For 10 years, WNYC's Radio Rookies program has been teaching teenagers to use a microphone and recorder to tell their stories to the world. The Rookies make every effort to reach across the boundaries that often separate adults and teenagers and "tell it like it is." Tune in to WNYC the week of November 9th to hear updates from Rookies of the past and a rebroadcast of the hour special "Growing Up, Getting By."
Jordan Teklay was the first teenager to ever come to the program with a passion for radio already instilled. In fact, Jordan loved radio so much, at 15 he became legally emancipated from his parents and moved on his own from California to New York to try to make it as the next shock jock. He finished his Radio Rookies story three years ago and since then he’s been doing everything possible to get back on the air, like spending hours refining and sending out audition tapes. Listen here.
On Tuesday, October 27th in Washington, D.C. the Radio Rookies series In The System, stories by young people in foster care, won the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism and the inaugural America's Promise Alliance Journalism Award, inspired by the late Tim Russert, an Alliance board member. The judges said the series is "emblematic of superb radio journalism. To give voice to these teen reporters is to give voice to the thousands of other kids who find themselves in that very same system." You can listen to these award-winning Rookies stories here.
Bronx 2009 Broadcast Workshop A Week of Radio Rookies on Morning Edition
The newest series of Rookies stories comes from the Bronx and will air the week of October 5th, 2009 during Morning Edition on WNYC and are available for download here. For this workshop we partnered with the Next Generation Center in the Morrisania area of the Bronx. These stories take us into the lives of teenagers grappling with poverty, exploring the effects of the Chernobyl disaster, questioning what happens when their parents have been incarcerated, and struggling with a mother who has a debilitating disease. Listen here.
Brooklyn Broadcast Workshop
December 2008 during Morning Edition
The broadcast Radio Rookies Brooklyn workshop was held in partnership with the High School for Global Citizenship (HSGC) in Crown Heights. The newest Rookies stories explored why parents work so much, child abuse, literacy, not reaching one's potential, and being different. Listen here. more
Brooklyn Rookies: Behind the Scenes Audio Slideshow
Radio Rookies is an award-winning WNYC program that trains young people to use words and sounds to tell true stories about themselves, their communities and the world. Through a series of workshops, each held in a different neighborhood, Radio Rookies gives teenagers the tools to become radio journalists. What is Radio Rookies?
Click on the map of New York City to hear Radio Rookies stories from different neighborhoods.
Funding
Radio Rookies is supported by A.L. Mailman Foundation, Bay and Paul Foundations, Con Edison, Fred L. Emerson Foundation, Helena Rubinstein Foundation, Margaret Neubart Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York Times Company Foundation, Time Warner and W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation.
