By Ariel Bleicher.

Thomas Edison never imagined this.

You can follow The End of the Dial's updates on Twitter and on Facebook.

By Mirjam Donath


This newsroom picture was taken a day after Michael Bloomberg was assured that he can stay in the mayoral chair of New York. But it could have been taken on any given Friday or Tuesday night in the past months when we have plugged the dongles into the computers of the seventh floor. 

The 'we' here are:
Colin Beattie, the rebel, lover of the sound of nature: migrating birds, buoys dancing on the sea, anything that could bring him out of the walls of the school.
Caitlin Brown, the sophisticated, whose piece on Jules Verne is a must-listen -- therefore I kindly ask our audience to plead her to post it. Caitlin played an emperor in class, charismatic and bossy, only to let us know at the very end that it was a role of hers: she is a professional actress.
Cillian Conchuir, sometimes with muffins, other times with harps, kept the spirit of the Irish in us.
Michelle DeLateur, the bomb of the newsroom. Her "worst piece" was better than our best ones.

Now is the time to reveal a secret of our professor Dean Olsher to show the importance of the next two members of our newsroom: Sara Goldblatt and Jane Hardy. Dean was born in Italy, near Verona. Technically at least. Legally, the piece of land that saw him first belongs to the United States, as it was a military base. No wonder why he works at his best when surrounded by Italians. The presence of the natives Sara and Jane who brought Italy into the gray New York building, intellectually, spiritually, and gastronomy-wise, was essential.

Without Flora Fair there is no End of the Dial 2009. Creator and moderator of this site -- and its various content -- if you are here it is thanks to her.

"Veni, vidi, vici," embodies Allison Fishman's spirit and she did all three warm-heartedly.
Matt Frassica is a pro. I wonder why he joined the class. No, I'm grateful for that.
Phillip Molnar has a Hungarian family name. FYI. And his voice is sound for sound's sake. Check it out.  
Mark Sherstinsky is a doctor. You would tell if you met him: really calm, really healing. Has some Italian connections too.
Sensitive, good-hearted, hard worker, New Yorker: Misha Wagner has stood the Olsher-proof and passed the class with flying colors.

Thank you guys. It was a thrill.

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By Michelle DeLateur


I decided, for some unknown reason that will never be discovered, that I would do a radio piece on Black Friday. And not just anytime on Black Friday, but when it’s still black outside as well, meaning 5:00am. For those of you who have never taken part in this event or cover you ears whenever you hear Christmas sale, Black Friday is the infamous day after Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza, and this year was no exception.Toys R Us opened at midnight.  Macy’s was therefore conservative with a 5:00am start time.

Inevitably with any journalism project, things go wrong.  And I could mark my FIRST EVER Black Friday with several unnerving questions.  And I guess we’ll do 12 since it’s the 12 days of Christmas right?

Question 1:Why are so many kids out on the Subways at 4:00am? 

Question 2:Where are all the people?

Question 3:Can you erase sound files from an SD card once your Edirol goes full … at 4:50am?

Question 4:Who the heck sells SD cards at 4:50am?

Question 5:Why is the Duane Reade cashier looking at me like I’m crazy?  It’s just an SD card that I’m ripping apart in your store….

Question 6:Where are all the people?

Question 7:Why can’t Billy Talon just accept that people are going to spend money, even and perhaps especially in a recession?

Question 8:What do you do when don’t have good tape from an event?

Question 9:Why are shoes the most popular item to buy on Black Friday?  I thought you were supposed to be shopping for other people….

Question 10:Speaking of people: Where are all the people?

Question 11:Why do the Macy’s window displays sound so CREEPY?

Question 12: … Where are all the people?

The result of all these questions is my piece BFSG:Black Friday Survival Guide, now up in the Odd section.  While I am now at the end of my graduate career in journalism, questions will continue to soar:  where will I work?  How will I pay my rent? Will I even work in the journalism field?  The anxiety and the thoughts can be a bit overwhelming.  But I know I have at least one answer now that might work in several situations:   

Having two of something is always better than one. 

By Flora Fair



We're wrapping up the final class for The Medium Formerly Known as Radio -- Fall '09 edition. It's been fun, stressful, often enlightening and occasionally gut-wrenching. Over the course of the semester, Dean has not only taught us the technical aspects of my new nemesis, Pro Tools, but he's also pushed us to understand what makes a compelling narrative. As with writing a good story, telling one in sound also combines the technical and the creative. You have to have a good ear, keen rhythm, and a natural sense of storytelling. And have fun doing it, or it won't be a success! In a lot of ways, it's like snowboarding for the first time: People tell you to remember your stance, keep your center of gravity low, lean into the turns, and not panic -- but really you just have to hurl yourself down the mountain until all the rules become instinct.

So in the spirit of Dean, who tells us to follow the rules second and our ears first, here is a semester's worth of wisdom in a Biblically-sized list. Enjoy!

1. Always record with headphones.
2. Always record 30 seconds to 2 minutes of room tone.
3. Edit with headphones and mix with speakers.
4. Always write your intro first (it should be a modified version of your pitch).
5. Story pitches must consist of one sentence made up of a subject and a predicate.
6. Never relinquish control of the mic.
7. Give a unique name to each audio file immediately upon importing to the computer.
8. Never group regions (make a single group over edits).
9. Always remove breaths from beginnings and ends of actualities; leave inside actualities for naturalness.
10. Refer to these story and narrative guides:  Aristotle / empathy with characters / witness action unfolding / narrative arc / MacGuffin.

PS - That frustrated blur in the photo is Dean himself -- ever our educational MacGuffin.

By Sara Goldblatt


On the Wednesday following the mayoral election in New York City, our class was sent out to the five boroughs to find out what people thought of the results. We discovered a variety of opinionated, colorful characters (listen to the clips!). 


I ended up on Arthur Avenue, in the Bronx. Put differently: I ended up in Naples, circa 1890. This was not Manhattan's "Little Italy"--I have generally avoided the restaurants on (what is left of) Mulberry like the plague; their garlic, their mandolins, and their ballads belong in a movie set. This Little Italy was real, complete with hand-rolled sausages and cigars. In the main market, at the olive stand, I met Modesta Navarra, a fabulous woman who did not speak a word of English. Her dialect was a rich hybrid of Neapolitan, interspersed with a handful of English words (you know, okay). Her opinion on the election was straightforward: it doesn't matter who the candidate is, her bambini need jobs.

By Phillip Molnar

I truly love journalism. But, like most of us in the industry, I'm worried about the possibility of getting, and maintaining, a job. So, I've decided to get proactive.

I'm spending last semester at NYU picking up some new skills that might make me a bit more marketable to editors. I am studying how to make radio and video pieces with some of the best multimedia journalists this industry has to offer. It hasn't been easy.

See, when you're in the NYU print program, Reporting New York, you grab your notebook, a pen, maybe a camera, and run straight into whatever story you are covering. Sure, things go wrong all the time, but it is nothing compared to the equipment troubles I've been having recently.

Last weekend, I took an Edirol recorder and a shotgun microphone to the National Equality March. I interviewed people on the bus ride there, at the march, and recorded speeches at the foot of the capital. Then, I listened to my tape.

It turns out on that every bump I hit on the bus created a weird wobbly sound in my interviews. I monitored my recordings with headphones the whole time but I must have missed it. I hope that I can still create a piece out of it, but the possibility that a whole trip to the capital was wasted keeps me up at night.

Unlike my radio work, I've been successful at video. My first piece, "The New York Comic Shop," (shot on a Canon FS100) was praised by my professors and peers. I spent hours and hours filming and putting it together to create something I am proud of. But, when I started filming for my second project, all hell broke loose.

My ambition got the better of me and I decided to take a high-tech HD camera I was unfamiliar with to the Big Apple Comic Con. Everything imaginable went wrong: My headphones weren't working, I accidentally filmed in high quality so I instantly filled up all three of my memory cards, I couldn't figure out how to shut off the flash, and - to this day - have not figured out how to get the videos on my computer.

Sure, video problems might haunt me, but it is radio that will be the real challenge. Right now, I am spending, what seems like, my fortieth hour of work on a 90 second radio piece about Disney buying Marvel Comics.

I might be cursing Nikola Tesla for inventing radio, and Dean Olsher for being a perfectionist, but I’m determined to create a radio story so good that End of the Dial becomes the hottest source for radio on the web.

So, put some faith in me and stay tuned.

By Sara Goldblatt

There is something I am beginning to truly enjoy about interviewing people for radio: getting them to describe themselves and their surroundings to the mic. 

Typically, an interview for print will leave the physical description up to the author: James, a middle-aged balding man with freckles on his nose, stated that... The author is in charge of coming up with a set of descriptive epithets. The interviewee provides information, answers questions--his or her words bear principally upon the topic in question. 

In the case of video, the video itself provides the description. We see James, with his freckles and his baldness and his middle age (and his numerous other characteristics), and hear him speak. James is recorded as he is on the day of the interview; various elements of his appearance may strike us in different ways, but video offers us all of James, as well as his surroundings. 

In radio, the situation is different. One of the first questions I ask when carrying out an interview is: "Could you describe where we are and what you are wearing?" People are sometimes taken aback. Can't you see me? So I explain: "This is for the radio. Listeners can't see you, you need to show them with your words!" All of a sudden, the interviewee--and not the journalist-- is in control of painting his or her own picture. I, the journalist, merely play the role of mike-holder. [Of course then I am free to edit as I wish, but I would be in favor of generally including this portion of self-description into the piece]. 

Hence, going back to our imaginary James, he may proclaim into the mike: "I am James, I'm just a dude having a good time in the park, I'm wearing my new Nike sweatshirt and am pumped about the concert!!" No mention of baldness, or middle age! Of course the narrator is free to include these details in the narration, but what a contrast! In this sense, radio truly empowers the interviewee more than other media can. I am convinced that it is a very powerful storytelling tool, and that it is specific to (the means formerly known as) radio.

P.S. Another excellent example of this figures in the brilliant "Don't Hang Up" BBC piece. When the producer asks the transvestite to describe herself on the phone--her description is fabulous--hoop earrings, lots of makeup, a mini-dress, etc. It not only gives us a set of details, but an idea of her list of priorities, and a glimpse of her daily grooming routine. Based on her self-description, it is clear that she knows she's hot stuff. Her own description probably beats any 'omniscient' narrator's description.

By Michelle DeLateur

One day, about three months ago, I decided that I needed a radio for my apartment.  Not an iPod player. Not an HD system for my car.   A simple radio.  After about three days of searching, the closest thing I came to a radio was an armband for working out.  Run on batteries.  This would simply not suffice. …But that excursion reminded me of our continually changing world of journalism.  And the people within it are changing as well.

In an older form of journalism, and by old I guess I mean 10 years ago, the different pieces of journalism stayed within their own fields:  Cameramen were the only ones allowed to touch the camera.  Newspaper writers stuck to their computers.  Radio producers were not producing video content and they were most definitely not posted on the same webpage. 

But now, in a complex and continually growing multimedia age, those rules have shifted.  Broadcast journalists shoot, edit, write, and anchor.  Radio pieces are on iPods, websites, and smartphones - at the same time.   These changes put new pressure on journalism students.  We need to be equally as skilled with our cameras as we do with our radio kits; as bold and creative with our Panasonics as with our Edirols.      

Some of us at The End of The Dial jumped into radio from a video background.  Switching from the eye to the ear may seem daunting.  It may feel like we are in some way creating media for a new audience, and that radio requires a different set of skills that we have not developed yet.

But the switch is not far – neither physically on the face nor in practice.  In the visual world, where the eyes overpower the ears, a news voice is incredibly essential.  And in reality, all of us are reporters in our daily lives.  We summarize stories into concise forms to share with other people.  Reporting is not a foreign concept.  But Wav files, Mp3 files, Hertz, and ProTools crossfades may be.

So while some of us navigate the change from visual to audio, there may be a few bumps.  But we can promise creativity and fun!  And we are very glad to have you on our journey!

By Flora Fair

So here we are — a fresh batch of student reporters working for The End of the Dial. We wanted to do something a little different, which could be highly successful or (as Prof. Olsher would call it) “an interesting failure.” Either way, it’s going to be a steep learning curve. We’ve already had a lot to learn when it comes to using the hardware and software. Now we’re delving into the art after the science — instead of operating Edirols and fiddling around in Pro Tools, we're learning how to use our ears, pace a story, and create something that people can’t stop listening to.

My experience of our class has mostly been through the website and its redesign. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how to redefine journalism using multimedia in a way that highlights sound. I like the idea of visuals that only exist as a kind of frame for sound, without distracting from it. How to do that is the question. I also think it’s a great opportunity to have different pieces of information without trying to fit them all into the sound.

I guess some things lend themselves best to certain formats. The act of storytelling — one person talking about their experience — can’t be beat in sound. It offers a more expressive telling than words, and leaves the audience free to turn on the movie in their own heads. It’s like the ultimate universal medium in that sense, because each listener gets to have their own visual experience. I see the appeal. Are you reading this glowing critique of sound, prof? I hope you grade me accordingly.

But the challenge for me now is time management: How am I going to spend time really thinking about new ways to tell a story in sound, find sources, develop story ideas, conduct interviews, edit, and curate areas of the site over the next couple of months? It’s times like this when sleep goes from being a daily expectation to an annoying necessity to a seductive, far-off desire.

The great thing is that I enjoy what we’re doing and where we’re going as a group, I like how the site looks and what it says about the medium, and I absolutely love good storytelling.

Let’s jump off the cliff and see where we land! At the very least, the sound of our screams will make for good (medium formerly known as) radio.