Small correction:
Czerina Patel is the senior producer of WNYC's Radio Rookies. Youth Radio is in California.

Well said! I couldn't agree more. Do you think the festival presents enough opportunities to dialogue about minorities and radio? You should ask youth producers questions along the lines of, "Do you plan to continue producing radio after you leave the program? What do you make of the lack of diversity in mainstream public radio?"

I just listened to "Bi Chic" a few days ago and was planning on writing a (glowing) review when I found time. Very impressive...well-structured, funny, and the points she makes (especially in the conclusion) are sophisticated.

As a side note, nice to see a BSR alum blogging! Features folk are having a listening party tomorrow if you have any suggestions...

hey kiera!

very cool. I miss those BSR listening sessions. You'll have to give my best to everyone there. Yes, I finally have alum status after finally leaving...but I miss that place!

As to your question about diversity... my cautious answer would be I don't know, by my even more cautious answer would be no. The two pannels I can think of in past years that really addressed issues of race and agency in making radio were first, The Two Towns of Jasper, which was a truly, truly marvelous, challenging, and through provoking pannel about the documentary film by the same name. (You can listen to and read more about that pannel here. The second was a pannel called Tresspassing, which you can listen to and read about here. This one didn't deal with race explicitly, but it did talk about what it means to cover a community that is not your own.

I don't think there has ever been a pannel that dealt explicitly with race in public radio, and how the overall whiteness of the field impacts how stories get told, and what stories get told. And I can't think of too many times when it's come out in other general discussions. I think it could make an interesting pannel for a future year.

I agree that a panel on race and radio would be a good one to have - one that really deals with the issue directly! There are serious financial and recruiting issues that need to be addressed, and we also need to look at the sound, mission and culture of public radio as we look at how to bring and retain more diversity on the air. We should also look at the question of unpaid internships in radio (this was something that also came up at the NABJ Awards this month)! I'm really happy that youth scholarships are provided to the the youth groups to enable them to come to Third Coast. It allows for a diversity (in age, background, and race) that would otherwise be quite lacking at the Conference. There are significant efforts being made to increase diversity in public radio, but Third Coast would be a great forum to look at how much progress is actually being made, and what still needs to be done by those of us in the field to better address diversity issues in public radio.