Illustrated Radio

I really enjoyed reading this (graphic) novel for a better word. It was written to keep the reader engaged and made all the points and tips about radio understandable and tangible. There are two things that really stood out to me once I was finished reading this little cartoon guide. The part about doing interviews and the part about community radio.

Reading the whole anecdote about Canalou really grabbed my attention. Not only was it an interesting story but it interwove tips and illustrations about how to better you interviews and interviewing style. After doing my first project I really realized doing interviews is harder then you might think. Not only do you have to get engaging answers but you have to keep your interviewee on track and focused on the story at hand. The whole Canalou story helped explain how to do these things better and without your interviewee noticing. Ira really emphasizes knowing your end goal and where you want to take the story, knowing the order in which you want the story to be told and keeping to that order. Something I had trouble doing for project 1. I really like how specific he gets with some of his questions so you can really bring out a good answer from you interviewee. Not only are the questions provocative, but they seem like normal questions to ask someone so your interviewee wont be caught off guard.

As for the community radio section I just found it interesting. I listen to the koop a lot and never really thought about how much work must go into the production of the shows. How time and effort must go into the shows and that most of the people are just normal everyday people who enjoy radio. Someone needs to be there as long as they are on air which means Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving. I never realized how much work must go into the station to keep in local, local stories, local music, and local DJs. That doesn't sound like a lot of work but it would be so much easier to just play the hits from the bigger stations then go digging for local music. It would be easier to just tap into a bigger story from a different part of the nation. But people listen to and like the koop because it is an Austin station. The community radio part of the story points all these things out and brings to light just how much work these people put into local stations because the enjoy it.