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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After experiencing her first semester away at college, Youth Radio’s Nora Harrington realized that the hometown she was so happy to leave behind wa...

  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 01:51
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Youth Radio’s Kacey Ward continues to try to find ways of learning to cope with the many deaths in her family.

Bought by WXLV-FM


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 04:28
  • Purchases: 1
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Adriel Luis takes a different spin on the subject of beauty.

Bought by WGXC, YouthCast, and WMNF


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 03:50
  • Purchases: 3
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Using the functions of a remote control, Alicia Zakon tells the story of a woman who is stuck between wanting to be in love and wanting to be free.

Bought by WMPG


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 01:19
  • Purchases: 1
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This election season prompted Youth Radio’s Luis Sierra to apply for US citizenship.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 02:23
  • Purchases: 1
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Hearing that her friend has had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive person leads Youth Radio’s Leah Chapple-Stingley to reflect on another time an...

Bought by WFUV, YouthCast, KUCB, WSHU, and KUNM


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 01:57
  • Purchases: 5
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Youth Radio’s Lauryn Silverman spends her shopping days wandering the aisles of Thrift Town, where she can express herself in a unique way.

Bought by KSFR, WXLV-FM, and YouthCast


  • Added: Mar 18, 2005
  • Length: 04:15
  • Purchases: 3
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A brief spoof-advertisement for an apocryphal CD that remixes 1960s classics with hip-hop beats.

Bought by KBRP Community Radio, KSFR, and KUOW


  • Added: Dec 11, 2003
  • Length: 01:24
  • Purchases: 3
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Youth Radio's Sophie Simon-Ortiz reports on what happens when clothing retailers push their teenage employees to wield the powerful psychology of t...

Bought by WMNF, New Hampshire Public Radio, WFUV, WAMC Northeast Public Radio, KUNM and more


  • Added: Nov 20, 2003
  • Length: 03:08
  • Purchases: 8
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Youth Radio's Gabriela Jacobo describes growing up in a religious house, struggling to find religion herself.

Bought by PRX Remix, WNIN, KSFR, New Hampshire Public Radio, SpiritHouse Inc/Youth Noise Network and more


  • Added: Oct 08, 2003
  • Length: 05:22
  • Purchases: 11