name) of (station) in (city), (state). Today on Sprouts, we focus on (topic and billboards)."
Midtro: (between segments at or close to 15 minutes): "You're listening to Sprouts, radio from the grassroots, a weekly newsmagazine produced by this community station and many others across the country."
Closing: "That's it for Sprouts. You have been listening to (People and topic of your show) Our contributors this week included (name of each segment contributor and their station, city and state). Production assistance came from (name, station, city and state, if any production assistance was given from some other source than the named producer). Sprouts is distributed and coordinated by Pacifica Radio Network. Thanks to Michael Yoshida at satellite operations. If you or someone at your station has a radio production that you wish to rebroadcast on Sprouts, to showcase it nationally, contact our air traffic controller, Ursula Ruedenberg, at u-r-s-u-l-a @ pacifica.org. that's u-r-s-u-l-a @ pacifica.org " This week's producer was (name, station, city and state, if different from host's name). I'm (host's name) in (location). See you next week on Sprouts.
(Theme music comes up from under closing)
Sprouts theme song: Use with into, outro, midtro. Listen to & use a sample Sprouts show as a model.
Please check the sound levels throughout your program before uploading!!!!!!!
When You Are Finished Editing and Ready to Upload the Show:
Name your show file in your computer: Sprouts: (Your Title for Your Show) ik
Example: Sprouts: Voices of Resistance
Upload the file into AudioPort.org
Contact Ursula Ruedenberg for login and password.
Please use another sprouts show page as an format model to follow.
File label (first question asked during uploading show) should be: Sprouts
File Name (second question) will be found by the browser in your computer (see above)
In the notes, please include what date (always a Thursday) your satellite uplink is scheduled for. You can add as much text as you wish under notes.
Deadline for uploading show: Wednesday 2PM EST
Make a Release and send to satellite crew by 2PM EST Wednesday:
Feel free to send your release to anyone you want but be sure to send the release to:
Ursula@pacifica.org (I send release to stations)
engineering@kpfa.org (Michael Yoshida, satellite operator, downloads the show from AudioPort and uplinks it to the satellite)
affpac@yahoogroups.com (if you are on this list serve)
If you miss the upload time, please write or call Ursula and tell us what's going on. We will work with you.
Up-link time is not until Thursday at noon eastern time, so please don't dismiss the satellite if you miss the upload deadline. We will lose our place on the satellite if we do not use it responsibly, and the satellite is valuable for getting us in to some big listening areas.
The early upload deadline allows the satellite crew time to do what they need to do. They give Sprouts special treatment as a courtesy to the affiliate program. They need cooperation and clear communication from us.
Below is a boilerplate release, to use as a model for your release. Stations are accustomed to looking for these releases and the information they include.
This Week on Sprouts:
TITLE
PRODUCER, HOST STATION, STATION LOCATION
Left KU Channel
DAY, DATE, 3PM EST
Total time 29:00 minutes
Download as broadcast quality .mp3 after Wednesday at 2PM EST:
http://www.audioport.org
Go to Weekly programs and click on: NAME GIVEN TO FILE, Or search Sprouts
This week's Sprouts edition is produced at STATION in LOCATION by PRODUCER,
Music by: IDENTIFY MUSIC IF YOU INCLUDE OTHER MUSIC BESIDES SPROUTS THEME
DESCRIPTION OF SHOW. INCLUDE TOPIC(S), NAMES OF WHO IS FEATURED IN INTERVIEWS, NAMES OF OTHER CONTRIBUTING PRODUCERS.
Sprouts is a weekly program that showcases production at independent radio stations and other grassroots media groups. It is produced collaboratively between Pacifica and community radio stations across the country.
The program is offered free of charge to all radio stations and welcomes submissions from producers in independent media. For information or to submit work, contact Ursula Ruedenberg at: ursula@pacifica.org.
Sample Release
This week's Sprouts: Voices of Resistance
Produced by:
Debbie Lienhart, KRFC, Fort Collins, CO
Elizabeth Robinson, KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
Keith Rozendahl, KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
Left KU Channel
Thursday, April 14, 2005 3PM EST
TRT: 29:00
Download as broadcast quality .mp3: http://audioport.org
either use search work "Sprouts" - or go to Weekly Shows and choose
sound file: "Sprouts: Voices of Resistance"
This week's stories:
This week we will hear the voices of some who have turned courage into social action in the service of social justice.
Robert F. and Mabel Williams, producers of Radio Free Dixie and the newspaper The Crusade and Radio Free Dixie, were important figures in the Black struggle for self-defense and self-determination in the United States from the 1950's through the 1970's. The following excerpt is from a forthcoming documentary produced by and available from The Freedom Archives, info@freedomarchives.org
Mary Agnes Lewis is an anthropologist in Oakland, California. She is a teacher, an intellectual, but above all an activist for social justice. She talks about her experiences as one of a handful of Black students at the University of California in the early 1960s who, of necessity, created an intellectual community of resistance.
On Thursday evening, December first, 1955, a tired seamstress became the mother of the modern-day civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus. Rosa Parks tells her story of what happened on the bus and in the days to follow in this piece from the Pacifica Radio Archives.
Sprouts is a weekly program produced in collaboration with community radio stations and independent producers across the country that features local radio production from many radio stations and local media groups. The program is offered free of charge to all radio stations. For information, or if you would like to feature your work on Sprouts, contact Ursula Ruedenberg at ursula@pacifica.org.
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