Customer Reviews

Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound (Documentary Arts and Culture)

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I really dug this book. Like any bios, many of those included in this book offered surprises. (Who'd have thought the great Emily Botein began adulthood as a pastry chef?) I appreciated the great words of wisdom from superstar producer Jay Allison, and the insights of the brilliant young producer - and co-host of RadioLab - Jad Abumrad... The book is a great read. I enjoyed learning the backstories of the many public radio greats that I enjoy listening to each week...

I have been a listener of public radio and the audio documentary format for many years. I always look forward to stories from NPR and PRX. This is the ideal gift for any fan of This American Life, Radiolab and All Things Considered. With chapters written by the likes of Jad Abumrad and Ira Glass, this gives a real glimpse into not only the inner workings of these shows but the very essence of the ideas leading up to them. This is not just a book for the fan of PBS, it is for anyone interested in storytelling and journalism. With so much of our TV time taken up by cheap reality programming and radio with inflammatory talk shows, this book really restored my faith in the fundamentals of radio reporting and storytelling.

No matter: however much I may dislike NPR's political propagandizing, I do recognize that they have raised the audio documentary to an art form. Jonathan Kern's "Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production" is the bible of creating this art form.

This book is the collected stories, in essay form, of some of those who create the art. Exclusive of the opening and closing essays, there are 18 essays here from creators of audio documentaries. All of them are excellent.

There are no dull essays in this book. Each reveals, to one degree or another, the mind of the creator: what drew them to the audio medium, given up for dead in the middle of the 20th Century. What stories they are trying to tell. Often, they include their techniques for producing their audio documentaries, how they let the subjects lead, for example, or how they made the sounds or edited the components to achieve the effect they intended.

Some the essays struck me as a bit pretentious, but not overwhelmingly so.

On the whole, this is a marvelous book that paints vivid portraits in written words of those who create vivid portraits, most often, in the spoken word.

Be sure to check out page 205 for a link to a site containing samples of the essayist's work and much more.

Jerry