Today’s the last day to submit entries to NPR’s Public Radio Talent Quest, a competition that seeks “the next public radio star”. Based on votes from Talent Quest site visitors, and a team of judges, the field of contestants will be narrowed to semi-final and final rounds, culminating in the crowning of winners later this year. Hmm. Does that remind you of a certain Fox TV show? NPR is not immune from the lure of copycat promotional efforts, apparently.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that a lot of my fellow podcasters had already submitted entries, and that many had made the very smart decision to enlist their audiences to vote for them. Some have created edited snippets (contest entries can’t exceed two minutes) from their shows, while others have written and produced original entries.

I would really like to see podcasters move forward in this competition. Podcasters have already demonstrated a high level of commitment to producing audio on a regular basis. Many have earned loyal listeners, and have become accomplished producers and performers. and they’ve bootstrapped themselves into this position through their own creativity and craft. The same can’t necessarily be said for people who chose careers in radio, and who have never had the chance to build their own program and audience completely from scratch. Nor could it be said for folks who nurse dreams of stardom, but feel no particular pull toward self-expression or communicating with an audience

The contrarian part of me is a little disdainful of a contest in which the ultimate prize is not a larger platform for a show that you create and control, but a job as host of a program produced under the auspices of a large network: a network with sponsors and contributors to answer to. I guess I have to wonder whether the price of becoming a star in public radio includes conforming to a large organization’s notion of what it wants, rather than plowing through with a vision of your own.

But my contrarian will probably keep quiet if one or more of podcasting’s own makes the Talent Quest grade. If public radio really wants to open its ranks to amateurs with big dreams, let’s hope those amateurs make the essential creativity and DIY spirit felt in the halls of NPR. Good luck, podcasters.

-shelly

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 7:39 am and is filed under Blog Entry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.