As a native (and very nostalgic) Seattleite, I was interested to hear what was going on up in my hometown, and this short but interesting piece did not disappoint.
I was surprised to hear that Puget Sound, which seems such a bountiful place, supplied almost none of the region's seafood, and interviews with a fish thrower and a local chef elegantly illustrated the globalization of seafood and provided an interesting spin on the conflict between protecting the environment and local industry. The producer's use of sound is excellent, and at its close, the listener is left with a thought-provoking answer to the question "Where does my food come from?"
The piece would fit very well in a magazine-style show about food or environmental health.

This piece is, for lack of a better term, SO COOL.
The producers set of a great sense of place in the beginning, which continues throughout the piece with the sounds of crunching food and motorcycles revving outside the restaurant.
At first, the interview takes a more general tone, with McCusker talking about the things he saw and did (listen for the explanation of "ant balls"). But throughout the piece, McCusker's story gets more specific, first focusing on the specific problems that journalists dealt with and finishing with his own family's reaction to Katrina and the indefinite future they face. The piece has a moving finale, which serves as the portrait of an ordinary man caught up in one of the biggest natural disasters our country has known.
This piece is long enough to stand on its own, and would serve as a much-needed reminder that the effects of Katrina are still being felt all across the South.

Many of us would tend to write off the alternative-school kids, and a whole host of stereotypes came immediately to my mind when I read about this piece. However, I was soon proven wrong - although the piece takes place in the context of one single graduation day, we can see, through interviews with teachers and sound clips, how the narrator has changed for the better throughout her schooling.
There are several aspects of the piece that interested me, such as the narrator's reasons for wanting a diploma, but the best thing about it was that I could recognize my own graduation, and others I've attended, listening to the story. The narrator proves that her graduation, although the students were different, carries the same sense of pride and accomplishment as any other.

Radio pieces about music you LIKE are a dime a dozen. Radio pieces about music towards which you're a little squeamish, however, are truly unique - and "Friday Night At Epiphany's" unique angle is one of the many things that make this story worth a listen.
Protagonist Claudia's initial feelings toward metal, punk, and hardcore would be easy for most listeners to identify with: her first experience on MySpace turns out to be more than a little unappetizing. However, the piece has a nicely timed story arc: Claudia goes to a local show and, after talking to the musicians and bystanders, eventually finds herself appreciating and even enjoying these new genres. The story could easily be told in a preachy or cliched way, but it avoids that pitfall well: Claudia's words sound like her own, and many listeners will likely find common ground and shared experiences.
This piece is long enough to stand comfortably on its own, but it would also fit well within a show about teen activities or any of the musical genres involved.

This piece provides an interesting and essential perspective on the immigration issue right now. Instead of joining the endless parade of stories discussing immigrants coming to the US, the narrator puts his own spin on things by discussing emigration from his community, and he does so very effectively.
The piece is structured so as to draw parallels between immigrants leaving other countries and people leaving Appalachian communities, and apparently many of the same motives lie behind each: little work, poor economy, dangerous jobs. The narrator also does a great job examining the conflicting forces behind the decision to stay or go. But what impressed me most was that even such a small editorial could have an effective story arc: the listener is first introduced to the conflict, the scene is set and discussed, and finally we hear the narrator make a choice...
This story is truly a breath of fresh air, and would be an almost necessary addition to any show about immigration and the surrounding issues.

It takes a lot to make me feel warm and fuzzy towards my tiny hometown of Sebastopol, which I usually find so mundane and all-out LAME, but this piece did it skillfully, evoking many of the best feelings I've had toward my little slice of pastoral paradise. The young narrator opens with a scene many of us can identify with (looking at the city's beauty as her plane comes in for a landing) and then explores all the sides of attachment to one's home, such as putting down roots in a new place, family connections, and simply exploring the area, skillfully and simply.
However, she also does a great job of explaining what makes THIS town, Austin, so unique, and even offers a humorous explanation as to why the town might be so quirky, shattering a couple of my preconceived notions about Texas in the process.
Though the narration was a little uneven at times, the piece flowed well overall, and could work well in a wide context - anything based around the general idea of home.

The premise behind "Love is Like an Apple" is a simple one: youth reporter asks peers what love is, then makes a sound collage. The finished piece, however, provides an insightful look into a not-so-simple issue. I feel like many teens toss the word around without any significance, so I was interested to hear the thoughts and views of these particular young people.
The responses in this piece range from the silly ("the word we use to justify our codependence") to the disillusioned ("everything everyone says is going to be really cheesy"), the vague ("it's a step beyond liking something") to the conventional ("caring unconditionally for someone"). But, ultimately, I was pleased to hear how many people had taken the time to really think about what love meant to them, and at the end of this piece I realized that, like always, my worries about the Youth of Today were pretty much baseless.
This piece would fit very well in a larger magazine about high school issues - or, perhaps, it could be saved for Valentine's Day 2007.

WOW. Every so often, I come across a piece that just floors me, and this is definitely one of those pieces.
"Abortion" starts out by describing the community in which the story takes place. Listeners may stereotype the small town in which "the church is the community, and the community is the church", but even I, living in my Green-party dominated hippie haven, was surprised to hear that even the town's doctors wouldn't talk.
We then meet the story's protagonist, a young woman named Ruby with an unwanted pregnancy. Ruby starts out hopeful about her pregnancy, saying that she is willing to keep the baby, even if it means leaving her husband behind, but soon begins to have second thoughts, and in the most harrowing part of the story describes an attempted home abortion with a coat hanger.
This piece provides a timely and relevant look at an issue that is increasingly politicized, and its most effective quality is that both the narrator and the protagonist change their minds about abortion over the course of the piece. The very simple style adds greatly to the emotional gravity of the piece: instead of being edited into sound bites, Ruby's story is allowed to tell itself with no interference - the hallmark of an excellent radio piece.

Although our parents will try to convince us that middle school wasn't really THAT bad, most teens remember it as an intellectually dead holding tank between elementary school and high schoool. "Forty in a classroom" starts out by describing a scene familiar to many - students walking into their middle school for the first time - and then delivers the surprise: the classroom is overcrowded, stinky, and unclean. At this point in the story, anyone under 18 will nod slowly, recognizing the sounds of their own golden years being wasted away in a portable, while adults will be surprised, even disturbed, that students are still expected to be happy and productive in these conditions. The piece goes on to elaborate the suffocating environment: police cars parked outside and unfriendly peers are both commonplace. The story is simple, with no music or effects, but it does an excellent job of narrating the bleak social landscape that is middle school. This piece would fit well in any series about education; the issues it brings up need attention.

"Mind Your Metal" provides the casual listener (and metal newbie) with a basic overview of the genre, and some of the surrounding controversies. The piece opens with an interesting look at metal through generations - even the women at the local Dairy Queen are metal fans, and they fondly recount the music of their youth.
For me, this was the most interesting aspect of the piece. Although "Mind Your Metal" would have benefited from a greater historical context, it deos a great job examining how metal isn't just a craze for "kids these days" but rather something each generation has enjoyed, a point that is driven home well through an interview with one narrator's English teacher, also a devout metal fan. In this interview, common misconceptions about metal are discussed and debunked - it is stated that "metal is what you want to make of it", and after listening to the interview, by far the most interesting segment of the piece, I came away with a newfound respect for this much-maligned genre of music.
The only major change I would make relates to the music in the piece - an original metal song is included at the end in its entirety, and while the song is a great addition to the piece, it would probably be more effective sprinkled throughout.

I've listened to a lot of youth radio stories over time, but none have outright disturbed me as much as this one. It didn't regale me with stories about gang violence or cautionary tales about eating disorders - rather, through humor, it made me realize something downright CREEPY about myself: I had become one of those irritating and shallow girls who bought pants to impress my boyfriend.
The piece started out on a good note, with overlapping freshmen describing what they were wearing. This effectively created a sense of chaos while emphasizing that all these girls were in essence wearing the same thing. Then, through probing and incisive interviewing, the piece's author made listeners question why they bought and wore what they did. I found myself looking down at my American Eagle shirt and Gap pants more than once, and realizing I didn't really have a good answer to that question. Throughout, the narration juxtaposed quotes from Seventeen magazine with these fashion-obsessed ninth graders for a very effective dose of humor.
This piece is, on the surface, very light-hearted, but the issues it exposes are not. I have read many a feminist "expose" on why women dress the way they do, and none were as revealing as this piece. I'd listen to it again, but I'm off to the local thrift store now to pick up some tye-dye.

As an "aspiring teen musician" and future rock star, the idea of this piece appealed to me, and I was interested in what these motivated young people had to say about themselves and their dreams (and their humble beginnings - one quote about "how bad we sucked when we were younger" made me laugh out loud). Sound clips of living-room rehearsals made the piece come alive, and I could envision myself practicing with my own bandmates or sitting on the sofa as the girls in the piece rehearsed. Also, the author's own involvement in the subject added a degree of ethos that is important for a piece like this.
The only suggestions I'd make would be to improve the sound quality (there was some microphone noise at times) and to perhaps include a greater variety of aspiring musicians in the piece - including young jazz artists or aspiring MCs would have given this piece a much greater impact. Ultimately, though, "Aspiring Teen Musicians" is well done, and its message - skill alone isn't enough, hard work is needed too - is very much appreciated by this listener.

Blunt Youth Radio's "The Talk" starts out on a high note, with appropriate, fun music and an amusing quote about "self-abuse", and holds its awkwardly hilarious tone for the duration of the piece. The pacing is wonderful - during a montage of student recollections, each quote lasts just the right amount of time, and the viewpoints are mixed up nicely. The icing on the cake, however, was the narrator's conversation with her parents, which reminded me all too well of my own embarrassing conversations with my flustered mother. The only change I'd make is to spice up the narration a little - a topic this dynamic and fun deserves an equally fun and dynamic tone. The piece would work well in any context - as part of a series, or just a fun little interstitial on its own.