Airspeed Goes to the Peabody Board on Behalf of the Podsphere

The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize “distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals.” But it’s plain to anyone who understands podcasting and who reads the Peabody rules that the Peabody board has no idea what a podcast is.

The Peabodies have been vital in recognizing groundbreaking work. From All in the Family to Roots to Sesame Street, the Peabodies have been there fanning the flames of excellence. The call for entries for the 2010 Peabody Awards has just gone out (see the important dates in the screenshot above and visit the Peabodies' website at http://www.peabody.uga.edu/).

It has lately bothered me that a technical misunderstanding on the part of the Peabody board might chill the willingness of podcasters to submit entries for consideration. And that the Peabody board might not understand what it was evaluating.

I first noticed the inconsistency in January of 2009 when I entered Sometimes Alternates Fly for a 2008 Peabody Award. Sure, that was a Quixotic move on my part. But that won’t surprise anyone who knows me. In any case, please be assured that this isn’t sour grapes over not getting a Peabody. Airspeed (and, let’s be honest, most of the podsphere) is a long way from producing Peabody-worthy stuff. I know. I actually go watch and/or listen to such of the Peabody-winning entries as I can get my eyes/ears on.

But it’s important that this hallmark of achievement in media be fully open to our favorite medium.

Accordingly, the following is set to go out in Monday’s mail.
______________________________________

8 November 2010

George Foster Peabody Awards
University of Georgia
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication
120 Hooper Street
Athens, Georgia 30602-3018

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I write as a producer of a widely-subscribed podcast and as one who appreciates the tradition of the Peabody Awards in recognizing and embracing the evolution of media.

I fear that the Peabody Board misapprehends what a podcast is, that the entry rules for the Peabody Awards convey this misunderstanding to would-be entrants, and that the Peabody Board is thereby both depriving itself of the opportunity to consider worthy entrants and depriving those worthy entrants of a chance at recognition. I write to point this out and to tender a few suggestions.

Millions of podcast episodes crisscross the Internet daily on their ways to hand-held media players in every corner of the world. Podcasts are produced by broadcast professionals, lawyers, letter carriers, landscapers, lumberjacks, and others from almost every other imaginable walk of life. As with much other media, Sturgeon’s Law is in full effect: “90% of everything is crud.” And perhaps, on the Internet, 99% or more of everything is crud. Or worse. But, if podcasting produces the ridiculous, it also occasionally produces the sublime.

Some of that which is sublime deserves consideration by the Peabody Board. It is exactly the kind of electronic media that the Peabody Awards were originally established to recognize.

Although the Peabodies putatively accept podcast entries, the rules, entry guidelines, and the Peabody Awards’ own website all suggest that the board has no idea what a podcast is. I fear that this suggests to podcasters with potential entries worthy of consideration that the Peabody Board will categorize a podcast entry in with dissimilar content and/or fail to judge a podcast entry on its merits.

If you were a sculptor interested in entering your statue in a juried art show, but were told to send a photocopy of the statue (to be clear – not a photocopy of a picture of the statue, but a photocopy of the three-dimensional statue itself) would you enter? Probably not. That art show clearly doesn’t understand sculpture. So you, as the artist, lose a potential venue for recognition and the competition loses the opportunity to consider the statue.

The Peabody Awards’ web/podcast guidelines present just such a non-sequitur to the podcaster. The rules for web/podcast entries is presently as follows.

Web/Podcast

Web entries should correspond to one of the above entry categories and be “original to the Web”, meaning the entry was produced exclusively for the Web and not re-purposed in any way. If the entry was done “in collaboration with another medium” (e.g., the Web site is an added value in content, interactivity, or multimedia to a broadcast or cable production), the site should be included as part of a broadcast or cable submission. The date the entry went online must be specified when the entry is submitted for competition. Entrants must keep their nominated entries online, intact and accessible from submission until the Peabody Awards are presented on May 23, 2011. The site must be accessible in a current version of the leading browsers and to both Windows and Macintosh platforms. For judging and archiving purposes entrants must also submit the entry on CD-ROM or DVD, formatted for Macintosh OS or Microsoft Windows platforms.

The rules mention podcasts only in the title of the putative “Web/Podcast” section of the entry form. And the word “podcast” does not appear in the “Entry Formats” web page at http://www.peabody.uga.edu/entries/formats.php. A literal reading of the rules essentially excludes podcasts.

Initially, and most fundamentally, podcasts are not properly a part of “the Web.” The “Web” is a distributed collection of content, usually in HTML, linked media, script, or similar form that is accessed through one or more visual browsers. It is, for the sake of convenience, a collection of “web pages.”

A podcast is a distributed collection of audio and/or audiovisual content, usually in MP3, M4V, or similar format, that is indexed by an RSS feed and automatically downloaded to, and consumed on, a media player, usually a handheld portable one, such as an iPod, Zune, or smart phone. Although one can consume audio and audiovisual content that is part of a podcast through a browser on the Web, that is by no means the primary method of doing so. Any more than listening to a Web stream of a radio station is the primary means of listening to a radio station. The overwhelming majority of podcast consumption occurs using small portable media devices in cars, on busses, at the workplace, on hiking trails, at the gym, or wherever peoples’ lives take them.

It is true that most podcasts have accompanying websites and that most podcasters include some form of show notes or ancillary material on such websites, possibly even including a link to the show’s audio or audiovisual files for consumption through a web-based viewer. But the Web element is merely ancillary. To call a podcast a part of the Web is much like saying that a radio or television station is the station’s website. And no more.

The rules further require that “[t]he site must be accessible in a current version of the leading browsers and to both Windows and Macintosh platforms.” It’s hard to know where to begin with this particular clause. (a) A podcast is not a “site.” It’s not even properly a creature of the “Web.” (b) The requirements of this clause are akin to requiring that a radio entry be accessible from a Ford or a Toyota. (c) What of a podcast with no accompanying website? How is the “site” to be maintained through the announcement date? Or at all? (d) Even if a podcast has a companion website, will the judges look to the podcast’s companion website instead of judging the podcast on its own merits as a podcast? Would the judges judge a radio production by the radio station’s companion website? Without reference to the audio itself on its own terms? Or judge a television production based on the living room in which it is viewed?

It is true that the most popular podcasts are parallel means for distributing content that is originally produced for radio, broadcast television, and cable television. To the casual observer, it might seem that all podcasts fall into this category. But the Peabody Board is not (or at least should not be) a casual observer. Is the Peabody Board aware that most podcasts are independently produced primarily as podcasts and that the RSS feed (and not radio or television) is the primary, and usually only, means of distribution? Can it be that the Peabody Board is unaware that true podcasting is an entirely different and unique channel for media distribution and consumption, entirely apart from traditional radio and television? I hope that this is not the case, but the rules sure make it seem that way.

Whether intentionally or otherwise, the Peabody Awards’ entry rules communicate loudly and clearly to anyone who would enter a podcast episode or series that podcasts are at least misunderstood – and, very probably, unwelcome – in Athens.

While criticism is sometimes useful, solutions are actually helpful. And usually more welcome. To that end, I hope that you’ll not think it too bold of me to offer a solution to the problems identified above. I suggest the following modifications to the web/podcast rules.

Web/Podcast

Web and podcast entries should correspond to one of the above entry categories and be produced exclusively for the Web, or through an RSS or similar feed, and not re-purposed in any way from an offline medium. If the entry was done “in collaboration with another medium” (e.g., the Web site or the podcast is an added value in content, interactivity, or multimedia to a radio or television broadcast or cable production or is simply an alternative means by which to consume an entry that is primarily intended for distribution by radio or television broadcast or cable production), the Web entry or podcast should be included as part of a broadcast or cable submission. The date the entry went online must be specified when the entry is submitted for competition. Entrants must keep their nominated entries online, intact and accessible from submission until the Peabody Awards are presented on May 23, 2011. A Web site entry must be accessible by the use of a current version of a commonly-used Web browser and to both Windows and Macintosh platforms. A podcast entry must be accessible in a form usually and ordinarily consumed using widely-available portable media devices (e.g. MP3, WAV, or M4V). For judging and archiving purposes entrants must also submit the entry on audio CD or DVD.

As you can see, the modifications take into account the actual nature of Web and podcast media, respectively, and address the issues raised above.

I hope that you consider these changes or changes similar to them. Doing so would make it clear to potential entrants that the Peabody Awards recognize and embrace the evolution of electronic media and make available to the Peabody Board additional worthy entries to consider for its prestigious award.

Podcasting is a vital and growing media form that produces work worthy of the Peabody Board’s consideration. And it would be in the finest tradition of the Peabody Awards to revise the rules to make it clear that the best, the brightest, the most brutally honest, and the most compelling of electronic media – in all of its varied forms – is welcome in Athens in January.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Very truly yours,

/s/ Stephen L. Tupper
_____________________

You can download a fully-formatted version of the letter (that shows the redlining in the proposed language for the rules) at http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/Peabody_Letter_2010-11-03.pdf.

Still Futzing with the Opening Sequence

Yeah, I'm still futzing with the opening sequence for video episodes, although I think I'm done now. I added some footage from Battle Creek, namely balloon and Strikemaster gun cam.

I also have two episodes in the process of editing now. A How to Pass Your Form 5 Checkride episode featuring my latest CAP Form 5 ride with Capt Tim Kramer and the much-anticipated T-38 episode.

Airspeed Updates its Opening Sequence for Video Features

I finally got around to adding in some recent video to the opening sequence for the video episodes. It comes, at least in part, from my ongoing efforts to get the T-38 episode out. I thought I'd post it here for the heck of it as I get ready to release some more video content.

Enjoy!

T-38 Egress Training - Part 2

And now it's time for the "do" phase of the T-38 egress training at Beale AFB. I climb in, strap in, and get a chance to demonstrate what I've learned. And ask a lot more questions!

I'm planning to shoot some more commentary this weekend and then I'll have all of the elements I need to get going on the final edit. Watch for the finished episode in October.

Raw Footage: T-38 Egress Training - Part 1b

Here's the second half of the "show" portion of the egress training for the T-38 ride at Beale AFB in July. I'm paying pretty close attention because the "do" portion - where I have to get in, strap in, and show that I can get out quickly - is coming up shortly.

This is just the raw footage. I'm editing the episode and shooting some commentary and hoping to have the full episode ready to go in October. Stay tuned!

Raw Footage: T-38 Egress Training Part 1a

One of the beautiful things about new media is the ability to let your audience go as deep as it wishes into the experience. Although I'm carefully and artfully assembling the Airspeed episode covering the T-38 ride using only the tastiest and most relevant parts of the footage, some of you are going to want to see the whole thing from beginning to end.

So here's the second in a series containing the raw footage that went into the ride. In this installment, Capt Gorman goes through the initial pert of the "show" phase of the egress training. The "do" comes later when I strap in.

T-38 Parachute Training

This is a regular blog post. If you're looking for show notes to audio and video episodes, please check out the other posts.

I'm getting ready to put together the T-38 episode and I'm going back through all of the footage, picking out the stuff toat'll go into the episode. We shot a lot of footage and, clearly, only a small part will go into the actual video eposide. But a lot of it is pretty cool if you're into the nitty gritty of what goes into training for a ride like this. So I'm going to start posting some of the video here as deep background for those of you who are interested. Stay tuned for more soon!

Acro Grass: Crowdsourcing a Piece of the Acro Camp Soundtrack

There are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedAcroGrass01.mp3. Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free.

Hi, guys. Lots going on. I’m editing material from a balloon flight, a T-38 sortie, an episode on how to hurl in an airplane, and lots of other stuff. Lots more aviation content coming your way soon. But lets take a quick detour to talk about the movie.

Unless you’ve just subscribed, you know that the movie, Acro Camp, is in post-production. We’re all awestruck by aerobatic flight. We wonder what it’d be like to fly upside down for the cheering kids.

At some point, you quit wondering, climb over the fence, and go find out. Four pilots. Two men and two women. Experience ranging from 300 hours to 12,000 hours. None of them had a tailwheel rating and none of them had flown any appreciable aerobatics. We took over a Part 61 flight school for five days this spring and those pilots flew aerobatics for the very first time. We loaded up the airplanes with HD cameras and digital audio systems and had cameras roving around the ramp and the pilot lounge to capture the entire experience. And now it’s coming to a DVD player, film festival, or side of a barn near you.

Acro Camp. Go find out.

Principal photography wrapped in May and I have something like four terabytes of content to make into a feature film. It’s Labor Day weekend 2010 as I’m recording this. If you’ve been following the Acro Camp blog at http://www.acrocamp.com/ or following me on Twitter as StephenForce, you know that I’ve been engaged in a film editing orgy of stupendous proportions, wading through all of the video and audio that we shot in May. There’s amazing stuff in there, from first tailwheel flights to botched maneuvers (witness the “Immel-Spin”) to formation sorties and everything in between.

I also did one other thing this evening in the studio and I think you’re going to like the concept. Maybe even enough to participate.

The aviation podsphere is one of the most open, inviting, and collaborative places in cyberspace or any other space. Everybody who can make it sits down together twice a year to record a live episode together. Even the Aussies bend over backward to be there, even if only virtually. We often appear on each other’s shows. We get input from audience members and fans and fellow aviation enthusiasts. Sometimes, we even turn the mic over to them. Were it not for Airspeed, I wouldn’t know half of the people that I now call my best friends.

When I announced that I was going to make a movie, I had two instructors, two airplanes, and a vision. I hung my credibility out there and asked you guys to join in. Then I sat back and sweat blood until I got at least four applicants.

I needn’t have worried. I got 51 applications from all over the United States and Canada and an utter embarrassment of riches in trying to narrow down the cast to Jim, Lynda, Michelle, and Paul. People volunteered and came from California, Florida, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Michigan to handle cameras, swap cards, and cover the experience. People flew and drove from Iowa, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other places just to hang out.

The film has been a collaborative and social enterprise from the very beginning. So I though I might try getting even more involvement from those of you whose imagination this project has captured.

How’d you like to help out with the soundtrack? Yep. That’s right. I’m going to crowdsource at least one of the grooves on the soundtrack. Here’s how it’s going to work.

As many of you know, I usually write and record groove-based music for my audio and video episodes. Same thing for the movie. Repetitive, groove-based music that sets a mood and is engaging, but rides under the action and augments it without overpowering it.

I came up with a basic theme on my Martin Backpacker guitar about six months ago and it’ll be one of the themes that I use for stuff that happens on the ground. (By the way, I’m planning to have all of the music on the ground be in 4/4 and all of the music for the aerial sequences be in 3/4 or 6/8. Thus, this is in 4/4.) I’m including a bit of the theme here in this episode so that you can listen to it. It’s just a basic illustration of the theme and it’s very imperfect. It’s not the final version and I’m almost certainly going to re-record it for the soundtrack.

It’s called Acro Grass for the moment, mainly because it has a bluegrass feel and the Martin Backpacker guitar sounds very banjo-like when I play it. It’s in the key of D major and the tempo is 116 bpm. I recorded it with the Backpacker with a DADGAD open tuning like I used in Theme from Milliways (which you heard in the First Solo episode in 2006) and The Lake Parker Arrival (which you heard in April of 2008). Both pieces have made appearances in trailers to A Pilot’s Story as well.

I’m including the theme at the end of this episode so you can hear it. If you hear something about at theme that speaks to you and you’d like to contribute, here’s what you do.

Download one of the extended versions from the show notes for this episode at http://www.airspeedonline.com/. I’ve posted two of them: One with a click track and one without. Each runs a little almost 12 minutes, so you’ll have plenty of time to sit and jam to it and come up with your own additions.

When you’ve come up with your contribution, record it and then send it to me in electronic form. All I need in the early going is an e-mail to steve@airspeedonline.com with an MP3 or a link to where I can download your file and listen to it.

If I like it and want to incorporate it – or think I might – I’ll likely get in touch with you and get a permission from you to use it. Basically, you’ll represent and warrant that it’s your original work, you’ll agree to indemnify everybody associated with the project against third-party infringement claims, and you’ll grant a non-exclusive license to use your contribution in the movie, in the soundtrack CD, and otherwise. I’ll mention you in the credits and you’ll get to brag that your stuff made it into a movie.

And, if I can pull it off, I’d love to do something like put a picture of you up when your part is featured while the music plays during the credits, along with a notation of the instrument you play and what you fly. That would reveal some of the people who made the music to which the audience has been listening throughout the film.

In any case, I’m not in a position to pay for your contribution. That’s kind of why I’m calling it a contribution. I’m already about $10,000 into the project, not counting the hundreds of hours thus far. In the exceedingly unlikely event that the movie actually recoups its production costs and I can start paying people for their stuff, I might tickle your mailbox with a little something. But no promises. Don’t count on anything.

Some other notes of importance. What I’m looking for are short sequences and snippets that I can loop or otherwise incorporate into long and varied amalgams of the general tune appropriate to dropping into the film at strategic points. I’m not looking for a complete 11-minute opus that runs alongside, or incorporates, the track that I’ve provided. Don’t make a career out of it. Just bits and pieces that I can remix and assemble. Musical Lego blocks.

You don’t need to go into a fancy studio and you don’t need top be running Pro Tools to make this happen. Any reasonably good recording that’s on pitch and in time will be fine. Even if all you do is listen to the guide track in your headphones, play along while recording, and then send me the good parts, that’ll be fine. I’ll take it from there.

By the way, I got the idea from the Playing for Change videos. If you haven’t seen them, please hit YouTube and watch a few. And contribute money to Playing for Change for the work that it does. My favorite is Stand By Me. It starts with street musician Roger Ridley in Santa Monica, California and then dissolves to Grandpa Elliott and Washboard Chaz in New Orleans and then to other musicians around the world. None of them had met in person at the time, but the guys who made the videos put the parts together in post to make a cogent and beautiful presentation of the music. I want this tune to come together along those lines.

And note that each of them just listened to the guide track in their headphones and played. Use Pro Tools if you have it, but the musicians from Playing for Change did just fine without it. You can, too.

There’s no guarantee that your music will be used at all. And, if it does, I might twist and repurpose it in strange and beautiful ways, whether by adding effects, pitch-shifting it, increasing or decreasing the tempo, cutting it, augmenting it, and what have you. As with the Acro Camp campers and IPs, you’re going to have to trust me.

When you submit your stuff, do it in an electronic file. WAV is preferred. High-resolution MP3s will do in a pinch. Make it high and dry with no reverb or other effects. If there are multiple instruments, separate them one per file. Don’t send a mix unless it’s to illustrate a particular thought about placement or some other element and you’re sending the separate instrumental track as well.

The following things strike me as potentially interesting to include. (Not essential, but they’re what I’m hearing in my head when Jeb Burnside isn’t in there.) Wordless female voice, something like Enya or Cirque du Soleil. Strings like violin, viola, cello, or bass. Flute or whistle. And banjo. And, if you can make it work, trombone. Kent, this means you have to play in four sharps, but I think you can handle it.

I suppose that this is also a good time to indulge one more fantasy here at Airspeed. That fantasy is that Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor, Jordan Rudess, Tony Levin, John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart, or Alex Lifeson listen to the show. Or that someone who knows the foregoing gods of musical motor skills listens to the show. And that one or more of them shoots some tunage my way. C’mon, guys! I’d almost take that over an opportunity to land a crippled 747 with the STS orbiter on top of it.

Anyway, here’s that theme: Acro Grass. Extended versions for use as guide tracks to record your bit:

With click track:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/Acro_Grass_Jam_Track_With_Click.mp3

Without click track:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/Acro_Grass_Jam_Track_Without_Click.mp3

Tempo: 116 BPM
Key: D maj

"Having the Fish" with Jetwhiner and Airplane Geek Rob Mark

There are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen to the show audio by clicking here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/airspeed/AirspeedHaveTheFish.mp3. Better yet, subscribe to Airspeed through iTunes or your other favorite podcatcher. It’s all free.

You're probably familiar with my #havethefish hashtag on Twitter and/or that longstanding and nearly universal fantasy of non-airline pilots involving both pilots on an airline flight becoming incapacitated and said non-airline-driver being called up to the cockpit and heroically landing the airplane (to the applause and adoration of all aboard, to say nothing of the rest of the world). Something a-la Executive Decision (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116253/). I've long wanted to have a current or former airline driver or two on Airspeed to take a more technical look at that fantasy.

Given a good airplane in cruise at altitude with plenty of fuel, good comm, CAVU day conditions at the destination, and someone on the ground with knowledge of the airplane to talk him down (a-la the King Air off of Marco Island a couple of years ago), what are the chances that a, say, 300-hour instrument-rated private pilot could sit down in the left seat and land the aircraft with the airplane and pax having a reasonable chance of being reusable?

Rob and I talk through the scenario from sitting down in the left seat to how much braking to do.

More information about Rob and his other projects:

Jetwhine: www.jetwhine.com

Airplane Geeks: www.airplanegeeks.com

Acro Camp Post-Production Goes to the Streets!

This is a regular blog post. You’re looking for show notes and links to show audio and video, right? You know you are! Check out the other posts. You’ll find ‘em. Lots of ‘em!

Lots of time lately cataloging footage from principal photography of Acro Camp in May. I have about 2/3 of the aerial footage from Friday 14 May cataloged and indexed. And I’ve even mated some of the multi-camera parts with their respective counterparts.

That day was one of the more intensive flying days. And it had some of the best weather of the camp. Thus it’s taking a long time to get through, but it’s well worth it.

I’m planning to take the editing process out on the road and edit the film in public so people can see how the sausage is made and maybe become a little emotionally attached to the project. This film is going to live or die by word of mouth and social media, so getting the buzz going by doing things like this makes sense. Ad least it makes sense in the somewhat crazy calculus of social media.

I’m planning to be at The Workantile Exchange at 118 South Main in Ann Arbor all day on Saturday,. If you want to see how the project is going (and check out a great coworking space while you’re at it), give me a call at 248-470-7944 and I’ll hook you up. Maybe get lunch or something.