For eleven years Transom.org has been a virtual workshop for public media storytelling for anyone with access to a computer, but the dream has always been to have an actual workshop in Woods Hole, the home of Atlantic Public Media. In the fall of 2011, instructor Rob Rosenthal, who developed and ran the radio track at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies for many years, told us he was available, and we decided to give it a go.

Last October, we launched our pilot Transom Story Workshop for beginning radio producers.
The workshop was so successful we’ve followed up with an 8-week Spring 2012 session, again for beginners. Currently, nine novice radio students are living in Woods Hole learning the craft of telling stories with sound. The students come from the United States and Canada, ranging in age from their early-twenties to mid-thirties, and are already deep into gear and sound.

Guest speakers will join the students throughout the eight weeks, including: WCAI’s
duPont-Columbia Award-winning reporter Sean Corcoran; the radio producing couple Jonathan Menjivar of This American Life, and Hillary Frank of the podcast The Longest Shortest Time; radio producer Scott Carrier; Atlantic Public Media’s Jay Allison and Viki Merrick; Samantha Broun and Amanda Kowalski of SoundLight Media; Transom’s Tool Guy, Jeff Towne; Nikki Silva of the Peabody Award winning Kitchen Sisters; independent radio producer Ari Daniel Shapiro; David Krasnow from Studio 360; as well as AIR’s Sue Schardt; and John Barth from The Public Radio Exchange.

Another Transom Story Workshop for beginners is scheduled for the fall of 2012. View the application and guidelines.

Visit the Transom.org’s official workshop page.