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?  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!”

We 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”?

Speaking 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 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.

Your 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.

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

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.

That’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

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.

The 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!

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.)

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.

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 .

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.