the season is over….the work continues

by allison langer

it took a year, but we did it! the first full season of writing class radio is done!

when andrea and i got the idea to do a podcast of our writing class, i said, “we have to show the world how great our students are. it’ll be fun!”

she said, “yeaaah! their stories are sad and deep and crazy. people need to hear this stuff!”

we thought we’d throw together a few stories, follow the students through their lives and possibly learn a little about writing. boom...a show. i’m a photographer. andrea is a writer. notice, neither of us is a producer, audio technician, or radio person. we had no experience at all. what idiots, right?

thanks to our consultant and wlrn wiz, wilson sayre, we devised a plan. we hired an audio producer, diego, rented a recording room for our class, and signed up 10 brave writing students.

we began recording a year ago. the sound was mixed and the stories placed into scripts. the first four episodes appeared on our podcast in late october. people emailed to tell us how much they loved the show. friends stopped me at the gym and at parties to say they wanted more. we were winging it! 

gregory shepherd, dean of the university of miami school of communication, listened to our podcast and waived the fee for the recording room. they became our sponsor. my friend, catherine, loved the podcast so much, that she funded our first year.  we hired someone very part time to help us with social media. we sponsored a few writing students who could not afford the class. we bought insurance and finally paid diego.

thanks to the feedback we received, the episodes evolved from a bunch of stories thrown together to a real show with music and meaning and a real writing lesson. we love the way season one came together. we continue to speak with our advisors to improve and grow. season 2 will be packed with great stories, and original vocals by the mann sisters, ari herstand, chloe delandis, kevin myles wilson and our favs, astromaps. 

please help us move into the second season buy sharing our episodes with your friends and family and by making a donation to writing class radio on our website. diego deserves a raise for putting up with two crazy perfectionists with conflicting great ideas. and you deserve more writing class radio!