Who Needs Ira?

This American Life, nurtured in the belly of Chicago’s WBEZ-FM for 10 years, famously picked up its toys, sold out, and moved to New York (and to TV, of course). Whatever. There is still a lot of cool radio happening in Chicago and you don’t even have to live there to be a part of it! Technology is so fancy!

• The Secret Radio Project teased for more than a year has finally been announced and it’s an interesting experiment in YouTubishness. WBEW, according to this story by our sister paper, will become a whole station with no real shows, no official programming, just listener/nerd-generated audio. You make it, upload it to the still-under-development Web site where anyone can listen. The stuff that isn’t complete crap gets sifted and tweaked for actual air by producer-hosts. It seems one more way to circumvent indie radio producers who never get paid enough as it is, but I have a job now, so, hey, have at it.
• Also up for grabs for audio geeks: a free trip to Evanston! In November! The Third Coast International Audio Festival sponsored by Chicago Public Radio offers four slots to the winners of the best stories about these dollar store items: a mug that says “Well behaved women rarely make history,” a four-pack of mousetraps, and a metal bicycle bell. The stories have to be 2:30 to 3 minutes in length, documentary, fiction or both…as long as they’re inspired by at least one of the items. And if you get to go, maybe you’ll meet Ira Glass and bump uglies with other audio geeks!