Party With Microphones!

Such a fun time! The most interesting people, good food and drink, and SHOUTS like you’ve never heard.

And PHOTOS! Yes. Our Will Webber and Ruby his photographic assistant (aka camera) were in attendance and very busy. Check this link for the photo gallery.  Brilliant job, Will!

Thank you for your enthusiasm, participation, and generosity.  This party really showed what Community Radio is all about.

 

Science Radio Promo Party

BUT NOT JUST ANY PARTY.  We’re a radio station, right?  So we’re going to have a Radio Imaging Party.

How the pros do jinglesRadio Imaging are the sounds — the shouts, promos, and IDs — that are in-between program elements.  Not the songs, news, or talk.  This is what goes around all that.  And we want your voice to help.

Yep.  You are going to be on the radio.

You’re going to be coached by a pro and join the other invitees in a series of shouts and IDs, like “Radio NEWARK”, “Ninety-Nine Point Nine”, “Science, but Not The Boring Kind,” and who knows how many other imaging pieces the Director will have us do.  We’re expanding our science radio station to FM in Newark, Delaware.

Your voice needs to be there!

The Kenny Family Foundation is already on-board, so “heavy hors d’oeurves” will be served, and State Line Liquors is sponsoring the adult beverages.  Yeehah.  [Edit: Whoops.  Just learned that our liquor license demands that the alcoholic beverages be purchased or donated from a licensed DELAWARE source.  Sorry, Robert.  We’ll figure it out — not to worry!]

This Is A Fundraiser.  Please buy a ticket, and please ATTEND!

When?  Where?  April 20th, 6:30-8pm at 6 Bent Lane in Newark.

This is probably going to become an annual event where we all get together and record the promos, shouts and IDs that become the imaging for the coming year.  How cool would it be to hear yourself on the radio from time to time?!

Buy a ticket HERE —

If you can’t make the party (bummer) but want to help, please make a donation towards the engineering or telecom shelter or the crane or our Science Radio programming.

Here’s the donation link.

Our Construction Permit from the FCC absolutely GOES AWAY on February 7, 2017.  We need to get this done, if Newark wants to have its own radio station.  Sign up TODAY.

Local Community Radio for Newark, Delaware

FM 99.9 Antenna Is UP!

Pole | Mast | Antenna | Grounding | Cabling

Huge milestone.   Our pole, mast, antenna, lightning protection, and coaxial feedline is completely installed.  In six hours, 18 months of work bloomed on cue.

Kathrein-Scala FMV-4Thank you for making this happen!  If you’re new to the team, please join me in thanking our donors, supporters, encouragers, helpful folks at the City of Newark, kind neighbors, the great installation crew, and everyone who was praying!  Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Next up — learn How To Broadcast.  We need to work on our storytelling skills and audio production.  (More on this in a second.)

Listen!  Trumpet blast for Mike and Michelle Reynolds, Ted Kelly, and the great crew of Danny, Cory, and Eric from Blue Hen Utility Services!  When Mike and Michelle understood what we are doing, they jumped in with all four feet — and an auger truck, a bucket truck, telephone pole, and a fun, safe, experienced, efficient utility crew including Joanne, the able office manager.  I am certain you earned a place in Radio Heaven for the work you did yesterday!

And thank you Newark Post!  Editor Josh Shannon took the time to join us for the job.  Josh caught the whole scene as each task was checked-off the list.  As did our great friend and supporter John Moore, President / GM of Bear-Glasgow Dental.  John loves this project; yesterday he demonstrated that by volunteering (on the spot) to meet an urgent need.  Showed the spirit that is behind this community radio effort.

How To Broadcast

Storytelling is what we do.  Newark is home to 30,000+ stories every day.  Let’s find those stories…record them…edit and prep them…and send them out over our new community radio station.

What’s your story?  What business, activity, event, charity, organization or hobby should we know about?

How?  Learn how to broadcast!  Quite simple and inexpensive.  Our first How To Broadcast class is tentatively scheduled for November 3rd at the Newark Senior Center.  You can signup for class here.  Your $34 investment covers our room rent, publishing costs (you will receive a professionally edited and illustrated copy of the Radio Newark How To Broadcast Handbook), processing fees, SNACKS and instructor fees.

You have created a new radio station for Newark.  Now let’s get ready to use it!  There are twenty-five seats in this class.  Is one of them yours?  RESERVE IT NOW.Special thanks for Mayor Polly Seirer, Tim Boulden, former Mayor Vance Funk, Greg Sawka at Bancroft Homes, Barry Schlecker (Brandwine Festival of the Arts, etc.), Bob O’Brien, John Moore and the doctors of Bear-Glasgow Dental, Doug Rainey atDelaware Business Daily, Will Webber of Will Webber Homes, and Ken Chisholm.  You guys have helped so much.

And so have you.  Your kindness, encouragement, financial gifts, and word-of-mouth have already made this little project a success.  I congratulate and thank you. Together we have done a very good thing for Newark.

Steve

Stephen Worden for the Newark Community Radio Board of Directors

PS — What is your idea?  We have room for your stories — restaurant reviews, calendar of events, business activities.  If you have an idea for a recurring show or segment, contact us soon.  (NOW!)  Thanks.  Steve@RadioNewark.org.  Let’s drive this bus!
Copyright © 2015 Radio Newark, All rights reserved.

A New Night Downtown

“Science Radio?  That’s pretty cool.  Are you on the air yet?”

That was the most popular question from those stopping by Radio Newark’s booth at New Night 2015.  Most folks were not aware of the station, its mission or location on the Internet or its soon-to-be home on FM radio as WIZU 99.9.  In short, it’s “Science, but not the boring kind!”

2015 New Night smallWe had plenty of brochures and information detailing the listening area, our goals and our focus on being a community science station.  Although the station has an incredible network of global affiliations, including Vatican Radio, our focus is on fostering and continuing interest in science related topics in the Newark community and bringing them on air.

As an added measure of fun and small fund raiser, each person who stopped by had the chance to guess how many candy/gum items were in the big jar. Each guess was only 25 cents and each guesser had the chance to examine the jar carefully, putting math skills to work to determine the correct amount.

Consolation prizes were given to those who could answer interesting and humorous questions about the topic of the day, the Octopus!  Who knew the octopus had three hearts or that the favorite lunch of the octopus was a “peanut butter and jellyfish sandwich”?

PrintSpeaking of the candy jar, the most popular guesses were 100 and 250; both tied for the most guesses from participants. But the real number of items in that jar? 296!   One person came very close at 295, but we were able to squeeze in one more piece of candy.

Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by our booth and signed up for the email list, took a brochure, made a donation or took a guess.

And the answer to the most popular question about when Radio Newark will be on the air?   Soon! We’re expecting installation of a new “tower of power” by early August, 2015. So, as they say in the broadcast business, “stay tuned”—literally!

–Catherine Fischer

Fundraising (PRACTICALLY DONE!) Update

Fundraising ALMOST DONE!

WIZU-FM is absolutely HAPPENING.

“We want to be part of the station from the beginning,” said John Moore, GM of Bear-Glasgow Dental.  “I asked the doctors, ‘Do we want to help fund part of the antenna, or do we want to go all-in?’  Guys, here’s a check for $3000.  We are IN!”

It costs $12,785 to build a new STEM-oriented, independent FM radio station in Newark.  So we asked some business owners for financial support.

In three weeks, we’ve raised CASH and commitments for 87% of what we need.  It has been profoundly gratifying to meet with business owners and community leaders.  These folks understand what a new community radio station will do for Newark — so much so that they wrote checks to fund most of what is needed.

Putting this station together is truly a community effort. My Mom wrote a check.  The friends and volunteers of Radio Newark have written [big] checks.  Tim Boulden ofBoulden Brothers Plumbing and Heating joined us because “helping is the right thing for Newark.”  When Vance Funkmade his financial contribution he said, “I think this is a good idea.” And I know that you do too, because YOU have been part of this effort since the beginning.

Science Radio StationYour financial gift paid our engineering costs. (Remember!)  You made suggestions for programming.  You donated websites and logos, bought t-shirts and wrote checks to keep us going a year ago…two years ago…three years ago.  Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity!

WE’VE ROUNDED THIRD and are heading for Home plate.  We have less than $2000 to raise to complete this funding round!  And I know that many of you want to put WIZU 99.9 FM ON THE AIR.  Here’s your chance.  Make your tax-deductible donation right now.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSRHH5BCFHLT4

Oh YES — you CAN send a check to Radio Newark.  Our mailing address is 117 Bent Lane, Newark, DE  19711 USA.  But do it NOW.  Please don’t wait.  I need to get the required equipment in here to meet the FCC requirements.

Science Radio Station

It’s true — I’m writing to you because I want you to take out your credit card and make a donation.

And I’m writing to you SPECIFICALLY because I think you want

  • To know, when your head hits the pillow, that you’ve done a REALLY GOOD THING for a LOT OF PEOPLE
  • To be positively associated with a GREAT organization
  • To give Newark its own radio voice.
  • To promote science, technology, engineering, and math as great fields of study and employment.

It is easy to get started.  Just click here!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSRHH5BCFHLT4

Get onboard now, so we can get onto Phase II of our expedition in radio.

Phase II?  Meet Giselle, our mobile recording studio


Remember that time when you and your friends were sitting around a table, talking and listening — enjoying each other’s company.  Picture any table at a restaurant.  Nowimagine that space inside this van and add microphones.  BINGO!

We’ve been introduced to some of the best businesses in Newark.  (If you’re a business seeking top-of-mind awareness, please get in contact now about our Foundation Underwriters package.  Once the station is built, this top-of-mind opportunity will be gone.)  They know that being part of a new, STEM-based LOCAL radio station is truly a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

We’re going to close this round very soon.  The businesses are interested, and you are too.  Everyone sees the value of being part of this amazing launch, the value of this new FM station.  Your financial gift is the fuel for LIFTOFF!  Please donate now.  (Thank you very much!)

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSRHH5BCFHLT4

Radio Newark volunteer Ken Chisholm wrote a check because he wanted “skin in the game.”  (His heart is already there.)  Vance Funk, Boulden Brothers, Bear-Glasgow Dental, Barry’s Events, Bancroft Construction,Lang Development Group, Will Webber Homes and YOU (and Mom — Hi, Mom!) have pledged and donated ALMOST ENOUGH to build this station.  Now let’s finish this off!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QSRHH5BCFHLT4

Thank you all for cheerleading, funding, encouraging, and contributing.  You are the most wonderful group of people I have ever known.  Thanks again, dear one.

Talk to you SOON.  All the best from Radio Newark,

Steve

Stephen Worden for the Newark Community Radio Board of Directors

PS — We’re going to need your stories.  If you want to learn How To Broadcast, let me know.  We have some information for you.

Tech Forum of Delaware Idea Challenge 2015

Q1. How do you entice young professionals to live, work, and play in Wilmington, Delaware?

Q2. How do you entice business to move to or start up in Wilmington?

A. Put 49 people on seven teams and give them three hours, no spending limits, and excellent hors d’oeurves.

TFOD_Idea_Challenge_2015That’s the recipe for the Tech Forum of Delaware‘s annual Idea Challenge — with those two questions being the issues to address for 2015.

The Idea Challenge is “easily the biggest event of the year for us,” said Tech Forum board member George Rotsch.  “The thought was that teams can come up with ideas that were going to be one step further, one step bigger, and maybe one step grander” when techies and creative types work together.

Radio Newark was present to record the event — which turned out to be the easy part, once we got to work editing the hours of audio files.  It’s a big story to tell in ten minutes.  Let us know what you think.

Idea Challenge Story   The Idea Challenge Story

Here are the individual presentations.

Wilmington University   Wilmington University

Corporate America / CSC   Corporate America / CSC

Fibertech / Digital Eye   Fibertech — Digital Eye

Start It Up Delaware   Start It Up Delaware   (Winner!)

Great Dames   Great Dames

Cyberwolves   Cyberwolves

Four Smart Guys and Ken   Four Smart Guys and Ken

Here are some links to news coverage of the event.  Take a look at these:

Delaware Business Daily (with photo gallery)

Technical.ly Delaware

Delaware Business Times

Congratulations to all the teams.

Thank you, Tech Forum, for the opportunity to help.  We’re already looking forward to next year!

Steve Worden / Radio Newark

Iconic How To Broadcast Handbook

RELEASED Onto An Unsuspecting World

An Incredible Work of Writing, Editing, ART and Production.  You should SEE this thing!  I am so happy to introduce the Radio Newark How To Broadcast Handbook.

How_To_Broadcast_CoverThe idea is to teach YOU how to tell stories to US.  We want to give Newark area residents the opportunity to write, record, and broadcast stories about your lives, experiences, businesses, charities, organizations, events, and activities.  And we want to develop the arts of broadcast journalism and storytelling.  So we created a tool to help you get that done!

Catherine Fischer (MA, Communications, U of D) took the twenty-five pages of rough draft and formed them into a flowing, cohesive narrative on — YOU GUESSED IT! — how to write and produce a radio story.  And she did it in sixteen pages!  Very insightful.

Erin Crow took her vibe and translated ideas into pictures.  But not ‘just pictures,’ these are iconic images.  They’re our BRAND, burned onto the page by her keen eye and dexterous hand.

And the layout, typography, and design were done by Creative Director George Murphy of Planet Ten — who absolutely deserves a giant star on the Generous Man Walk of Fame.

Take a LOOK for yourself!

The target audience for this book are those of you who want to get started in Radio but don’t know how.  The Handbook is self-contained, taking you from idea to equipment to completed audio with tips along the way for How To Get Started, How To Interview, How To Hold The Mic, How To Edit Your Stuff because this is a How To sort of book.

Thank you Catherine, Erin, George, and you, dear radio student — for whom this whole project was done.

Let the downloading BEGIN!  This volume is hereby RELEASED onto an unsuspecting, disengaged audience.  Let’s see what happens over the years.

UPDATE — A How To Broadcast class is forming in Newark.  Interested?  Sign up here —

Thank you for your interest and support!

Been Busy!

When Radio Newark hits the FM airwaves, we’re going to have some local content for you. To make that happen, we’ve been out and about listening to some bright minds in our area. (We’re listen radio, not talk radio, after all.)

Dr David Pensak
Dr David Pensak
BioChar Bob Cirino
BioChar Bob Cirino

In the past few weeks the Radio Newark crew has recorded interviews with “Biochar Bob” Cirino of Berwyn, PA, and Dr. David Pensak of Wilmington, DE. Bob has developed a new method of burning any kind of plant matter that produces heat and turns the burned material into a carbon product that enriches soil. Dr. Pensak holds a number of patents and has 10,000 personal stories for you. He was Albert Einstein’s neighbor when he was growing up. We are deep in the process of editing those recordings into the first two installments of “A Mind for Science,” our new radio series.

Stephen Worden, Dave Lascko, Ken Chisholm, Rebecca Stewart at the Voice of America studios
Stephen Worden, Dave Lascko, Ken Chisholm, Rebecca Stewart at the Voice of America studios

In addition, we’ve gone down to Washington, DC to tour the Voice of America studios and run booths at Newark Community Day and the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Networking Roundtable. These events brought us some great ideas, maybe a sponsor or two, and raised our visibility. If you would like to join our list of sponsors, click here to contact us .

Dr. Ken Lacovara
Dr. Ken Lacovara

In a few days we’ll be interviewing Dr. Ken Lacovara, the paleontologist who discovered the Dreadnoughtus schrani dinosaur, the largest land animal yet found. Dr. Lacovara invited our crew to the Community Dig Day he runs at a fossil site in Mantua Township, New Jersey, so our next blog post will have pictures of that.

We’re committed to bringing you interesting and engaging stories that will help make science accessible to everyone. More important, though, is that we want you to bring us your stories.  If they’re educational and entertaining, we’ll help you make them into radio broadcasts .  We’re listening.

A Mind for Science: How Radio Newark Supports STEM and STEAM Education

STEM education (sometimes broadened to STEAM with an A for Arts) is a way to combine many related disciplines — currently viewed by students and society as independent subjects with little overlap — into a single, integrated program that emphasizes the interdependences among the four disciplines and their applications to everyday life.  Radio Newark’s programming offers support and ideas for how to draw connections across disciplines.  The programming embodies STEAM education for everyone.  Story telling is an art, and Radio Newark’s “A Mind for Science” stories aspire to entertain and educate at the same time.

As a nation, we need well-educated citizens in STEM fields.  Currently, the “T” and “E” in STEM are rarely taught in K–12 settings.  Because of this, few people understand the way in which these fields benefit our society or the variety of careers that support them.  By exposing our listeners to STEM topics and the people engaged with them, Radio Newark can help to deepen everyone’s understanding of the world in which we live.

Radio Newark offers short, STEM-focused stories intended to spark the interest of general audiences.  We will partner with local schools to expose students to science communication and to provide examples of the many fields of study and possible careers that exist under the umbrella of STEM education.  Families can listen together and talk about the topics that interest them.  Our website will carry occasional blog posts that accompany some of our “A Mind for Science” stories with pictures, behind-the-scenes details, and additional resources about the topic.

–Rebecca Stewart

Radical Program Format

This post covers the Style Guide for our program format and how we got there.

A few years ago, I took stock of “what is wrong with radio,” and came up with this list:

  • Block programming — the same programs at the same time every day.
  • Same voices — the same people saying the same things every day.
  • Same music — country, Christian, hip-hop, AC, urban, whatever…
  • Choked with really crappy, locally-produced advertisements.

Sidebar — Does this sound familiar?

“We offer fast, friendly, reliable service at affordable prices.  Our friendly and knowledgeable staff is here Monday to Friday, nine until six, Saturday, ten until four, for your shopping convenience.  Quality and selection — GUARANTEED low prices — are just SOME of the things you can depend on AND TRUST from your locally-owned and operated value center.  Convenient payment plans available, some restrictions apply on limited time offer, so call, drop-in and experience the difference that service, selection, and quality makes.”  (Thank you, Gair Maxwell — yes, I bought his book.)  Radio ads in Delaware just ROT.

Sorry for the sidebar.  Back to the list:

  • Bad juvenile humor.  Pick any morning show.  Hey, I’m not against juvenile humor, but when it’s predictable or rude, it’s stupid.  That’s not who I am.  You’ve lost me and most of the people I know.
  • Automated, satellite-based music and hosts.  (Hurricane Sandy hits and Bill-FM is still playing “It’s a Beautiful Day.”)
  • Super-narrow music playlists generated in New York, Nashville, or Los Angeles.  Yes, Delaware has LOCAL music.
  • The left bashing the right, and the right bashing the left — both with their ears stopped up.
  • Shows that start just after the news and end about an hour later, or three hours later.
  • Same programs in the same markets all across the dial.  It’s like Subway has franchised radio.
  • One hundred, three-hour baseball games in every market, every year, all across the entire country.  Come on — can’t you come up with ANYTHING better than that?
  • Then there’s what we DON’T hear — medical breakthroughs, scientific achievements, new research, local organizations sponsoring local events and activities, STORIES not just news.  On and on.

RCA_Victor_1959_AM_600

Now, before the wrong people start taking this personally (like they’re really going to care what I say anyway…), you need to know that quite a bit of the above DOES NOT APPLY TO WDEL-AM.  This is the one shining ray on Delaware’s radio dial.  WDEL has a great staff, understanding executives, great support from businesses and the community, and a full complement of listeners.  Peter, Mellany, Allan, Al, Rick, and Pete (the boss) really do great radio — day in and day out.

Science Radio Station

As a SCIENCE radio station, Radio Newark takes the above programming guidelines and blows them up.  Wrecks ’em.  Breaks every rule that’s up there.

Except for the common theme of entertainment, education and inspiration, we have no single topic and no real schedule.  News at the top of the hour, and around half-past too, but there is no pattern to the programming in between.

We have no host.  At all.  Not even robotic ones.  (We hope to, soon, though, because we feel this is important.)

We don’t do block programming — we do the opposite.  Our snackable content varies in length from one or two minutes up to ten or twelve on average, but each piece is different from the next.  From a different producer, on a different topic, with a different story to tell.

And we search out every possible program of interest, from whatever network or organization it may be produced.  We have as of August 18, 2014 signed, formal and informal rebroadcast or affiliation agreements with sixty-two networks, producers, and content sources.

Katrina_2005_600

Our Style Guide reads like this:

  • You are not likely to hear our programming on another radio station anywhere on Earth.  We are unique.
  • We broadcast science stories and science news, so we many not be the radio station for you.  In fact, we’re probably aren’t.  We’re OK with that.
  • Our segments are short because we’re busy.  Perhaps you’ve got the time to sit and listen to something for hours.  I don’t.  Neither do most of the people I hang out with.  We’ve got stuff going on.
  • Because of all that stuff, our M-F schedules are pretty similar.  Breakfast, school, work, home, etc.  I listen to Radio Newark at about the same time every day, but I don’t want to hear the same stuff.  So we play different stuff all the time.
  • Spoken word programming, because we get the other kind in different ways.  (Pandora, probably.)
  • In addition to entertainment, we want to educate and inspire.  We think those are worthy goals.

This post isn’t finished, yet, but I’m going to make it public anyway.  There’s much more to say on this topic.

Steve Worden, General Manager

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