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Playlist: Third Coast Competition Winners

Compiled By: PRX Editors

 Credit:
Curated Playlist
The Third Coast/RHDF Competition is now open for submissions. Here are some of the winners from past years!

The Third Coast International Audio Festival hosts the annual TCF/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition to honor "creative and compelling audio work being produced worldwide."

Here are some of the winning pieces from the annual competition. For the complete list of winners, visit the Third Coast Festival website.

2016 Winners

A Life Sentence: Victims, Offenders, Justice, and My Mother

From Atlantic Public Media | Part of the The Transom Radio Specials series | 58:00

This is a story about a terrible crime and everything that followed. It’s an intensely personal documentary, but it extends into public life and into the heart of our political and correctional systems.

Some stories take a long time. This one is an hour long and took two and a half years to produce, after twenty years of living with it.

Ls_prximage_small

In the opening of this documentary, Samantha Broun says:

In 1994, my mother was the victim of a violent crime. She was 55 years old and living alone in Nyack, New York.  On the evening of September 21st a stranger came into her backyard. The stranger attacked her from behind. Five hours later, he left her lying on her bed. Hands and feet bound with tape. Alive. She survived.  

I suppose I could start this story with how the system failed. Or with McFadden’s family in Philadelphia. I could start with the thousands of prisoners whose hopes for a second chance were obliterated because of what McFadden did in 1994. Or I could tell you about the political careers both launched and destroyed. But instead I think I’ll save those parts and start where I usually start which is with my mother.

Produced for Transom.org  

 


Transom.org
  channels new work and voices to public radio, with a focus on the power of story, and on the mission of public media in a changing media environment. Transom won the first Peabody Award ever granted exclusively to a website. Transom.org is a project of Atlantic Public Media which runs the Transom Story Workshops and founded WCAI, the public radio station in Woods Hole, Mass.



Support for this work comes from National Endowment for the Arts 
 

 

National Endowment for the Arts


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203: Do not drink: The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, 1/23/2016

From Reveal | Part of the Reveal Weekly series | 58:58

The economically depressed city of Flint, Michigan, is making headlines across the country because there’s something in its water that shouldn’t be there.

You may have heard about the problems in Flint: about how the tap water can be brownish, stinky, funny-tasting. After denying there was a problem for months, state and city officials finally discovered the cause – there was lead in the water.

On this hour of Reveal, you’re going to hear the whole story of how people in Flint went from trusting their tap water to fearing it. And thanks to Michigan Radio’s Lindsey Smith, who produced an incredible documentary called “Not Safe to Drink,” we dive right in.

Revealprx_small

One mother’s quest to put a cap on toxic tap water

What do you do when the water’s not safe to drink, bathe in or even swim in?

Lee Anne Walters, a mother of four who lived on the south side of Flint, Michigan, turned to bottled water. That’s right – store-bought bottles and jugs of water used for everything from cooking to brushing teeth.

She took those extreme measures after her kids started getting sick.

After a bout of rashes found on her twin boys, Lee Anne went on a mission to find out what was behind the eruption of spots. Doctor’s visits weren’t helpful, and it wasn’t until Lee Anne noticed that the breakouts were occurring after bath time or swimming in the pool that she made the connection. Eventual water tests revealed extremely high lead levels.

This worried mother went into action and ended up changing everything about how the water crisis in Flint was handled.

How cheap water led to a state of emergency

People in Flint, Michigan, started complaining about their tap water in the summer of 2014, not long after the city stopped pumping its drinking water from Detroit.

It had started pumping water from the Flint River – it was the cheapest option at the time.

But there were problems right off the bat: Residents said the water was brown or reddish; it stank; it tasted weird. On top of all that, four months after the switch, the city detected E. coli in the water.

“How does this happen in the United States?” Flint resident and mother Lee Anne Walters asked. “I mean, you hear about it in Third World countries, but how does this happen, specifically in a state that is surrounded by the Great Lakes?”

It’s a good question.

Michigan Radio reporter Lindsey Smith continues her investigation into Flint’s water crisis by looking back to 2013 for answers.

Michigan forced to face the poisonous problem in Flint

As state officials continued to downplay the lead risk to Flint’s children, last August, research scientists from Virginia Tech got involved. They warned people in the Michigan city to stop drinking the tap water.

Tests showed high levels of lead in that water – and lead is especially harmful to young children. It can lead to conditions such as a lower IQ and attention problems. And once that lead gets into a kid’s blood, the damage is done. You can’t reverse it.

In this story, we’ll hear from the researchers and meet a Flint pediatrician who risked her reputation to change the city’s course.


Reveal is a weekly radio program produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. For more, check out our website and subscribe to our podcast.


2014 Winners

Teenage Diaries Revisited: Melissa

From Radio Diaries | Part of the Teenage Diaries Revisited series | 19:36

As an 18-year-old raised in the foster care system, Melissa took NPR listeners along when she gave birth to her son Isaaiah. Over the past 16 years Melissa and her son have faced many challenges, from eviction notices to her son’s life-threatening medical diagnosis. In her new diary, Melissa chronicles her life as a working single mother, and reveals things about her past that her son has never known.

Melissa_thumbnail_small As an 18 year old raised in the foster care system, Melissa took NPR listeners along when she gave birth to her son Isaaiah. Over the past 16 years Melissa and her son have faced many challenges, from eviction notices to her son’s life-threatening medical diagnosis. In her new diary, Melissa chronicles her life as a working single mother, and reveals things about her past that her son has never known. (You can also listen to Melissa's two Teenage Diaries on PRX.)

Here I Am and Here Be Danger (Censored)

From Annie McEwen | 11:45

An experiment in heartbreak, this piece was selected for PRX's first ever Second Ear.

Danger_small Here I Am and Here Be Danger was funded by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council. 

The Hospital Always Wins

From Al Letson | Part of the State of the Re:Union: Season Four series | 53:56

In this special hour from State of the Re:Union, we take listeners to a place that exists in every American city… but most of us have never seen the inside of it. Back in 2004, SOTRU producer Laura Starecheski visited a state mental hospital in Queens, New York, called Creedmoor. She met an artist there named Issa Ibrahim. He had no perceptible symptoms: he was talented, charismatic, funny, engaging. To be blunt, he just didn’t seem like your typical long-term mental patient. But he’d been at Creedmoor for more than ten years already, with little hope of getting out. Why was Issa still stuck in the hospital?  Laura’s quest to uncover Issa’s story took almost a decade. In this special episode, State of the Re:Union takes a close-up look at love, guilt and forgiveness, revealing both the brightest and the darkest parts of human nature.     

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State of the Re:Union
The Hospital Always Wins

Host: Al Letson
Producer: Laura Starecheski

In this special hour from State of the Re:Union, we take listeners to a place that exists in every American city… but most of us have never seen the inside of it. Back in 2004, SOTRU producer Laura Starecheski visited a state mental hospital in Queens, New York, called Creedmoor. She met an artist there named Issa Ibrahim. He had no perceptible symptoms: he was talented, charismatic, funny, engaging. To be blunt, he just didn’t seem like your typical long-term mental patient. But he’d been at Creedmoor for more than ten years already, with little hope of getting out. Why was Issa still stuck in the hospital?  Laura’s quest to uncover Issa’s story took almost a decade. In this special episode, State of the Re:Union takes a close-up look at love, guilt and forgiveness, revealing both the brightest and the darkest parts of human nature.     


BILLBOARD (:59)
Incue: From PRX and WJCT...
Outcue: After the news.

News Hole: 1:00-6:00

SEGMENT A (12:29)
Incue: From WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida
Outcue: on State of the Re:Union. 

Laura meets Issa Ibrahim in 2004, at a Creedmoor arts program called The Living Museum.  Issa won’t tell Laura the reason he was sent to Creedmoor.  All she knows is that he has no contact with  his family, and he’s been at Creedmoor for over a decade.  But then he gives Laura a cd of his songs, recorded in his room on the ward, and the puzzle starts to come together: maybe Issa is at Creedmoor because he is his own worst enemy? Six years after they meet, Issa finally reveals his past to Laura.  His story begins at his childhood home in Queens, when he was the child of an artist and a musician.  The whole Ibrahim family was banking on Issa’s talent as an artist.  But his chaotic but promising childhood turned dark when Issa’s father, a jazz musician, passed away.  We hear from Issa’s brother Ishak and sister Karen on his decline into delusion and paranoia.

SEGMENT B (18:59)
Incue: I'm Al Letson
Outcue: on State of the Re:Union.


Issa’s story continues with a fateful night in February 1990 when he hears voices for the first time, and what they are telling him leads him to do something unthinkable.  In a fit of psychosis, Issa kills his own mother. When Issa ends up in front of a judge in a courtroom, he takes a plea: not guilty by reason of insanity.  He eventually ends up at Creedmoor, where he has no sentence and no release date.  We hear from several doctors who assessed Issa as his story unfolds.  As Issa struggles to learn the rules, he feels the pull of his destiny returning: maybe he can still be a great artist.  But making art, much of it provocative, and seeking out romantic relationships… attempting to live a semblance of a normal life inside the hospital… only buries him deeper.  And just as Issa begins to forgive himself for his crime, his case at the hospital has ground to a halt.  He has little hope of release.  

SEGMENT C (18:59)
Incue: I'm Al Letson and you're listening to
Outcue: to bring them back together. (music tail)


By 2002, Issa had been locked away for over ten years. When a new forensic director started working at Creedmoor, and was asked to do a brand-new assessment of him, he saw a potential turn-around in his case.  But the assessment labeled him ‘dangerous’, and despite years of good behavior, Issa’s future seems as hopeless as ever.  Left with no other options, Issa uses the money he’s saved from selling his paintings from inside the hospital to hire his own doctor, and after years of pushing, he finally gets his day in court.  We hear from several doctors and the presiding judge about the court hearings where Issa petitions for his freedom.  In 2009, the judge grants Issa a conditional release from Creedmoor, and he lives at a halfway house on the hospital grounds for four years before winning permission to move into his own apartment for the first time in his adult life.  Then, Issa must contend with life in the outside world.  Will his family ever forgive him?  Can Issa ever really forgive himself?

PROGRAM OUT @ 59:00

The Hospital Always Wins is available on PRX without charge to all public radio stations, and may be aired an unlimited number of times prior to January 31, 2017. The program may be streamed live on station websites but not archived. Excerpting is permitted for promotional purposes only.

State of the Re:Union is presented by WJCT and distributed by PRX.  Major funding for the State of the Re:Union comes from CPB, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Delores Barr Weaver Fund at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.

Thanks for your consideration of State of the Re:Union with Al Letson. 

 

Leaving A Mark (Censored)

From Emily Hsiao | 13:13

Emily Hsiao finds a man on Craigslist who wants his swastika tattoo covered up. And then she goes and meets him.

**This is the clean version of the story. Expletives have been censored.**

Bruce_s_tattooprx_small Emily Hsiao finds a man on Craigslist who wants his swastika tattoo covered up. And then she goes and meets him. **This is the clean version of the story. Expletives have been censored.**


2013 Winners

Best of the Best: The 2013 Third Coast Festival Broadcast and Promo

From Third Coast International Audio Festival | 01:58:00

These are the promos for Best of the Best. They both include a 5 second tail. Each year The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program hosted by award-winning writer, producer and humorist, Gwen Macsai. *NOTE: the actual broadcast will be available on November 18th.

Tcf_award_small

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program, Best of the Best: The 2013 Third Coast Festival Broadcast.

The featured documentaries, all winners of the 13th annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, demonstrate just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories will engage, provoke, entertain, and transport listeners, proving that all you need to discover new worlds is...a little box and an antenna. In addition to these memorable stories, Best of the Best includes interviews with winning producers Kenny Malone, Alicia Zuckerman, Tim Howard, Linda Lutton and Alex Kotlowitz who give us a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling.

Best of the Best may be presented in a number of ways, as a two hour program, or as two one-hour programs. Stations may also air just one hour.


Remembering Andrew

From WLRN | 58:31

20 years ago today (August 24th) Hurricane Andrew turned South Florida upside down. In this hour-long documentary, WLRN uses home videos, archival news footage, 911 calls, personal recollections and even a bureaucratic document from the British consul general in Miami to tell the story of Hurricane Andrew.

The documentary follows two main characters each changed by the storm in their own profound way: Jenny Del Campo, a typical teenager living in southern Dade County and Bryan Norcross, a TV weatherman.

Playing
Remembering Andrew
From
WLRN

Remembering_andrew_small 20 years ago today (August 24th) Hurricane Andrew turned South Florida upside down. In this hour-long documentary, WLRN uses home videos, archival news footage, 911 calls, personal recollections and even a bureaucratic document from the British consul general in Miami to tell the story of Hurricane Andrew. The documentary follows two main characters each changed by the storm in their own profound way: Jenny Del Campo, a typical teenager living in southern Dade County and Bryan Norcross, a TV weatherman.

Parts of Speech

From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 07:28

Doug Harlow isn't afraid to use his voice. He works as reporter in Maine and churns out seven, sometimes eight, articles a week. Doug is a born communicator, but it's not because he has the loudest voice in the room.

Screen_shot_2013-10-25_at_4

Doug Harlow isn't afraid to use his voice.

He was a street poet in Boston and protested the Vietnam War in D.C. There was a time he could say "I love you" in a dozen languages. He works as reporter in Maine and churns out seven, sometimes eight, articles a week. Doug is a born communicator, but it's not because he has the loudest voice in the room.

Parts of Speech  was produced by Emily Kwong , winner of the 2013 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition Best New Artist Award , for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.


2012 Winners

Best of the Best: The 2012 Third Coast Festival Broadcast and Promo

From Third Coast International Audio Festival | 01:58:00

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program, Best of the Best: The 2012 Third Coast Festival Broadcast.

There are two generic promos for Best of the Best, which can be used for both/either hours. Each 30 second promo includes six seconds for your station’s tag. The broadcast will be posted on November 14th.

Tile_botb12_half_small

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program hosted by award-winning writer, producer and humorist, Gwen Macsai.

The featured documentaries, all winners of the 12th annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, demonstrate just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories will engage, provoke, entertain, and transport listeners. In addition to these memorable stories, Best of the Best includes clips from our 2012 awards ceremony and interviews with winning producers Joe Richman, Sue Jaye Johnson, Habiba Nosheen, Brian Reed and Laurence Grissell who give us a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling. You'll also hear from Olympic gold medal winner Claressa Sheilds, subject of the Third Coast gold award-winning story, Teen Contender .

Best of the Best may be presented in a number of ways, as a two hour program, or as two one-hour programs. Stations may also air just one hour.

Living Nine Eleven

From WNYC | Part of the WNYC 9/11 Anniversary Programming series | 59:00

Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, as part of WNYC's "Decade: 9/11" coverage, this special explores people's most visceral and immediate emotional reactions to the attack on the World Trade Center and how they are - and are not -- still with us today.

Playing
Living Nine Eleven
From
WNYC

Wtc_jurfon_small Ten years after the terrorist attacks of September 11th,  as part of WNYC's "Decade: 9/11" coverage, this special explores New Yorkers' most visceral and immediate emotional reactions to the attack on the World Trade Center and how they are - and are not -- still with us today.

Fear and shock, grief and guilt, anger, gratitude and solidarity -- these emotions overwhelmed many New Yorkers along with the billowing cloud of smoke and debris after the Towers collapsed.

WNYC's award-winning news team spent days, months, and then years reporting on the attacks and their aftermath. Through a mix of their recordings at the time and interviews with people ten years later, WNYC reporter Marianne McCune guides us through the stories of people who were directly impacted by what happened and have been struggling for a decade to make sense of it.

For more on WNYC's "Decade Nine Eleven" project, please visit our website:
http://www.wnyc.org/series/911-tenth-anniversary/

Teen Contender

From Radio Diaries | Part of the Teenage Diaries series | 15:53

Boxing has been an Olympic sport since the time of the ancient Greeks. But only men have taken part. This year, that changes. For the first time ever, women will step into the ring at the 2012 summer Olympics in London. One of them is 16-year old Claressa Shields.

Claressa_sm_small

Boxing has been an Olympic sport since the time of the ancient Greeks. But only men have taken part. This year, that changes. For the first time ever, women will step into the ring at the 2012 summer Olympics in London.

One of the Olympic contenders is 16-year old Claressa Shields, a junior at Northwestern High School in Flint, Michigan.

Sue Jaye Johnson and Joe Richman of Radio Diaries followed Claressa as she prepared for the Olympic trials. They also gave her a tape recorder to keep an audio diary of her life. This is her story.

This piece was produced by Joe Richman, Samara Freemark and Sue Jaye Johnson of Radio Diaries, with editors Deborah George and Ben Shapiro.

It’s a collaboration with WNYC’s Women Box Project. You can find photos and more about Claressa Shields – and many other women boxers –  at womenbox.com and radiodiaries.org.

Update: Claressa Shields is currently ranked #2 in the world in her wieght class! Her first Olympic fight will be August 5th.

For more updates follow us on twitter @radiodiaries

 

She Sees Your Every Move

From Jonathan Mitchell | 06:56

Michele Iversen photographs people through the windows of their homes at night without their knowledge.

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While traditional street photography usually catches strangers passing by in a public space, the photographer Michele Iversen has been catching strangers passing by in their own private spaces, without their permission. At night she sits in her car and watches the warm glowing windows of strangers' homes waiting for the perfect shot.

Since 1995 Iversen has been collecting these images for her “Night Surveillance Series.” "I find my theater, you know the actual window," she explains, "and then the performance begins.” She's captured people binge eating, washing dishes, sleeping.

Iversen admits she feels uncomfortable watching her subjects — and wants her audience to be uncomfortable looking at her photographs as well. And yet she continues to make them: “They are like these beautiful tableaux to me, they tell a story — they show peoples lives.”


2011 Winners

Best of the Best: The 2011 Third Coast Festival Broadcast and Promo

From Third Coast International Audio Festival | 01:58:00

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program hosted by Gwen Macsai, "Best of the Best: The 2011 Third Coast Festival Broadcast." Plus two generic (30 second) promos for stations to use in promoting the special.

Stations without paid PRX memberships should contact prxhelp@prx.org for help.

Tc_logo_small

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program, Best of the Best: The 2011 Third Coast Festival Broadcast.

The featured documentaries, all winners of the 11th annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, demonstrate just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories will engage, provoke, entertain, and transport listeners, proving that all you need to discover new worlds is...a little box and an antenna. In addition to these memorable stories, Best of the Best includes interviews with winning producers Nick van der Kolk, Jad Abumrad and Ben Calhoun, who give us a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling.

Best of the Best may be presented in a number of ways, as a two hour program, or as two one-hour programs. Stations may also air just one hour.


Go here to read more about the Best of the Best broadcast http://www.prx.org/thirdcoast

Kohn

From Andy Mills | 08:05

A radio story about the peculiar life and voice of Kohn Ashmore, told by Andy Mills with the sounds of Hudson Branch.

Best New Artist

Playing
Kohn
From
Andy Mills

Kohn_2_small A radio story about the peculiar life and voice of Kohn Ashmore, told by Andy Mills with the sounds of Hudson Branch.


2010 Winners

Best of the Best: The 2010 Third Coast Festival Broadcast and promo

From Third Coast International Audio Festival | 01:57:58

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program, Best of the Best: The 2010 Third Coast Festival Broadcast.

Plus a generic promo for stations to use in promoting the special.

Note! Stations without paid PRX memberships may air this program free of charge. Contact prxhelp@prx.org.

Pidgey_podcast_small

The Third Coast International Audio Festival brings the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the national airwaves in a special two-hour program, Best of the Best: The 2010 Third Coast Festival Broadcast.

The featured documentaries, all winners of the 10th annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, demonstrate just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories will engage, provoke, entertain, and transport listeners, proving that all you need to discover new worlds is...a little box and an antenna. In addition to these memorable stories, Best of the Best includes interviews with the winning producers who give us a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling, and highlights from the 2010 Third Coast Awards Ceremony hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich of Radiolab.

Best of the Best may be presented in a number of ways, as a two hour program, or as two one-hour programs. Stations may also air just one hour and in that case we recommend hour two, featuring the silver and gold award winners.

Go here to read more about the Best of the Best broadcast http://www.prx.org/thirdcoast

Willie McGee and the Traveling Electric Chair: A Granddaughter's Search for the Truth

From Radio Diaries | 22:59

In 1951, Willie McGee was executed in Mississippi's traveling electric chair for raping a white woman. Six decades later, his granddaughter is on a quest to unearth everything she can about his life - and his death.

Photo_b-wprx_small 30 Minute special also available on PRX: http://www.prx.org/pieces/111157-untitled-february-13-2014

American Dreamer: Sam's Story

From Long Haul Productions | 59:00

Every year, an estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from American high schools. Raised entirely in American culture, they finish high school only to find themselves in a peculiarly American limbo. "American Dreamer: Sam's Story" is a first-person longitudinal radio documentary sharing the experience of one of these kids.

Sam_small   “American Dreamer: Sam’s Story” tells the story of a talented and articulate young jazz musician named Sam, who was brought to the U.S. at age 5 by his Mexican parents. He stayed out of trouble, was drum major of his high school’s marching band, fell in love with playing jazz on the tenor sax, and got his diploma with honors– only to find that for an “illegal,” graduation marks a dead end. .  Though Sam dreams of attending college to study jazz performance, he hides his status from even his closest friends, and can’t legally work, drive, get financial aid, or even gain admission to some colleges.  "American Dreamer" follows him from his high school graduation, through the following summer, as he struggles to raise money to continue his education and weighs the risks of working and driving illegally against his own desire to achieve his American dream.

The Sleeping Fool

From Sofia Saldanha | 10:22

Art museum security guards spend their days in uniform, speaking quietly or not at all, surrounded by works of irreplaceable art.

It may look easy, but the job requires a stressful degree of responsibility, poise, and silence. Some guards may begin to feel trapped inside their own thoughts, or even inside a painting. The Sleeping Fool presents the stories, dreams and thoughts of those who work behind the walls of an art gallery.

The-sleeping-fool-small_small Art museum security guards spend their days in uniform, speaking quietly or not at all, surrounded by works of irreplaceable art. It may look easy, but the job requires a stressful degree of responsibility, poise, and silence. Some guards may begin to feel trapped inside their own thoughts, or even inside a painting. The Sleeping Fool presents the stories, dreams and thoughts of those who work behind the walls of an art gallery.

This can go on forever

From Big Shed Audio | 10:25

When Carol was 20, she gave her baby boy away for adoption. Twenty years later, the son, Joel, came looking. The two tell their story of reunion.

Joelpolaroid_sq_medium_small Carol Brobeck and Joel Woodruff recount the adoption and reunion, twenty years later, that define their relationship.  The story centers around the reunion itself, the moment when they actually found each other.  Joel and Carol were interviewed separately, but their story is interwoven here, without narration or music.


2009 Winners

2009 Third Coast Broadcast (Hours 1 and 2)

From Third Coast International Audio Festival | 01:59:03

Hear the best and most illuminating radio stories of the year! The ninth annual Third Coast Broadcast, hosted by longtime public radio producer Gwen Macsai, showcases the prize-winning stories from the 2009 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.

Altlogo_teal_small_small

The Third Coast International Audio Festival and PRI, Public Radio International, bring the best new documentaries produced worldwide to the U.S. airwaves in a special two-hour program, the "2009 Third Coast Broadcast." Hosted by award-winning writer, producer, and humorist Gwen Macsai, the featured documentaries, all winners of the ninth annual TC / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition, prove just how powerful radio can be. Innovative and insightful, the stories engage, provoke, entertain and transport listeners, proving that all one needs to discover new worlds is a little box and an antenna.

In addition to showcasing the winning documentaries, the "2009 Third Coast Broadcast" includes interviews with the winning producers, who give a glimpse into the art of audio storytelling, a profile of the year's Audio Luminary Award winner, and highlights from the annual Awards Ceremony. 

The 2009 Third Coast Broadcast is presented as a two hour program. The first hour is split into three segments (with cutaways at approximately :20 and :40 and :59) and the second hour is split into two segments (with cutaways at approximately :29 and :59).

For more information, or if you have questions, please contact info@thirdcoastfestival.org.

Miner

From Homelands Productions | Part of the WORKING series | 07:51

Your cell phone or your laptop wouldn’t work without a mineral called coltan. The Democratic Republic of Congo has about 80 percent of the world's coltan reserves, and that has spawned a corrupt and violent industry. Military factions vie for control of the mines, earning millions of dollars while the miners themselves barely scrape by. Producer Gregory Warner met one of those miners, Fidele Musafiri, a small man with a hammer, a spike, and a dream of striking it rich. But the soldiers are never far away.

Best News Feature

Miner_small Your cell phone or your laptop wouldn’t work without a mineral called coltan. The Democratic Republic of Congo has about 80 percent of the world's coltan reserves, and that has spawned a corrupt and violent industry. Military factions vie for control of the mines, earning millions of dollars while the miners themselves barely scrape by. One of those miners is Fidele Musafiri, a small man with a hammer, a spike, and a dream of striking it rich. But the soldiers are never far away. Gregory Warner's profile is part of the WORKING series from Homelands Productions. 


2008 Winners

Dr. Phil

From starlee kine | 29:11

After a break-up, Starlee tries to write her own break-up song, even though she has no musical ability. For some help, she turns to a rather surprising expert.

Best Documentary, Gold

Playing
Dr. Phil
From
starlee kine

Philcollinslovesongsface_small This is a story I did for This American Life. It just won the Gold Prize at the Third Coast Audio Festival, which was incredibly exciting. The story is about heartbreak and wallowing and sadness and how songs make you stay sad, but in a good way. I hope you like it.

Growing Up in The System

From Radio Rookies | 11:42

Shirley’s life has been shaped by her mother’s murder and life in several foster homes. From Radio Rookies and Shirley "Star" Diaz.

Best Documentary, Silver

Shirleydiaz_small Radio Rookie Shirley Diaz's life has been shaped by the tragedy of her mother's murder and the difficulty of growing up in six different foster homes, separated from her six younger siblings. To avoid being consumed by loss, Shirley tries to make sense of these events and find refuge in home and family as she finds them. HOST INTRO: Radio Rookie Shirley Diaz is on the brink of aging out of the foster care system when she turns 21. Many young people face huge challenges when they leave the system. And a disproportionate number of New York City's 17,000 kids in foster care struggle with homelessness at some point in their lives. Braced for adulthood, Shirley whose nickname is Star looks to herself for support.

Searching For Farming's Future in its Past

From Rachel Leventhal | 09:41

How do you make sustainable farming, well, sustainable?

Best Documentary, Honorable Mention

Leventhallindsay11_small Searching For Farming's Future in its Past is part of a series produced by Rachel Leventhal for the NRDC about the impact individuals can make on their world. Jonathan and Nina White own The Bobolink Dairy in Vernon, New Jersey. They make artisanal grass-fed cheese, wood-fired bread, give cheesemaking classes to agritourists, and are de-industrializing farming before our planet runs out of food - or are trying to. Lesson one: cows living on pasture instead of in feedlots know they're bigger than you. Operating in the black four out of their five years in business, the Whites have proven that sustainable farming can be profitable. But a bigger question looms: How do you make sustainable farming, well, sustainable?


2007 Winners

Grandpa

From Lu Olkowski | 08:47

A father and son have a contest to take the best pictures of their dying grandpa, the result is an up-close portrait of death.

Best Documentary, Bronze

Playing
Grandpa
From
Lu Olkowski

Ascherjer31arm_small How do we deal with dying? Most of us look away. But in the case of the Zagar family, they look closer. A father and son have a contest to take the best photos of their dying grandpa, and the result is an up-close portrait of death.   Winner of a Bronze Award at the 2007 Third Coast Festivals Competition.  Judges at Third Coast called the piece, “tense, loving, risky, provocative and profound. The pacing, story craft and character development make this a truly moving and memorable story."


2006 Winners

Thembi's AIDS Diary

From Radio Diaries | 27:09

South Africa has the largest number of people with HIV/AIDS in the world. More than five million South Africans are HIV-positive. Thembi is one of them. For the past year, she has been carrying a tape recorder and keeping an audio diary of her struggle to live with AIDS.

Best Documentary, Bronze

Thembipicture_small South Africa has the largest number of people with HIV/AIDS in the world. More than five million South Africans are HIV positive. Thembi is one of them. For the past year, she has been carrying a tape recorder and keeping an audio diary of her struggle to live with AIDS. For photographs, background information, and the AIDS Action Toolkit, visit: http://www.radiodiaries.org/?p=319 

Honoring the Body: Taharah

From Rebecca Sheir | Part of the The End As Beginning: An Audio Exploration of the Jewish View of Death series | 15:45

Leaving the world as we entered it... but with a twist. Jewish burial rituals and beliefs place great importance on treating the deceased with the utmost honor and respect. This is especially important during the "taharah," a ritual involving the physical cleansing of the dead body.

Best Documentary, Directors' Choice

Taharah_small Jewish burial rituals and beliefs place great importance on treating the deceased with the utmost honor and respect. This is especially important during the "taharah," a ritual involving the physical cleansing of the dead body. In this documentary -- winner of the 2006 Third Coast International Audio Festival Directors' Choice award -- three people who have taken part in taharah share their experiences. In addition to taking us through the steps of this intricate ceremony, they offer their personal views and insights on how taharah encouraged them to confront their own mortality and grapple with the existential questions of life and death.

Between Friends

From Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | Part of the CBC Radio's Outfront series | 13:05

A secret shared between 10-year-old girls becomes evidence in a court case 20 years later. Jody Porter knows how important it was to share the burden back then, but how does her friend feel about it now?

Radio Impact Award

Prxoutfrontplain_small Between Friends It was a secret shared between 10 year-old girls. Twenty years later, it became evidence in a court case. Jody Porter knows how important it was to share the burden back then. But how does her friend feel about it all these years later? by Jody Porter Producer: Neil Sandell Outfront Opening and Closing Theme available - (see Timing and Cues section for more details) SEE ADDITIONAL LICENSE TERMS

Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu

From Song and Memory | 05:16

The exiled son of Ghana's former emir, king of the Muslim people, remembers the song his father listened to as he carried the burden of leading Ghana's Muslim people.

Best Documentary, Honorable Mention

Thumbsong_small Mohammed Naseehu Ali, a native of Ghana, is one of a number of sons of the emir, or king, of the Muslim people of that West African nation. Unlike his brothers and cousins, Ali left Ghana behind to be educated in the United States, where, instead of returning to tribal politics, he became a musician and writer. For this segment of the Song and Memory Series he describes the song that is most memorable to him, "Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu" (chen-chen-bee-Ahdee-Maywah) by Alhaki K. Frimpong and his Cubano Fiesta. Mohammed also plays the drums along with the song. "Kyenkyen Bi Adi Mawu" is "the national anthem of Ghana," at least according to the people of Zongo Street, the neighborhood of Ali's youth in Ghana. The song reminds Ali of the heavy burden his father felt as the monarch of the muslim people of Ghana.


2005 Winners

Dear Birth Mother

From Long Haul Productions | Part of the Becoming a Mom series | 28:58

After waiting for Mr. Right (who has yet to arrive) - and after years of fertility treatments - Suzanne, a single woman in her forties, decided to adopt. She chose transracial adoption.

Best Documentary, Gold

Suz_loretta_small After waiting in vain for Mr. Right - and after years of fertility treatments - Suzanne, a single, white woman in her forties, decided to adopt. She chose transracial adoption. Long Haul Productions documented the entire process - beginning with workshops designed to "teach white people to raise kids of color," baby-shopping trips with Mom at Target, a critical rendezvous with a young mother at a pancake house, and, finally, a magical night at a suburban restaurant chain. Producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister followed Suzanne for several months as she waited to see if she would become a parent; she offered extraordinary access into her home, and really, into every aspect of her life. This piece debuted on May 9, 2005, on WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio), and subsequently aired May 10, 2005, on All Things Considered. "Dear Birth Mother" is a follow-up to "Babyquest," also available on PRX, which documents Suzanne's failed attempt to get pregnant via In Vitro fertilization.

Mandela: An Audio History (Series)

Produced by Radio Diaries

A groundbreaking project that weaves together an unprecedented collection of archival sound materials documenting and preserving the story of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid. Hear a rare recording of the 1964 trial that resulted in Mandela's life sentence; a visit between Mandela and his wife, Winnie, secretly recorded by a prison guard; marching songs of guerilla soldiers; government propaganda films; and pirate radio broadcasts from the African National Conference (ANC).

Best Documentary, Bronze

Most recent piece in this series:

From Prison to President

From Radio Diaries | Part of the Mandela: An Audio History series | 17:44

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It’s 1995, in South Africa. After four decades of apartheid, Nelson Mandela is now president of the country. And one of the things he decides to do as president is to contact all the wives of the former apartheid leaders. These are the leaders he had fought against. Who had put him in prison and killed so many of his people. So, Mandela invites their wives…to lunch.

Nelson Mandela is remembered today as an icon of reconciliation. He brought peace to a country where peace had seemed unlikely. And he did it partly through symbolic staged media events, like this lunch.

Another thing about Mandela’s legacy – he is remembered today as the personification of non-violence. Like Ghandi. One youth leader in South Africa told me Mandela’s example inspired the current student movement in the country to protest using non-violence.

Which… is interesting.

Because Mandela was the guy who started the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa. It was called Umkonto Wi-Sizwe, which meant Spear of the Nation. They even bombed government buildings. By the time Mandela went to prison in 1964, he was considered a terrorist. Not just in South Africa but in many countries around the world. Including the United States.

Mandela served 27 years in prison. And over that time, he came to be seen not as terrorist but as an international symbol for the struggle against apartheid.

For those 27 years, the public never saw a photograph or heard his voice. He was invisible.  Preserved in amber. So when was released in 1990, nobody really knew what they were going to get. The apartheid regime thought that once people saw this old frail and fallible man – he was 72 years old when he was freed – Mandela would be as they said: ‘demythologized.’

So…yeah…they got that part wrong.

Four years after Mandela was released from prison, he was president. And yet, those four years were also among the bloodiest and most painful for all South Africans – black and white – as they struggled toward the transition to majority rule.

Just Another Fish Story

From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 08:28

Ten years ago, a whale washed ashore on the beach of Lubec in the poorest county in Maine. The people in town had to make a decision quickly — how would they get rid of a 60-ton dead whale? From Molly Menschel.

Best New Artist

Default-piece-image-0 Ten years ago, a whale washed ashore on the beach of Lubec in the poorest county in Maine. The people in town had to make a decision quickly—how would they get rid of a 60-ton dead whale?


2002 Winners

Remembering Kent State 1970

From Mark Urycki | 59:03

Documentary marking the anniversary of on the shootings at Kent State University in May 1970. It's been called the day the Viet Nam War came home and a turning point in the nation's history. The story is told without narrator but by eyewitnesses and uses audio recorded over a four day period in 1970.

Best Documentary: Honorable Mention

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Remembering Kent State 1970 marks the 40th anniversary of May 4, 1970 when Ohio National Guardsmen shot 13 students at Kent State University after an anti-war rally.   Four students were killed and 9 were wounded.    A federal investigation called the shootings “inexcusable” but no Guardsmen were ever convicted of a crime.  The event has been called “America’s Tiananmen Square Massacre.” 


2001 Winners

The Vietnam Tapes of Michael A. Baronowski

From Jay Allison | 19:17

Lance Corporal Michael Baronowski recorded himself on the front lines of the Vietnam War in 1966. Decades later, a friend shared the audio with Lost & Found Sound to help make this incredible documentary.

Best Documentary: Gold Award

Mikeprx_small In 1966, a young marine took a reel-to reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War. For two months, until he was killed in action, Michael Baronowski made tapes of his friends, of life in fighting holes, of combat. 34 years later, his comrade Tim Duffie brought Baronowski's three-inch reels to Lost & Found Sound. The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski aired on NPR's All Things Considered on the 25th anniversary of America's withdrawal from the Vietnam. The documentary shed light on the experience of that war, and, in some measure, of all wars. It used the power of radio to reveal the heart through the voice and to see in the dark. It combined the rare talent of the late Baronowski as a "correspondent" from the front, the compassion of his dedicated platoon mate Duffie. This program struck a universal chord with listeners--with those who fought the war, those who protested it, and those who weren't even born at the time. It generated perhaps the greatest outpouring of response in the history of NPR's All Things Considered to date. The documentary won the first Gold Award in the Third Coast Audio Festival competition. Produced by Christina Egloff with Jay Allison.