One of Atlantic Public Media’s most enduring and beloved projects is Transom. For 25 years, Transom has led the way in helping people tell their stories in public media and podcasting. Graduates from its workshops are everywhere. The website, the first ever to win a Peabody Award, is a full master class in audio. In the field, it has been called “a national treasure.”  In Woods Hole, from September 17-19, we host a celebration, Transom25. (Tickets to some of the events are still available).

Leading Transom all these years has been a privilege for me. It helped me pay back the generosity I encountered when entering public media in the 1970s. Unlike many industries, public radio isn’t afraid of the next generation; instead, we want to pass the baton.

In that spirit, I have handed Transom’s baton to the brilliant and accomplished Sophie Crane to carry our projects and mission into the future. Sophie has taught at Transom workshops and her work has been featured on the site. She and I started the Frontline Dispatch podcast and co-produced a bunch of documentaries (sharing in the duPont Columbia Gold Baton). She has evolved a new non-profit incarnation, The Transom Story Lab, which she now leads. Initiatives will be ongoing in our home in Woods Hole, around the country…and the world.

Sophie is the absolute perfect person for this job. Our team at Atlantic Public Media will happily stay associated with Transom for as long as possible, and will revel in seeing all the exciting things Sophie and her team will build. Onward.

Top of the page image: Jay Allison and the Radio Rookies at the WCAI studio in Woods Hole, MA, circa 2008.