The KPFA Apprenticeship Program

VOICES TO BE HEARD

by Erica Bridgeman

On June 8th of last year, I walked into a maroon-colored building that would forever alter my perception of media and government, the music industry, and my place in it. I would journey to the crossroad of personal and collective ideas of free speech, group beliefs about process and consensus, and the revolutionary act of a black woman working the technical controls of a sound studio.

I had been accepted into the KPFA Apprenticeship Program, a one-year affirmative action training program where people of color and white women are brought into a world that is largely dominated by white men. Over the course of twelve months, we would be instructed on topics ranging from the physics of sound, terminology, dubbing, mixing, learning the tools and devices of electronic media as well as script writing, news reporting, interviewing, and the art of radio drama. Going in, I knew the experience would be intense; we were expected to be in class every Tuesday and Thursday evening as well as work at the station one business day during the week (not to mention the extra hours needed to produce assignment pieces).

All of us had other full time jobs that often demanded just as much from us as the Apprenticeship Program itself. At the first class, we were little more than anxious neophytes hungry to get our first taste of "audio art" but by the time the program was even half over, we had become so much more.

With a grant from the California Arts Council, the Apprenticeship Program began in 1982 as a six-week training session but grew over the course of eighteen years into its current one-year manifestation. After going through an application and interviewing process, nine to thirteen apprentices are selected to begin a three-phase curriculum (each phase is generally three to four months in length).

Phase one starts apprentices with lectures on creativity and empowerment, the physics of sound, using tape machines, and getting their first taste of field recording. In phase two, the focus shifts to using studio equipment, editing satellite and telephone feeds, mixing news and features, and recording live panels. In phase three, ideas of leadership and team building continue as apprentices expand their production work to include board operating, using digital audio workstations, and producing pieces for various programs.

All phases include workshops led by training directors and other professionals in the industry. In addition to the classes, apprentices choose one day during the week to work at the station. Each dayshift brings additional responsibilities, including operations and the maintenance of equipment, production management, and community outreach and events.

The contributions that the Apprenticeship Program makes to KPFA, the Pacifica Network, and the media and entertainment industry at large is both vital and critical. Apprentices are counted on not only for the production of the weekly news, the community calendar, public service announcements, the recording of Jennifer Stone, and This Week Behind Bars, but also as the sole vehicle that insures the realization of diversity and integrity at the station.

The demise of KPFA would be the demise of the only fully funded, fully structured affirmative action radio broadcast-training program in the Pacifica Network and perhaps in the country. Graduates of the program have taken their skills and knowledge and have gone on to do amazing work in radio broadcast as well as music, film and television.

Having been in the program since June, I have stood both inside an on-air studio as well as out in front of boarded-up windows and chained doors. For me the lock out of last summer took on a greater significance than just losing access to incredible on-the-edge programming. It represented the threat of having a door and an opportunity into the world of art and technology closed, if for only twenty-three days. Greater yet, it reflected the continued struggle in our community and greater society for the alternative voice to be heard. Long live KPFA! Long live the Apprenticeship Program!

 

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In addition to being in radio broadcast, Erica has written for various print and online publications as well as worked on several independent film projects. She is also the proud mama of a three-year old tabby who loves staring at himself in the mirror.

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