Vocalo 89.5 FM
1/7/2010
By Gina Goodman
Four years ago Chicago Public Radio president and general manager Torey Malatia came up with an idea to create a new kind of public media service. At the time, CPR was conducting audience research, surveying the likes and dislikes of those listening to talk station 91.5 WBEZ-FM. The results found that the listening audience wasn’t as diverse as the region where it broadcast.
Malatia wanted to use social networking and the Internet to reflect the city’s diversity by bringing people from across the region together to talk about what was important to them. From this, Vocalo 89.5 FM , the online interactive arm of CRP was born.
“Everyone has stories,” said Vocalo’s general manager Adam Yoffe. “We tell them all the time to our friends and families and coworkers. The station and Web site have been designed to allow people to share these stories with as wide an audience as possible”
Vocalo allows listeners to upload music, stories, opinions and other audio to the Web site. The information is then put together by the on-air hosts and production staff to combine the work of the community into a cohesive radio broadcast.
“It’s like YouTube for radio,” according to the Web site.
"A team we call 'The Factory' curates user-generated content from the site and preps it for broadcast," said Dan Weissmann, host and producer at Vocalo. "Much of the editing itself is actually done by users, with training and supervision from the Factory staff; [they] hold 'open studio' hours three times a week. Anyone with an interest in producing radio is welcome to come on by."
“This is clearly the age we’re living in,” said Yoffe. “People are making the entertainment they want to see, and reporting the stories that resonate with them, and they’re doing it with very little assistance from established media outlets. Our main goal is sharing first person narratives with our listeners.”
This makes Vocalo’s content unique each day. The site supports text, pictures, audio and video, and listeners can call a toll-free hotline to leave messages or talk to on-air hosts directly. The station provides different themes so individual works from users can be compiled in alternate ways to tell a larger story.
“The level of media access that Vocalo puts into the hands of the community is absolutely the most unique feature of the station.” Yoffe said. “Nobody else is broadcasting with such an open door policy. This is what brings in content to the site and guests to the broadcast that can’t be found in more mainstream media outlets.”
Weissmann agreed.
"People tell us that the sound is fresh, the open and the welcoming attitude of the hosts is appealing, and the presence of voices from communities throughout our region provides constant novelty," he said. "From an editorial perspective, we're constantly soliciting reactions to news from our listeners, not just pushing stories out for passive consumption."
The station broadcasts to over 800,000 people living and working in Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Yoffe believes this is a large factor that sets Vocalo apart from other Internet-only stations.
“It’s a good incentive for the community knowing that the stories they share with us could be heard by that many people,” he said.
The station does not have “shows” in the traditional sense, but it often uses a mix of user-generated content as well staff-chosen subjects to communicate within the community.
“The ideal is when Vocalo staff collaborate with neighborhood organizations that we have partnerships with,” Yoffe said. “We’re helping them tell their story, and the content and ideas behind them are being driven from the community to the station, not the other way around.”
Yoffe explained that since the station is a bit unconventional, some listeners are a little confused in the beginning.
“Our hosts curate three hour blocks of the live broadcast, which contain several shorter segments based on content in the library around various themes and subthemes,” he said. “Since we don’t have ‘regularly scheduled programming,’ it can be a strange experience for a first-time listener.”
But overall, Weissmann emphasized the growing demand for media outlets to incorporate the listening audience.
"As far as we know, no other station anywhere has based theor broadcast format on user-generated material," he said. "Nobody really knows where radio is headed, but it sure looks like the future of all media is going to be online, mobile, interactive and participatory. That's why we're doing what we're doing."
Yoffe added, “It’s empowering to individuals and communities to know they can not only make media that matters to them, but they can find a place where it’s broadcast and shared with the rest of the world.”
Making the Pitch
Since Vocalo is a non-commercial, user-generated media form, it does not accept press materials and advertising in the traditional sense.
"We encourage organizations to package their content as stories, rather than as PSAs, and upload them to the site or be an on-air guest," said Weissmann. "In that sense, Vocalo operates a little less like a regular radio station and a little more like YouTube - a platform where folks can put their material out there for the world to see. If the material is compelling, it'll find the audience."
Yoffe agreed.
“When it’s appropriate, we’ll have these groups on as guests to talk about their event or message, provide some context to it and see how it fits into the larger community conversations we’re having that day,” he said.
Contact Information
Vocalo
848 E Grand Ave
Chicago, IL 60611
(312)893-2956
Adam Yoffe, general manager
adam@vocalo.org
(312)893-2978
Dan Weissmann, host and producer
dan@vocalo.org
(312)893-2970