Radio Off The Dial

THis just in from AIR media

American Public Media launches Monle, a four track non-linear audio editor for the iPhone and iPod touch. It arrives in the app store tomorrow, April 6. It’ll cost $10, and APM is offering it for free to AIR members responding to this AIRdaily post.

We have not tried it, so cannot endorse it, but it’d be terrific if some of you do give it a whirl and can share details here.

Here’s the description + how-to from APM’s Jacqueline Cartier:

The app, which has the ability to send audio to virtually any newsroom‚s FTP site, will benefit aspiring radio journalists and musicians, this feature to send audio virtually wherever you want is a necessary step public radio during this exciting intersection of technology and information.

Visit www.monleapp.com to learn more about the specifics of the app and watch a trailer of some of Monle’s functions at work! We‚d love to see this helpful app get into the hands of radio producers and newsrooms across the country.

Monle is a four track, non-linear audio editor that allows the user to record new audio, import prerecorded audio, edit a four-track session, mix the session, add fades, set volumes, zoom in and out, and ultimately, share your audio work to your computer, to a remote FTP server, or directly to American Public Media‚s Public Insight Network (PIN). The PIN, from APM, the second largest producer and distributor of public radio programming the nation, consists of close to a million citizen „sources‰ who share their expertise on virtually any subject with radio and print journalists all over the country; from Minnesota, to New York, Florida and Oregon. Monle was developed by independent developer Ochen K. who has partnered with APM to bring Monle to the public radio system and beyond. While producing radio, Ochen thought, there must be an easier way, and when he realized there wasn‚t an app for that he created Monle himself.

Mapping Main Street is a collaborative documentary media project that creates a new map of the country through stories, photos and videos recorded on actual Main Streets. The goal is to document all of the more than 10,000 streets named Main in the United States. We invite you to capture the stories and images of the country today. Go out, look around, talk to people, and contribute to this re-mapping of the United States.

My favorite section of the WNYC trip was talking with Jad Abumrad of Radio Lab. Jad shared some of his impressions on what makes the show tick. Some that stuck with me is their clever use of sound. “We use music as punctuation- commas and pauses- rather than lay it (tape) on a bed of music.”

Jad and his co-host Robert Krulwich have a great banter between them and their humor helps engage listeners. Jad says that too much of public radio is serious and contemplative, when in reality people can be rude and irreverent from time to time and radio hosts need to reflect that too.

But what really seems to be working for them, he says, is that fact that radio is no longer a perishable medium, thanks to podcasts. And a science show like Radio Lab that deals with complex concepts often solicits repeat hearings, which is what leads to such a high number of downloads for its podcasts.

Part of the show’s success is because it was launched at the right time, when internet made it possible to really build a fan following for a show like this. Otherwise such content heavy shows might have been lost. A lot of people are drawn to the show because they have been able to go back and hear previous episodes.

But success has also come from understanding how to create a joyful experience and enable people to feel that sense of wonder.

If there’s anything that became increasingly apparent to me during our trip to the WNYC Station in Manhattan, it’s that radio is no longer radio. I mean, it is still radio, but not in the sense that we think of it. Upon hearing that a huge percentage of the traffic to WNYC’s Web site is to RadioLab, it got me thinking: even shows have their own brand to work on creating, improving, growing. Just as a TV show has something that viewers can see and associate with an idea in their mind (i.e. a brand like the Today Show, or even something like the Colbert Report or the Daily Show), the Web has given radio shows their own opportunity to brand. Not only is it a distinct voice that comes over the airwaves, but it’s something that can be grown and expanded in a way that was never considered before because now radio can be more sensory.

That is the message that came out of a Chinese fortune cookie after a day at WNYC and a great lunch with Banjamen Walker, WNYC’s Senior Cultural Producer and host of WFMU’s show called Too Much Information. That is also the message that dominated in our conversations with him and other WNYC innovative thinkers, like John Keefe, WNYC’s News Director and Jad Abumrad, host of Radio Lab. They are all looking at and implementing new ways to attract our highly technical society and keep radio alive.

If I had to summarize what I got out of this exciting day, it would be: only those who fully embrace the changing media environment and can come up with creative ways to integrate their work in it, they will succeed. Maybe those Chinese fortune cookies really know what they are talking about….