Southern Public Media Group

Radio Feature | Troy University Public Radio | “Weaving the Past & Present in the Pepperell Mill Village”

Kyle Gassiott — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 17:30:30 +0000

On today’s Community Focus, Troy Public Radio’s Kyle Gassiott interviews Skip Lanier who worked in the Pepperell Mill Village for over three decades. During his time working and living in Pepperell, Skip saw the industry completely change and learned about the location of heaven. Tune in for this special feature for Labor Day.

Radio Feature | Troy University Public Radio | “Pebble Hill: A Home For the Arts In Auburn”

Kyle Gassiott — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 17:27:50 +0000

As part of our new series “Wall Text: Conversations about Art & Architecture” SPM’s Kyle Gassiott went on a radio tour of Pebble Hill a historic home in Auburn that houses the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn University. The audio part of our tour aired on Troy Public Radio’s Community Focus on July 9, 2012.

Pebble Hill is over 150 years old and has recently been studied by a number of historians and archaeologists. The Center’s director Jay Lamar and Southern Public Media’s own architectural & preservation consultant Lyn Causey guided Kyle through the house for the audio tour and we also brought along SPM’s Daniel Oramas to take pictures. You can see his photos as well as listen to segments of the tour in our slideshow above. We plan to have more historical information about Pebble Hill in the future both on our site and on the air.

As always if you missed today’s broadcast you can stream or download it below:

Radio Feature | Troy University Public Radio | Poet Jason Crane

Kyle Gassiott — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 05:00:15 +0000

Photo by Patrick McCurry

Poet Jason Crane has been interviewing jazz musicians for years. Many of those interviews aired during his career on the radio, but in recent years he’s presented them as a popular podcast called The Jazz Session. Not long ago, Jason found himself about to lose his NYC apartment. Rather than find a new place, he took up a collection from his generous listeners, bought a Greyhound bus pass and took his poetry and his interviews on the road. A recent stop on his “Jazz or Bust” Tour brought him to the Auburn, Alabama book store and coffee shop The Gnu’s Room where the Southern Public Media Group’s Kyle Gassiott caught up with him for this interview which aired on Troy University Public Radio’s Community Focus on Tuesday, July 3, 2012.

The Front Porch | Two Little Girls Take Public Media Viral

Kelly Walker — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 05:00:45 +0000

One of my very favorite websites to visit every day is Metafilter. It’s referred to as everything from a group blog, to “the best of the web,” but regardless of how people define it, Metafilter is one of the smartest destinations online.

This past week, Metafilter linked to an audio feature on PRX by reporter Jeff Cohen titled Two Little Girls Explain the Worst Haircut Ever. As the PRX blog explains, Gawker picked it up along with Neatorama, Buzzfeed, Yahoo, HuffPo, The Blush, The Daily Mail and more. in fact, you’ve probably seen it on Facebook by now, too.

The impact? PRX usually gets around 5,000 visits daily. This week that number suddenly soared to over 100,000.

Multimedia | Latitude News | Unlike Africa and Asia, South losing ground in AIDS fight

Kyle Gassiott — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 20:21:58 +0000

When Latitude News put out a call for some man-on-the-street interviews to accompany a feature on rising rates of AIDS in the American South, our own Kyle Gassiott gathered his recorder and camera and hit the streets of Auburn and Opelika, Alabama. Check out his audio clips embedded in the story Unlike Africa and Asia, South losing ground in AIDS fight.

Radio Feature | Troy Public Radio | The Golden Cage — Revisiting POW Camp Opelika with Col. Albert Killian

Kyle Gassiott — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:29:36 +0000

Today in honor of Memorial Day we’re bringing you a special feature on Camp Opelika one of Alabama’s 24 POW camps built in 1942. In the years between 1942-45 Camp Opelika was home to some 3,000 German POWs, many of whom were captured in North Africa and brought to Alabama after landing in Boston. Life in the Alabama POW camps didn’t resemble the normal prison experience. In fact, one of the German POWs called it a “golden cage.” Today we bring you a tour of Camp Opelika with Colonel Albert Killian who has written a book detailing its history and also served as a consultant for the exhibit housed at the Museum of East Alabama.

Producer Kyle Gassiott toured what remains of the camp by car with Colonel Killian and produced this story which aired on Troy Public Radio’s Community Focus on May 28, 2012. Above we have an audio slide show with historical images and additional audio from the interview.

You can stream or download today’s broadcast below:

Special thanks today to: The Museum of East Alabama, The Encyclopedia of Alabama, and Katie Lamar Jackson.

Radio Feature | Troy Public Radio | Eric Schlosser

Kyle Gassiott — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:00:50 +0000

Southern Public Media Group producer Kyle Gassiott interviewed author Eric Schlosser for Troy University Public Radio’s Community Focus. Schlosser addressed the current state of the American diet, labor issues across the nation, and recent immigration legislation in Alabama before a live audience at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The event was presented as part of the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts No Impact Week and was co-sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for for the Arts and Humanities, the Community & Civic Engagement Initiative, and East Alabama Arts. This is the complete interview which was excerpted on Troy University Public Radio’s Community Focus on May 21, 2012.

Radio Feature | WBHM | Adventure the Great

Kelly Walker — Sat, 19 May 2012 05:00:47 +0000

Adventure the Great is an up-and-coming band based in Auburn Alabama. Southern Public Media Group producer Kelly Walker produced this profile shortly after the release of their self-titled EP. The feature aired on 90.3 WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama on May 18, 2012.

The Front Porch | NPR Women Lead the Way

Kelly Walker — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:41:38 +0000

Newsweek has posted a slideshow titled “The Women of NPR,” which highlights the legacy of public radio trailblazers like Nina Totenberg, Cokie Roberts, Linda Wertheimer, and Susan Stamberg as well as some of NPR’s rising stars. A companion article explores “How NPR Became a Hotbed for Female Journalists. The features come on the heels of a report from the Women’s Media Center on the status of women in the media. It is a generally depressing read, but the report does note that “Overall, about half of NPR hosts and reporters are female.”

The Front Porch | This American Life Wins Polk Award

Kelly Walker — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:46:35 +0000

I was very pleased to read that This American Life has been honored with a George Polk Award for Radio Reporting. The award is for a feature the program aired last March titled “Very Tough Love.”

I still remember vividly listening to the podcast edition of the program on my way home from the Atlanta airport. It was a riveting hour of radio that described a pattern of harsh sentences from Georgia county drug court judge. Ira Glass came under harsh criticism from the judge and her attorney for his reporting. But, as the press release announcing the award notes:

“Following the airing of “Very Tough Love,” Georgia’s Judicial Qualifying Commission filed 14 ethical misconduct charges against Williams. Within weeks of the filing of charges, Williams stepped down from the bench and agreed never to seek other judicial offices.”

I believe This American Life is sometimes viewed purely as an entertainment program. “Very Tough Love” and the accolades it has received are a great illustration of the fact that just as we can make news engaging for a broad audience while examining important issues.