Youth Radio

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Youth Radio was founded in 1990 on the deeply held belief that underserved youth, ages 14-24 years old, have the creativity, technical skills and entrepreneurial spirit to become leaders in the multi-media industry and the community and to serve as mentors to other youth.

The heart of its pioneering efforts is to train young people from under-resourced public schools, community-based organizations, group homes and juvenile detention centers in broadcast journalism, media production and cutting-edge technology. Youth Radio offers professional development and technical skills training absolutely free of charge with the aim of preparing young people for pathways to meaningful careers. Youth Radio graduates leave with the soft and hard skills necessary to land jobs with employers from KCBS and KQED to the Port of Oakland and Google.

Each year Youth Radio introduces diverse groups of students to a broad spectrum of media-related careers and state-of-the-art technology. Its program goals are to strengthen basic life-skills, motivate them to graduate from high school and attend a two or four year university and prepare them for multi-media and other careers in the 21st Century Marketplace.

Youth Radio currently trains 1,300 youth each year to develop core competencies in audio, video, web and print and to produce the highest quality original media for the widest range of mainstream outlets. Its reporters are heard worldwide through radio, video and the Internet and through print media.

Seventeen years ago San Francisco’s KQED broadcast Youth Radio’s first two minute youth commentary. Today, more than 300 Youth Radio reports and commentaries are broadcast each year on National Public Radio programs such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on-line outlets like CNN.com and iTunes and on public radio stations across the country. An estimated 27 million people hear and read the often overlooked perspectives of young people through Youth Radio’s work each year.

Youth Radio has become nationally and internationally known as a cutting edge youth development and media organization, weaving the fast end of the ‘digital curve’ with best practices and innovation in community based education. Youth Radio has received prestigious awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

Series

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2 Pieces

The Peabody Award winning investigation into child prostitution in Oakland, CA.

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10 Pieces

Youth Radio participants share their personal experiences in a commentary on issues that are important to them.

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5 Pieces

Youth Radio's the Best of What's the New What? is a great end-of-year round roundup of the most interesting and provocative trends from 2008. The series includes five stories from Youth Radio's popular weekly NPR series "What's the New What?" This series asks what new trends in youth culture are replacing old trends. In short: What's the New What?


Pieces

Caption: Youth Radio reporter Ayesha Walker., Credit: Youth Radio
In an age when handguns are bought and sold for less than twenty-dollars on urban street corners and the price of a human life sometimes seems even...

Bought by PRX Remix and WMNF


  • Added: Dec 08, 2008
  • Length: 03:34
  • Purchases: 2
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When gas prices shot past 4 dollars a gallon this year, commentator King Anyi Howell noticed that no longer were parental curfews curtailing his fu...

Bought by WMNF


  • Added: Dec 08, 2008
  • Length: 02:49
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Youth Radio Reporter Pendarvis Harshaw., Credit: Ayesha Walker
Youth Radio's Pendarvis Harshaw says that for a lot of his friends, the transition from having sex with a condom to sex without, is seen as a symbo...

Bought by WMNF and WMNF


  • Added: Dec 05, 2008
  • Length: 03:03
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A first-person report on the abuse of Attention Deficit Drugs by college students.

Bought by WITF, WMNF, WBEZ, WXLV-FM, YouthCast and more


  • Added: Feb 10, 2006
  • Length: 04:02
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A report on Abu Ghraib and young service members using photography to document their experiences in Iraq.

Bought by WMPG, KUOW, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Feb 10, 2006
  • Length: 04:16
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Corporal Chris Kotch reflects on returning from war with a serious injury.

Bought by WABE, KVMR, KRFC, WSCS-FM, WMPG and more


  • Added: Feb 10, 2006
  • Length: 02:24
  • Purchases: 11
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Youth Radio's Irie Reyes brings listeners the stories of three African American soldiers.

Bought by WGBH Radio Boston, KUOW, KFAI Minneapolis, WFUV, and WAMC Northeast Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 10, 2006
  • Length: 05:45
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A young marine reflects on returning to college after serving in Iraq.

Bought by KUOW, KFAI Minneapolis, and WSCS-FM


  • Added: Feb 10, 2006
  • Length: 02:49
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: PRX default Piece image
Marissa's ode to her Grandma

Bought by KVNF, WGXC, and PRX


  • Added: Dec 20, 2005
  • Length: 03:47
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: PRX default Piece image
A young mom celebrates Christmas far from home.

Bought by KMXT, KAWC / Border Radio - KOFA, WTJU, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WTJU and more


  • Added: Dec 20, 2005
  • Length: 03:22
  • Purchases: 14