This past weekend I attended Zap Your PRAM, a non-conference organized by Charlottetown-based silverorange and Reinvented. I was asked to give a talk loosely based on “how being involved with a radio show that tries to use the web in new and interesting ways has actually worked out.” And it was a genuinely refreshing experience. Mostly because (I think) I wasn’t talking to a group of radio people. I was talking to a group of technologists.

The format of talks at Zap lends itself to interjections, questions, spontaneous discussions, and derailments. Which was wonderful. Rather than walking in, presenting my prepared points, playing my prepared clips, and taking question at the end, the flow of comments and questions seemed to start almost immediately, smack dab in the middle of what I thought I was going to talk about.

As someone who’s used to performing off a script, it was scary. Terrifying, even. People asked questions about points I hadn’t made yet. People questioned things I take as givens. And through it all, the participants got me thinking about the work I do in ways I hadn’t thought of before. (A particularly helpful comment came from Rob Paterson, who mentioned NPR’s Bryant Park Project, Planet Money, and the difference between radio -> web and web -> radio.)

And I think that’s sort of what made Zap wonderful for me — the ecclectic mix of people with perspectives that I would probably never otherwise have access to.

Did I make all the points I wanted to make in my talk? No.

Did I properly articulate anything about how I see the relationship between public broadcasting and social media? Probably not as clearly as I would have liked.

But in the “inline discussion” during my talk, and in the various chats I had with people one-on-one afterwards, I picked up some very useful nuggets from some very smart people that may help our radio show continue to improve. Hanging around designers for a weekend’ll do that, I guess.

Between the talks, the venue (beautiful), the amazing food, and the great people I met and talked to, Zap was a great success. Congrats and thanks to Steven, Dan, and especially Peter, who not only invited me, but took me on a Sunday afternoon tour of Charlottetown after the conference was over. The Überloo was a touchless wonder. Consider me zapped.

• Phone – Easiest to set up, but worst-sounding. That said, people are accustomed to hearing phone interviews on the radio.
• Studio-to-studio via ISDN – Sounds pretty good, but requires a studio on both ends. This usually means the guest has to go to a nearby CBC, NPR, BBC, etc. station, so it’s not always convenient.
• Double-ender – When done well, this can sound like the interviewer and interviewee are in the same room, but requires good recording equipment on both ends.

Recently, we’ve been experimenting with Skype to do interviews for Spark, with varying results. Last week, we did an interview with Adrian Bowyer about his 3D printer, RepRap. And it sounds pretty freaking good, considering he was on his hotel WiFi using an inexpensive headset microphone.

The raw interview is posted here. Have a listen. Aside from the occasional blip or dropout (which we edited out for the finished program), the overall audio quality is amazing.

We’re trying to make Spark a radio show that sounds different. Part of that is story selection, and structure, and pace. Another part of that is how we create the show’s sonic landscape. Tools like Skype can help us create an interesting middle ground somewhere between studio-quality and phone-quality.

I wonder if we’ll start to hear more Skype-quality interviews (complete with blips, bloops, dropouts, and walkie-talkie back-and-forth) on the radio in the coming years. Honestly, I’m surprised someone doesn’t make a piece of Skype gear with decent inputs and outputs for studio use.

Spark, our brand-spanking-new radio show launches. On-air, the first broadcast happens at 11:30 local time. And online, the podcast is already available as an MP3.

And, through the magic of Creative Commons licensed music, the podcast version and the broadcast version are the exact same.

That alone has me excited. Please, have a listen and let us know what you think.

Also, I’m happy to report that I have a new-ish job. Starting August 13, I’ll be working on the new Nora Young show Spark. It’s a great concept, a great team, and I can’t wait to get started, but I’m really going to miss all the people I work with now.

As well, I’ve been offered a job at my alma mater, Ryerson. I’ll be teaching audio production part-time in the School of Radio and Television Arts. I have one section of BDC101, and it’ll take up my Tuesday evenings starting in the fall.

Wow.

After writing that, I realized what an enormous amount of my life changed in the past two weeks.