I’ve skipped a bit ahead of myself, because before I discussed audio Storytelling on the blog and what it encompasses I made a Radio Bumper! And I’m so excited about the feedback I’ve gotten on it. I thought it was just alright, but everyone seems to really like it!

So today I want to backtrack a bit and talk to you all about audio storytelling. This week we were asked to watch a least two parts of Ira Glass’s series on audio storytelling. I chose to watch part 1 and part 2.

I found the videos very interesting and I can see why he is so great at what he does. Everything he said created a picture in my mind. There were several “nuggets” from Mr. Glass’s talk that I picked out:

• Storytelling is about “building blocks.” There are two parts to this: 1) Sequence of Actions- raise questions constantly, 2) Moment of reflection -the point of the story, the bigger something.
• Your need both parts in a story, but the best stories flip back and forth between action and reflection.
• The hardest part of storytelling is finding a decent story.
• You must “prop a story up, get rid of the boring parts and bring out the good parts. Be ruthless”
• You have to fail before your succeed.

The second video I watched was of RadioLab’s Jad Abumrad. This was a very short clip. I gain watching his second video as well. But felt I had more to say about this video below.

Here are the key “nuggets” I pulled from this clip.

• Radio is empowered without the use of pictures
• Radio is all about using words to paint a picture
• There is a co-authorship/co-imagining process going on between the radio host and the listener. The radio host speaks the works, but it’s up to the listener to “paint” the picture.
• Musicality of a human voice is important
• There is a sort of intimacy when the radio “speaks” to you. Like the radio host is speaking to you and no one else.

I found both men to be very insightful and their talks helped me to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the radio, in ways I never thought of before.