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"Our
Top Stories"
Listen for Our Top Stories on KUNM, Sunday, July 2, 2006 at
11 a.m.
KUNM's Tristan Clum
trains (from left) Carol Boss, Kamani Nagurski, Julie Jordan, Todd Lovato, Bob
Davey and Nick Kerwin.
In 2001, two half-hour pilot programs aired on KUNM called "Our Top Stories." We wondered if what our local news media considered the top stories of our community matched up with what was top of mind with the average New Mexican. So we sent reporters out in the field to ask randomly:
If your life was a TV newscast, what would be the top story right now?
The resulting answers were authentic and revealed the heart of the community. One man was about to do a challenging mountain climb, one couple had just adopted an eight year old, one young woman had just introduced her new boyfriend to her parents, a homeless man was helping at the shelter that had taken him in, a 7 year old was having trouble with his 2 year old brother, a Vietnamese woman was struggling with an impending arranged marriage. We strung these short stories together with little narration or editing and, well, people seemed to like it.
After the first show, we were flooded with positive calls, some saying we should do it regularly. We were able to do one more, but lack of funding forced us to put the project on hold.
Thanks to a grant
from the City of Albuquerque's Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, "Our Top Stories"
returned in 2004. We're brought together 4 students and 4 community volunteers,
matched them with professional trainers, and taught them how to do the interviews
and the editing to create the final programs.
Click on a show to hear it in RealAudio:
Show #1 / Show
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# 9 / Show
# 10
KUNM News Director Marcos Martinez shows trainees a video on interviewing
Our student staff: Kimani Nagurski, New Futures High; Nick Kerwin, Sandia High; Damien Flores, Albuquerque High; Kimberly Kreitinger, La Cueva High.
Our community volunteers: Julie Jordan, Bob Davey, Carol Boss, Jamila Davey, Rogi Riverstone, Kenna Josephene.
Along with trainers Paul Ingles, Todd Lovato, Tristan Clum and Marcos Martinez, we created 8 shows in 2004-5.
Here's one recent response from a listener:
This
(show) was fantastic! There was a disclaimer of sorts at the beginning which
said that this was not going to be the equivalent of the 'riveting' mass-media
news, and boy were you right. This was so much better! When I listen to mass
media news I try hard to only listen with partial attention. I want the highlights
and to know the events of the world, but I do not want to get sucked into such
a litany of death and despair. Your production was something I listened to with
my whole ear. I was hanging on every word that each person said. This was real
life. What real people think and feel. What is the most important thing to someone.
It made me feel connected to them and to the world. The fact that you stopped,
listened to, and broadcast the important parts of these people's lives made
my life feel more important; made me look at what is going on in my life that
is significant to me. Thank you so much for inspiring such a warm feeling of
connection with my fellow man (and woman) and also inspiring a similar act of
introspection. It really made me realize that every day, every week has something
notable, if we just take notice.
Again, thank you very much. ~ Ellie Vigil