Youth Radio

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Youth Radio was founded in 1990 on the deeply held belief that underserved youth, ages 14-24 years old, have the creativity, technical skills and entrepreneurial spirit to become leaders in the multi-media industry and the community and to serve as mentors to other youth.

The heart of its pioneering efforts is to train young people from under-resourced public schools, community-based organizations, group homes and juvenile detention centers in broadcast journalism, media production and cutting-edge technology. Youth Radio offers professional development and technical skills training absolutely free of charge with the aim of preparing young people for pathways to meaningful careers. Youth Radio graduates leave with the soft and hard skills necessary to land jobs with employers from KCBS and KQED to the Port of Oakland and Google.

Each year Youth Radio introduces diverse groups of students to a broad spectrum of media-related careers and state-of-the-art technology. Its program goals are to strengthen basic life-skills, motivate them to graduate from high school and attend a two or four year university and prepare them for multi-media and other careers in the 21st Century Marketplace.

Youth Radio currently trains 1,300 youth each year to develop core competencies in audio, video, web and print and to produce the highest quality original media for the widest range of mainstream outlets. Its reporters are heard worldwide through radio, video and the Internet and through print media.

Seventeen years ago San Francisco’s KQED broadcast Youth Radio’s first two minute youth commentary. Today, more than 300 Youth Radio reports and commentaries are broadcast each year on National Public Radio programs such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition, on-line outlets like CNN.com and iTunes and on public radio stations across the country. An estimated 27 million people hear and read the often overlooked perspectives of young people through Youth Radio’s work each year.

Youth Radio has become nationally and internationally known as a cutting edge youth development and media organization, weaving the fast end of the ‘digital curve’ with best practices and innovation in community based education. Youth Radio has received prestigious awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Alfred I. DuPont/Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.

Series

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2 Pieces

The Peabody Award winning investigation into child prostitution in Oakland, CA.

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10 Pieces

Youth Radio participants share their personal experiences in a commentary on issues that are important to them.

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5 Pieces

Youth Radio's the Best of What's the New What? is a great end-of-year round roundup of the most interesting and provocative trends from 2008. The series includes five stories from Youth Radio's popular weekly NPR series "What's the New What?" This series asks what new trends in youth culture are replacing old trends. In short: What's the New What?


Pieces

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President Barack Obama's newly appointed Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is perhaps best-known for his work in Northern Ireland. Youth Radio vi...

Bought by Vocalo.org, WMNF, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 04:01
  • Purchases: 3
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Vox featuring eleven young people around the country reflecting on the impact of the economic crisis on their lives.

Bought by WTIP, KZMU Moab Community Radio, KGNU Community Radio, and KUNM


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 09:36
  • Purchases: 4
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Youth Radio's Luis Sierra describes his father's decision to return to Mexico after decades in the United States because of the economic crisis.

Bought by Vocalo.org and WMNF


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 03:41
  • Purchases: 2
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Reginald Dwayne Betts went from the high school honor roll to the penitentiary. He spent nine years in prison beginning at age 16 for a carjacking ...

Bought by KUOW, Vocalo.org, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 02:16
  • Purchases: 3
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This year more than other years, a college degree is no guarantee of a job. Commentator Emma Jacobs of Youth Radio graduated spring 2009 from Colum...

Bought by WMNF and Topics Education


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 03:11
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Reporter Ana Castillo eating a Kogi taco, Credit: Miguel Macias
Kogi is a Korean BBQ Taco Truck that moves around Los Angeles.

Bought by PRX Remix and KUT


  • Added: Jun 02, 2009
  • Length: 02:54
  • Purchases: 2
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With job cuts across most sectors, college students who once coveted corporate cubicles are giving new thought to Government work.

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 06, 2009
  • Length: 01:40
  • Purchases: 1
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Youth Radio talked to young people of different ages about their belief in Santa Claus.

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and Radijojo World Children's Radio Network


  • Added: Dec 19, 2008
  • Length: 03:46
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Youth Radio's Mark Anthony Waters., Credit: Wilmer Tejada
Youth Radio's Mark Anthony Waters used to hear straight guys in his inner-city neighborhood whisper about his style on the bus. Now, they're copyin...

Bought by KVNF, KUOW, and WMNF


  • Added: Dec 08, 2008
  • Length: 02:55
  • Purchases: 3
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Referring to music as "noise" is typically an insult, but not in Athens, Georgia where the noise music genre has a growing fan base.

  • Added: Dec 08, 2008
  • Length: 02:55