Radio Documentary Opportunity

This arrived in my CBC email yesterday afternoon, and since then approximately one zillion people forwarded it to me saying, “Dan, this is right up your alley.”

Indeed. I sent my letter yesterday afternoon.

I’m passing it along here for others who might be interested:

December 1, 2005

IN YOUR EAR – DOCUMENTARY OPPORTUNITY

I’m writing today to let you know about an exciting new production and mentoring opportunity that CBC Radio is launching in January. It’s called “In Your Ear” and is all about documentaries – specifically giving tailored mentoring to upcoming documentary makers in Radio.

Steve Wadhams, a distinguished documentary maker who most recently won the prestigious Luminary Award at the Third Coast Festival, will be leading the project. The goals are, first of all, to find and develop the people who will be CBC’s leading documentary producers and editors in the years to come and, secondly, to create radio storytelling which fully exploits the potential of the medium – radio which draws on journalism, drama, music, poetry and literature but which is not limited by the conventions of these more established genres.

We will be giving three people the opportunity to work with Steve and be mentored by him. Each will get the opportunity to produce at least one substantial radio feature (up to 30 minutes) of their own and will also contribute fully in the development and production of the work of their colleagues. The work will air on IDEAS.

The production commitment for each participant will be 40 days between January and June 2006. Because of the nature of this type of radio feature, participants’ production time will be spread out as evenly as possible over the entire six-month production period. Participants and their supervisors will be expected to create and abide by an appropriate work schedule. The intent is to bring the group together in January 2006 for a one week extensive “boot camp” in Toronto. After that, participants will work at their respective CBC locations.

Interested participants should send a short letter outlining their background and why they should be one of the three chosen for this. Any samples of existing work would be appreciated. All of this goes to Steve Wadhams, CBC Radio, Room 3F402, Toronto Broadcasting Centre.

This is a great opportunity and I look forward to hearing the final results of this documentary initiative.