PRNDI Conference
Register NOW Online
For the first time, PRNDI is offering online registration for the PRNDI Conference.  We're excited to offer this service to our members.  All you have to do is click the link below and you'll be directed to our online form.  Once you've finished filling out the form, there will be an option to pay by check or by credit card.  Get your registration completed today!!!

Registration Form

Make your plans now to attend!!
The time is drawing near to make your plans to be in Houston in June.  The PRNDI Board has been working hard to plan another great conference and you won't want to miss it.  Wondering what will be on the agenda?  The wait is over.  You can download the conference agenda here. For 2012, we've added more pre-conference sessions that will give you intensive training on the topics you most want to learn about.  We'll have excellent general sessions and breakout sessions, not to mention a special evening of baseball and networking provide thanks to Houston's own KUHF.

We'll be at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston.  Pre-conference training will be offered on Wednesday and Thursday, June 27 & 28.  The full conference will begin with an opening reception on June 28th and sessions all day Friday and Saturday, June 29th and 30th.  The conference will culminate with the annual awards banquet on Saturday, June 30th.  Make your hotel reservations now by following this link.

PRNDI Announces 2011 Award Winners
Public Radio News Directors Inc. announced the winners in its 2011 awards competition at the annual awards banquet on Saturday, June 25, 2011. This is the only national contest recognizing outstanding public radio news reporting at local stations.  The contest covers work produced in 2010.  A total of 101 awards were presented to local stations at the PRNDI Awards Banquet at the Crowne Plaza National Airport Hotel in Arlington, VA.  The full list of winners is available here.

Also at the banquet, PRNDI presented the "Leo C. Lee Award" to Jonathan Kern, author of Sound Reporting and long-time employee of National Public Radio.  Kern served as a producer and editor for NPR, then was the organization's executive producer of training until his retirement. The Leo C. Lee Award recognizes lasting commitment to public radio journalism.

PRNDI Membership Elects Board Members

The PRNDI general membership meeting was held on the afternoon of Saturday, June 25th, 2011.  At that meeting, the membership re-elected one board member and filled vacancies in three other seats.  Small station representative George Bodarky (WFUV) was re-elected to his second two-year term on the board.  Board member Naomi Starobin (WSHU) was elected to replace Michael Leland (Wisconsin Public Radio) as the large station representative. Bob Beck (Wyoming Public Radio) was elected to replace Doug Doyle (WBGO) as Treasurer of the organization.  Both Leland and Doyle were at the end of their allowable terms in their respective positions.  Charlie Compton (WEKU) was elected to fill out the un-expired term left vacant when Starobin moved from medium market representative to large market representative.  President Jonathan Ahl (Iowa Public Radio) and at-large representative Amy Tardif (WGCU)  still have another year left on their terms in office. 

PRNDI TRAINING:

PRNDI is committed to helping you strengthen your newsrooms.  We do that through webinars and in-person trainings that are free to PRNDI members and their staffs.  More webinars are on the way.  Here is what you may have missed in recent weeks:  March 1st, Interested in Getting More Investigative Reporting on Your Airwaves?; March 15th, If You Can't Beat 'em, Partner With 'em; April 4th, a Q & A with Jill Geisler, head of the Poynter Institute's leadership and management programs.  If you'd like a link to watch these sessions on demand, contact George Bodarky at gbodarky@wfuv.org

Meanwhile, if you missed or would like a link to our webinar Report Live & Present Your Talk Show Live from the Field Using Your Smart Phone, please contact George at the above e-mail address. *** NOTE ***  On-demand webinar links can only be made available to active PRNDI members and their staffs.

Related to the Smart Phone webinar, here are the report-it instruction links and the specific link to the cable users should get at KV Connections:  

For guests talking live or live-to-tape to an NPR host or reporter.

For staff or freelance reporters filing voice tracks to Newscast. 

For guests who use their iPhone to record and send a tape-sync.

iPhone XLR microphone and 1/8 inch headphone adapter.

And here are slides from some previous webinars:

Conversational Radio, can be found here. The session focuses on making your news writing more informal by ironing out the print and talking directly to your listener(s). 

Nuts and Bolts for New Producers: In this session, we demystify story selection, mapping and writing stories for the radio, and how to translate it all to the web. View the slides here.

Lead Writing 101: This webinar refocused our minds on the art of lead writing. Check out the slides here.

Your Newsroom and the Law:  This webinar addressed many of the legal challenges newsrooms face.  Got slides?  Sure do.  Click here.

The Story in Pictures: This webinar focused on the best practices for taking photos, shooting video and other aspects of multimedia storytelling.  We've captured the slides here.