Coffee With John Rudolph

Getting to know the "Stories from the NYPD" producer.

Producer John Rudolph is an internationally recognized, award-winning journalist. Producing reports, documentaries and special programs for many of the world's leading radio networks (including National Public Radio, Monitor Radio, BBC World Service, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBS Radio and others), John was recently honored with two awards by the Society of Professional Journalists for his documentary "Feet in Two Worlds: Immigrants in a Global City." This hour-long program earned SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi award for public service in radio journalism and SPJ's New America award, which honors partnerships between mainstream and ethnic media.

Intrigued? We sent him a few questions. He sent us a few answers.

PRX:
You've been in "the business" for almost thirty years. What inspired you to begin working as a public radio producer? Did you find what you were looking for, or have you continued for other reasons?

John:
I actually got into public radio by accident. In the early 80s I was working for CBS in New York City, and was hoping to make a career as a reporter or anchor at an all-news radio station. Then along came the New York City transit strike, and WNYC asked me to help them with their transit strike coverage. The strike lasted for two weeks, and when it was over WNYC offered me a job as the station's news director. I took the job and instantly fell in love with public radio, especially the freedom of not having to tell the whole story in a 60-second news spot. At WNYC I had the opportunity to work with some wonderful people including my friend and colleague Karen Frillmann, who has been my partner on numerous radio documentaries and other projects.

I still love public radio, but my role has changed a lot over the years. In the beginning I covered breaking news and also produced goofy features for NPR on things like a fashion show of bullet-proof clothing. Now I work almost exclusively on big, long-term projects that combine radio documentaries, web sites and live events.

Recently I produced a program for New Hampshire Public Radio on a public high school in Manchester, New Hampshire where students come from nearly 70 countries and speak close to 100 different languages. The documentary [on the NHPR site], "Culture Lessons: Stories of Students at Manchester Central High School" was accompanied by a web site with several beautiful photo essays of the school. NHPR also hosted a community forum on diversity and is developing educational materials on multiculturalism to distribute to schools around New Hampshire, all based on the documentary I produced. Multi-faceted projects like this keep me interested and challenged and maximize the impact of my work.

PRX:
A lot of your work focuses specifically on the NYC area. Is the city's history a passion of yours?

John:
I'm passionate about New York's history and about the city today. I'm especially interested in the ways that immigrants are shaping and changing New York. One of my ongoing projects called "Feet in Two Worlds" (FI2W) trains reporters from ethnic newspapers to be radio producers and puts their work on public radio. New York has hundreds of ethnic newspapers, and they often cover stories and topics that never make it into the mainstream press. There is a huge gap between the information available to people who read and depend on ethnic media and those who get their news from the mainstream press, including public radio. There are also significant gaps between different immigrant and ethnic groups, each of whom are served by their own media. "Feet in Two Worlds" aims to bridge this information divide by bringing the stories and voices of ethnic journalists to public radio audience listeners.

The project, which is a cooperative venture with The Center for New York City Affairs at The New School and WNYC, also helps advance the careers of young ethnic journalists by giving them new skills and bringing their work to a much larger audience than they normally reach in their newspapers. In future years we hope to expand Feet in Two Worlds to other American cities that have vibrant ethnic media, a community of independent producers and a strong public radio presence.

In terms of the city's history, I grew up in New York in the 50s and 60s, and it just so happens that WNYC has extensive audio archives from that era, as well as other decades in the city's history. I've done several programs on New York City's history including the most recent, "Stories From The NYPD," which is distributed on PRX.

PRX:
What's your favorite part of putting a story together?

John:
I enjoy many parts of the process. Meeting new people and interviewing them is exciting and challenging. I still am amazed that people will answer such intimate and personal questions when they are facing a microphone. I also really enjoy sitting in the studio and hearing a program emerge during a mix session.

PRX:
Do you prefer working independently or with a particular station/group?

John:
I have the best of both worlds. I am an independent journalist with all the freedom that comes with being free lance, but because of the nature of my projects I always work with larger institutions. Usually these are radio stations or networks. But, as I mentioned, in the case of Feet in Two Worlds I have a partnership with The New School. Having an institutional partner is essential because large institutions have access to people and resources that allow my projects to reach their full potential. My institutional partners usually raise the funds for my projects, and provide marketing, web design and other essential services. This frees me up to manage the project and work on the editorial content.

PRX:
You mention "mentoring young journalists" as an important part of your work in your PRX profile. What kind of advice do you find yourself repeatedly giving? Are there any golden rules of journalism you believe in?

John:
A lot of the younger journalists I have worked with have great ideas but lack confidence. So I encourage them to practice two seemingly contradictory impulses -- swagger and humility. You need swagger to walk into an interview and not feel silly asking the most obvious question, or embarrassed asking the most personal question. To be a successful journalist you need to believe in yourself and what you are doing. But you also need to practice humility because being confident, brave and smart does not give you the right to take advantage of other people or to misrepresent the facts to fit your own point of view. It is easy to get carried away with a story (especially one that you are enthusiastic about) -- to make reporting errors, to misrepresent the facts, to exaggerate. Every time I write a script I have a conversation with myself where I ask the same questions that I expect my editor to ask: "Is this fair?" "Is this accurate?"

On the logistical side, I encourage people to do as much research and planning as possible before conducting interviews or doing field recording. Know ahead of time what you want to get out of the interview and how you expect it to fit into your story. Think about what kind of ambiance you need for your story, and leave time to gather what you need. You may wind up with some sound that you weren't expecting, but it's always better to have a good idea of what you want, than to go on a fishing expedition hoping that you'll catch something useful.

© 2007, The Public Radio Exchange