Thursday, May 31, 2007
News / Chicagoland Torey's folly
Posted by Whet Moser on Thu, May 31, 2007 at 11:24 AM
When Chicago Public Radio announced that it would launch its "secret radio project," aka Vocalo, only in northwest Indiana, it seemed like a letdown. Now that it's live and streaming at vocalo.org, their "soft launch"--not only confined to Indiana and the south side, but also limited to four to five hours a day during the work week--seems more like a blessing. Because this radio station isn't ready for prime time.
(Oh no . . . they're playing Sixpence None the Richer as I'm writing this . . . the last time I heard that, it was on Muzak at Village Discount Outlet.)
Right now Vocalo combines all the qualities of amateur podcasting with the convenience of terrestrial radio--if you're outside its broadcast range, the only way to listen to it is on a live and occasionally buggy mp3 stream. None of the shows are archived in any form. The "playlist" for Darlene's Wednesday show this week reads in full: "these are the people in your neighborhood--a best of my fave interviews."
Worth noting that's a best-of for one host, who has been on the air for three hours over a couple weeks. Her name is Darlene Jackson; she's a club DJ as well as a "writer, producer, record label owner and creative director." She kicked off her best-of by talking to someone about her vacation home in Beverly Shores, Indiana, asking the sorts of questions that would be of value to a club DJ. "I can see you having crazy parties . . . do you have crazy, crazy parties there?" The answer was yes, fortunately. So, Darlene concluded, "For the longest time I wondered why Indiana was part of Chicagoland. What does Indiana have to do with Chicago? Now I know it's a great getaway."
Later in the show she had someone from the Cook County juvie read a Maya Angelou poem badly. The host who followed her, Brian, aka Brian Babylon, played the exact same recording not more than 20 minutes later, the third time I'd heard it in three days of listening.
Vocalo is deeply in thrall to the cult of the amateur. Of the station's seven hosts (half of the promised 14), one is an actual journalist (Reader contributor Dan Weissmann), one is a documentary filmmaker, and one teaches media production and literacy at Columbia. One has actually worked for radio stations. Number seven is a "clinical/community psychologist and personal coach."
And the results are exactly what you would expect, if you're the skeptical type, from a small cast of nonprofessionals. The high point thus far has been Weissmann's engaging interview with the great historian Timuel D. Black Jr. It was pretty standard public radio journalism, like an 848 bit.
Later in the broadcast afternoon, Brian Babylon was laughing along with a song called "Why Do You Think You Are Nuts" ("why do you think you are nuts / eating cigarette butts . . . did your daddy beat you?") by a multicultural baby-boomer punk band, but he didn't catch the name of the band, despite having two different versions of the song and having seen the video.
This is a frequent problem on Vocalo, not knowing or caring to tell the listeners what they're listening to. During the previous set, Darlene played an interesting, brief interview with a Nigerian immigrant discussing the differences between African immigrants and African-Americans. She described it as "a conversation that one of my colleagues had." I went to the site to see if there was more information, but I only found the previously mentioned "playlist."
(Now they're playing another interview, with a woman who has a British accent. She's talking about cabs in between yelling at her dogs. She always has problems with Indian cab drivers. "That's a little bit from a young lady who's got drama," says Brian Babylon. Yes, but who is she? Now "your boy" Brian Babylon is signing off with the White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army." His "main man" Usama is next.)
The amateurism isn't exclusive to the programs. The "Meet the Hosts" page is a good example of why you should resize pictures in an image-editing program instead of resizing them with the HTML code. Here's another example of the importance of resizing pictures. Many of the blog posts are incomprehensible or just weird. And they have to cut down on the ALL CAPS and the LOLs. I'd also recommend deleting the test blog posts.
I could see Vocalo working if it was just their current cast of radio amateurs with some content from WBEZ pros, or if it was a group of radio veterans corralling a cast of amateur contributors from the general public, but as it stands Vocalo consists of the severely nearsighted leading the blind, and it's mostly a train wreck.
(Now they're playing audio from someone who just ate a bunch of pot brownies. He really wants to know what the score of the Red Wings game is. "Time is going by really, really, really, really slow." I'll say. Wait . . . it's apparently a cop who seized a bunch of pot and cooked it into brownies. "He hasn't been fired," Usama says. Who's the cop? Is he CPD? Is this an issue of public concern? Now they're playing jazz, so I guess not.)
I can't help but think that the desperation for "nontraditional talent" must stem from the overwhelming success of This American Life, a program that has introduced defiantly nonradio voices like hypersqueaky Sarah Vowell to the medium. But TAL orbits around Ira Glass, a man who's been in the business since he was in college and had done practically everything that can be done on the radio before he started his masterwork.
It's not just that Glass has a gift; he's also developed the ability, over a career in the business, to make the amateur sound professional and vice versa. He makes it look easy, but radio is anything but. If Chicago Public Radio learns anything from this "soft launch," I hope it's that.
(This morning "Kiss Me" was stuck in my head. I demand a no-Sixpence pledge from Vocalo.)
PS: If you want to learn from the best, Ira Glass gave a master class to transom.org readers awhile back. It's great advice not only for people getting started in radio, but for journalists in general.
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Very interesting piece. Not surprising Vocalo is so awful. I still say Torey's complete inabiliity to give any positive account of what it was meant to be was a sure sign it was going to be a failed vanity project. I just hope he doesn't drag BEZ down with him.
Great post, Whet. Since you're plugging Transom, here are two more invaluable manifestos, one from TAL producer Nancy Updike and another from NPR science correspondent David Kestenbaum. Any journalist who faces terminally dry and wildly complicated stories on a regular basis should actually keep a printout of Kestenbaum's right above their desk. http://www.transom.org/guests/review/200601_nancy_updike/ http://www.transom.org/guests/review/200604_david_kestenbaum/
The Current piece can be found here, for those interested: http://www.current.org/radio/radio0708malatia.shtml Torey has consistently talked about Vocalo as a way of reaching the significant African-American and Latino audience WBEZ does not. Surely a worthy goal: to better reach large segments of the community that feel unserved by existing public radio. But given Vocalo's incredibly low quality, Torey might want to tread carefully, lest he come off as a racist. "See, a lot blacks and latinos don't go in for WBEZ. So what we need to do is create some vague, amateur, and unprofessional bullshit for them." Note: not an actual quote, just sarcasm.
Transom rules. I'm slowly delving into the world of audio journalism, and it's an incredible resource.
Alas, a voice of reason! I'm glad someone finally called them out on this. What a BAD joke, and what a waste of resources. I'm glad I didn't donate to them this year. Beyond this awful Vocalo, they have pretty much ruined WBEZ too. What was great public radio station is getting pretty bad very fast.
You're right, I didn't hear it was in a "beta stage." Not on the station in the 10 or so hours I listened to it. Didn't see it on the Vocalo web site anywhere either. That little bird didn't find me. I'm not hating. I'm saying Vocalo is, as it stands, terrible. I wish that it wasn't. I listen to WFMT, MLB Gameday audio, and to various shows over the Internet, most of which aren't on WBEZ ('Speaking of Faith' and the recently departed BBC show 'The Department' are my favorites). So rest assured I am not a "Clear Channel SLAVE!!!"
It sounds like the person that wrote this and the people who made comments have not heard that this was a beta stage. I liked what I heard.. I would love to hear what you guys could do. DONT HATE IN THIS CLEAR CHANNEL WORLD!!!! Or you might be a Clear Channel SLAVE!!!
Malatia wrote a really interesting piece for Current in May (IIRC) on Vocalo. (Don't have the link handy, but should be easy to find; I know there's a PDF out there on the Net). In re R.Barnes's point, Malatia does a better job describing what Vocalo isn't (typical public radio, a music station, etc) than what it is.
I completely agree with this. The whole thing looks/sounds terrible. There's a Strong Bad email that makes fun of college radio and it pretty much sounds like what you can hear at Vocalo.org
It's not really Beta, it's a soft launch and just because it's not Clear Channel does not mean it's immune from critique. The product stinks. The hosts are inept and lazy, the website is terrible, there is no discernible game plan, it sounds like college radio, and I was expecting more, a lot more. Wasn't this supposed to be somewhat of a revolution? I think the reason people are angry is because Vocalo is squandering an amazing opportunity to do something special in radio. Also, GOP DOOM, inviting us to prove we are better is a limp argument. Public Radio is supposed to serve the community. The hosts on Vocalo sound like they are serving themselves and with little interest in that as well.
I find it somewhat of a relief that the comments have been for the most part well-reasoned on why Voacalo is lacking in its early stages and not an excuse for screaming for jazz to be brought back to WBEZ or WBEW. It shows that so far, people are willing to give Vocalo a fair shake--and are finding what they are hearing disappointing. Of course, that could change with the next post.
Agreement- I don't think the host are lazy at all. From what I hear they are a one man show! I could set it up to hear what your show would sound like. Now is the product great? NO but it can only get better.
Is this Brian from Vocalo? Your posts seem similar. And why is this argument on the table? Never should a critique of a product be shut down with a "well, let's see if you can do better." Listen, it would be like if a surgeon screwed up and when you sued him for malpractice he said, "Well, how bout we put YOU as the surgeon and see how you do." Come on, man, I'm talking about creative accountability. I want Vocalo to make the best product possible because it's such a unique idea. We shouldn't have to wait until it gets better, it should be interesting, well produced, and engaging right off the bat. I don't think that's unfair. WBEZ announced these plans a while ago. If this really is Brian, and I hope at least someone from Vocalo is checking this thread out, then think of this: You have what could be one of the most important new jobs in Chicagoland media. You have a responsibility to the public to bring your 100% A game. You should operate as if this cannot fail. Stay at work until midnight, go out and get as many great stories as you can, rehearse your set a little so you don't ramble. You have an opportunity for greatness. That's a wonderful thing. But you have to use it and excuses or defensive "well-you-just-try-it" lines are only going to bring you down. Now get your butt out of this forum and make the show better.
Today, Edward "I sprinkle happy pills on my munchies" Lifson is leaving "Hello! Beautiful." I'd much rather hear 8 hours of Dick Buckley than his warmed over cheeriness. And the stuff about Architecture... He knows nothing about Architecture. WBEZ is entering a no man's land where they've lost their much of their core listenership and have been unable to attract anyone new with VOCALO, etc... We'll see how it plays out...
CPR sucks. Malatie's been there more than 10 years and the place gets worse and worse. Obvious - he has not created a single good program. Tune to WNYC.org or the LA station on the internet and you'll hear good public radio. We have nothing good on this lame station. The new thing he is trying is total crap. Vocalo - no one will listen. He should lose his job. The station does nothing good since he's been there.
Guess what guys -- six months later, Vocalo is still awful! Can we have clearance to start "hating" now?
Vocalo is so bad! I can never for more than 60 seconds. It's maddening that BEZ leadership thinks this is any good and spends money on it. It is truly awful.
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