radio – Robin Amer

I’m a finalist in the WNYC Podcast Accelerator

Exciting news! I’m a finalist in WNYC’s Podcast Accelerator!

If those words sound like gibberish to you, I’ll explain. WNYC is New York City’s public radio station. It’s one of the best — arguably the best — public radio station in the country. It produces radio and podcasting behemoths such as Radiolab, On the Media, Studio 360 and Freakonomics, as well as great newcomers like The Longest Shortest Time, Death Sex & Money and Note to Self.

In June the station launched a competition to find its next great podcast. It solicited pitches from all over the country and received nearly 400 entries. My pitch was one of five selected from that batch.

Me and the other finalists will spend the next month refining our pitches. Then we’ll present those pitches to a live audience and a panel of judges at the ONA conference in Los Angeles in September. The winner of that pitch session gets to produce a bonafide pilot with WNYC. The station then has right of first refusal in optioning the pilot and turning it into a full show.

I’m still deciding how much to say about my show idea publicly before the pitch session. But I’ll say this: This is an idea I’ve been developing for some time now, and I owe thanks to people like Third Coast Festival’s Johanna Zorn, ABC’s Julie Shapiro and my close friends Dan Hirsch and Meribah Knight, who gave me a lot of feedback on earlier versions of this idea. I’m excited to bring this project to some kind of fruition and I’m excited to be developing a vehicle that I think will be extremely compelling for audiences as well as very personally satisfying. Also podcasting rules.

I’ll post more news when I have it!

Eugene’s Gary

A portrait of one Gary neighborhood through the eyes of one resident.

Part 1, 7:50

Part 2, 5:05

Part 3, 6:02

Eugene’s Gary is a portrait of one Gary, Indiana neighborhood through the eyes of Eugene Pawlak. Pawlak, who fixes up houses and is a life-long Gary resident, is the kind of guy you want as your neighbor. He looks out for kids riding bikes in the middle of the street, helps octogenarians carry in their groceries and knows everyone on the block.

But Pawlak’s happy-go-lucky disposition belies a starker past. As he joshes with his neighbors, slowly a portrait of Eugene himself emerges. A freak, on-the-job accident at U.S. Steel left him physically and emotionally broken; only by channeling his energy through his children was he able to find his footing again.

Produced in the style of cinema verite using complex but subtle on-site field recordings, (local birds, bicycle bells, the slow rumble of a passing train) the sparse but purposeful use of sound in Eugene’s Gary highlights and supports the unique timbre of each character’s voice.

This series was originally recorded and aired on Vocalo.org during several live broadcasts in August of 2007.

Eugene’s Gary won 3rd place in the category of Best Use of Sound from the Indiana Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists.

Lease Eugene’s Gary for broadcast through the Public Radio Exchange (PRX).

Ghosts of Gary

The story of one abandoned movie theater is the story of this very post-industrial city. People haunt places, and places haunt people.

19:14

Ghosts of Gary is an exploration of Gary, Indiana’s semi-abandoned downtown and historic past. Dorothy, a non-Indiana native, stumbles into Gary on a road trip and sees the remnants of its once vibrant downtown. Among the shuttered buildings is the stately Palace movie theater, long-closed. But how long closed? Has it been closed since the Jackson Five, still advertised on the theater’s marquee, were last together? Has Gary’s downtown been a ghost town that long?

With the help of some life-long Gary residents, an urban explorer, and an investigative journalist, Ghosts of Gary unravels the mystery of the Palace Theater and how long it has been closed. On the way the story touches upon John Dillinger’s escape from the Crown Point jail, the subbasements of Broadway Avenue and the economic exploits of Donald Trump.

The individual stories and interviews in this series originally aired on Vocalo.org as part of several different live broadcasts between June and October of 2007. Production by Robin Amer. Additional production of title segment by Adam Yoffe and Tom Herman. Music by Mudboy and Black Forest/Black Sea. Voices, in order are: Dorothy Fennell, Laura Jones, Mr. Matthews, Eugene Pawlak, “Syd,” and Steve Walsh. Above photo by Dorothy Fennell.

Ghosts of Gary won Best Radio Documentary 2007 from the Indiana chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. It was also nominated for a Peter Lisagor Award from the Chicago Headline Club in the Radio Documentary category.

Lease Ghosts of Gary for broadcast through the Public Radio Exchange (PRX).