Youth Radio - Topic: radio

Ron Paul Chalk Messages Cover New Hampshire Streets

rgee — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:03:11 -0600

Our friends at Blunt Radio took to the streets of New Hampshire today to capture sights and sounds from Primary Day. Check out a series of chalk messages from the Ron Paul campaign below. All messages were written on Elm Street in Manchester, NH.

Taken outside the Radisson Hotel.

Someone rubbed out the "no" in the above chalk message.

Blunt crew: Denali Nalamalapu, 16, Kiernan Cummings, 15, Leo Hilton, 14, and Joe Healy, 16. Not pictured: Director Claire Holman.

Vagina Monologues

akenny — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:11:13 -0600

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Maya Cueva

I was ecstatic when I was cast in my high school’s production of The Vagina Monologues, but telling my friends proved disheartening.

Just hearing the word vagina made my friends giggle. To them, it seemed ridiculous that an entire play could be based on a body part—especially since there’s no such thing as the “penis monologues.” Even some of my girl friends were uncomfortable when I told them. “The WHAT Monologues?” they would say. Their jaw-dropping reactions made me sad. This was a body part they all had, but were too shy to even say its name.

According to a study paid for by the tampon company Kotex, 72% of women feel society is more comfortable talking about penises than talking about vaginas.

For too long, society has stigmatized female sexuality while celebrating male sexuality.

It’s pretty ridiculous that the word vagina is so taboo. I mean, if you think about it, where would we all be without out them?

Previously:

Bay Area Tiger Daughter Responds to Amy Chua

wilmer — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:19:27 -0600

The following originally aired on KQED-FM.

By Robyn Gee

It’s Chinese New Year, which means it’s time for me to buy red envelopes. I always try finding the ones with the fat little pigs on them, because they make my family laugh. When you say our last name “Gee” with the wrong intonation, it means pig, which they find funny because we often eat too much. Chinese humor is sometimes insulting, sometimes self-deprecating, and often subtle. And I think it’s what people are missing about Amy Chua’s book.

Chua makes it clear that the book is a memoir, not a parenting how-to guide. And yeah, Chua goes too far. She forces her daughters to play the piano and violin - making them practice for hours on end and even withholding food from them. Only after her youngest daughter smashes a glass on a restaurant floor yelling “I hate you,” does Chua allow her to quit the violin. During Chua’s own childhood, the violin symbolized perfection, elegance, and achievement – Chua just forgot to let her daughters choose a symbol for themselves.

After seeing Chua at a book reading in Berkeley, I’ve come to think of the Tiger Mother as one big inside joke. She said repeatedly, “You either get it, or you don’t.” As a second generation Chinese-American, I get it.

When I brought home A minuses, my parents told me to stay after school to earn back the extra points. It was the same for my sister and my cousins. Our rooms are filled with karate trophies, student body president awards, piano certificates, and Honor Roll plaques. Was our freedom of choice taken away? Are we victims of tiger mothers and fathers?

On that point, I agree with Chua. In my family, none of us ever questioned whether our parents loved us. Though they may have pushed us and acted “tough,” the message that we were loved was consistent.

Let’s face it, there will always be discrepancies over the best ways to be a parent, but as long as your kids hear the message that they are loved, then you’re doing alright.

Previously:

Guys – A Lesson In No

wilmer — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:45:31 -0600

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Jaylyn Burns

No home training. That’s the phrase my friends and I use when we see a boy bothering a girl.

Nowadays when a young lady rejects a boy who’s flirting with her, she is at risk of being verbally abused or worse.

One day on my way home from school, a guy said to me “ay lil mama lemme get your number.” I said I had a boyfriend. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I had to pull out my pepper spray to make him leave. I almost had to fight a boy over whether I wanted to talk to him!

Looking back I see that his insecurities led to him lashing out at me, but guys it’s not okay to use a woman as an anger outlet, to make yourself feel better.

Everyone deserves respect. I want young men to think about their sisters and the female figures in their lives. I want guys to ask themselves how they’d feel if their sister was disrespected by a man for saying no? The bottom line guys, is if we say no, we mean no!

Previously:

College And Community Radio Survival

rgee — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:18:23 -0600

College radio stations, while deeply important to those involved, are not as important to a listening audience, according to the New York Times. While college radio stations are occasionally the first to discover a new group or artist, funding for campus stations is being cut around the country because they just don’t have that many listeners. The New York Times quotes one college radio producer who says after work, he only listens to his iPod.

Does college radio have a future?

Miguel Macias, Professor of Radio and Television at Brooklyn College explained that since Brooklyn College Radio does not own an FM frequency, they operate on a low budget and there is not a lot to cut. They are mostly a web-based station. Macias does not worry about how many people listen to their radio shows.

“I do agree with the statement that college radio should be more about the people involved than the people listening. That is precisely why I don't worry too much about audiences. I worry about the quality of the shows. If people listen, that's great. But I would not like to see the programming change just to gain listeners unless that change is for the better. For Brooklyn College, our radio station is a place for people to meet, learn, spend time, find friends, get a nearly professional experience and have fun,” he said.

Meanwhile, the country is also trying to determine whether radio is a priority. On Saturday, December 18, Congress passed the Local Community Radio Act, an act that opens up radio spectrum to many independent radio stations.

According to the Huffington Post, “Its passing will bring new choices and voices on the radio dial nationwide, but is especially relevant to a broadcast area reaching 160 million people who lived in areas where these stations had previously been barred from local airwaves.”

Half Way Out

wilmer — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:19:03 -0600

The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Sayre Quevedo

I came out to my 5th grade class when I was nine years old and even had a coming out party. But my father’s side of the family doesn’t know I’m gay. Sometimes, they ask me about “girlfriends” I’ve brought along on family camping trips. I just laugh and say “Those girls weren’t my girlfriends.”

It wasn’t that I trusted a group of fifth graders more than half my family, I just cared less how they reacted. Recently, I wrote an editorial about the “It Gets Better Videos” and my experience growing up gay in the Bay Area. I hadn’t seen my father’s family since the article was published and I was dreading Thanksgiving with them.

But when I walked in everyone greeted me normally, barely turning their heads from the football game on TV. I sat down by my uncle, whose reaction I feared most. “I read your article in the paper”, he said. “I only had one problem with it…Why wasn’t I invited to the coming out party?”

I spent so much of my life worrying about this moment and it had ended up being the most anti-climactic coming out ever.

Previously:

Half Way Out

wilmer — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:42:59 -0600

The following originally aired on KQED-FM.

By Sayre Quevedo

I came out to my 5th grade class when I was nine years old and even had a coming out party. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been out forever.

But my father’s side of the family doesn’t know I’m gay. Sometimes, they ask me about “girlfriends” I’ve brought along on family camping trips. I just laugh and say “Those girls weren’t my girlfriends,” conveniently leaving out the fact that I’m not attracted to girls.

It wasn’t that I trusted a group of fifth graders more than half my family, I just cared less how they reacted. If my classmates decided they didn’t like me because I was gay, I could always switch schools. But if my father’s family didn’t accept me, I wasn’t sure what I would do. I told my dad I was gay, but never felt comfortable telling his family. They aren’t homophobic but they’re old-fashioned. Being gay just isn’t something you talk about.

Recently, I wrote an editorial about the “It Gets Better Videos” and my experience growing up gay in the Bay Area. I never planned on coming out to my father’s family but the editorial, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle, ended up doing it for me. I hadn’t seen my father’s family since the article was published and I was dreading Thanksgiving with them.

Pulling up to the house in my dad’s car I already had a speech written out in my head, something beginning with, “You think you can judge me?” I had even gone as far as to think through my dramatic exit if things didn’t go well.

But when I walked in everyone greeted me normally, barely turning their heads from the football game on TV. I sat down by my uncle, whose reaction I feared most. “I read your article in the paper”, he said. “I only had one problem with it…” I braced myself. “Why wasn’t I invited to the coming out party?”

He was trying to break the ice but all I could muster was an awkward, “I don’t know.”

I spent so much of my life worrying about this moment and it had ended up being the most anti-climactic coming out ever.

Previously:

Mash-Ups: Popular But Illegal

rgee — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:27:32 -0600

Girl Talk's new album, All Day is getting a lot of buzz. Girl Talk is the stage name for notorious American DJ and mash-up artist Gregg Gillis.

The release inspired our friends at Brooklyn College's Television and Radio Production department to dig up an archive story about mashups. Gabriel Liendo produced this story exploring the growing trend of the mash-up art form, and some of the copyright obstacles that mash-up artists face.

Listen here.

Break It Down: How 12 - 24 Year-Olds Discover New Music

rgee — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:21:59 -0600

Ten years ago, Edison Research did a study called, "Radio's Future: Today's 12 to 24 Year-Olds.” The results were a “wake-up call” to traditional media institutions. Edison research released the results of a follow up study in September, 2010, analyzing how young people use radio, discover new music, use technology, and stay connected.

For their study, called “American Youth Study: 2010,” 1,533 respondents were interviewed about their media consumption and usage. Below are some of their findings. View the entire report here.

Radio continues to be the medium most often used for music discovery, with 51% of 12-24 year-olds reporting that they "frequently" find out about new music by listening to the radio. Other significant sources include friends (46%), YouTube (31%) and social networking sites (16%).

20% of 12-24s have listened to Pandora in the last month, with 13% indicating usage in the past week. By comparison, 6% of 12-24s indicated they have listened to online streams from terrestrial AM/FM stations in the past week.

More than four in five 12-24s own a mobile phone in 2010 (up from only 29% in 2000), and these young Americans are using these phones as media convergence devices. 50% of younger mobile phone users have played games on their phones, 45% have accessed social networking sites, and 40% have used their phones to listen to music stored on their phones.

Music tastes have shifted among 12-24s over the past decade: those radio listeners who indicated that Top 40/Pop stations were their favorite have more than doubled, while Alternative Rock stations were selected by half as many listeners in 2010 as in 2000.

Fashion Doesn't Make Teen Pregnancy Fashionable

wilmer — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:42:39 -0500

By Tajah Jones

I’m shocked that some adults think teenagers are gullible enough to have a baby, just because of cute maternity clothes and reality TV shows.

Forever 21 is one of my favorite stores. They always have affordable clothes that make me feel on point. When I heard they launched a new line, I was interested. But a lot of girls, including myself, won’t be shopping in that section.

Love 21 Maternity is a fashionable clothing line for pregnant women, which is great! But many adults are concerned. I’ve read online critiques in which adults assume Love 21 and MTV shows like Teen Mom will encourage teens to get pregnant.

But stretch marks, swollen feet, spiraling grades and just the thought of a baby coming out of me is such a turn off. I prefer to become personally successful before having the responsibility of raising another person. Adults should spend less time blaming TV shows and clothing lines for high teen pregnancy rates, and invest more time educating teens about sex. After that, all that’s left is to trust us.

Previously: