About Blunt
The mission of our program is youth empowerment through direct media access. Since 1994, WMPG's Blunt Youth Radio Project has created a space for young people in the Portland area to explore their community and develop their voice through the first hand experience of media creation. All participants in the program receive free training in hosting, reporting, engineering, and digital audio production. The hour-long show features two teen hosts who interview guests on topical issues. The team's reporters produce public-radio-style features to expand on the week's theme. Topics range from the serious: the genocide in Darfur - to the light-hearted: teen dating.
Outreach
In addition to Blunt's station-based after school program, Blunt has two off site production centers:
Blunt staff teach a radio production course twice weekly at Long Creek Youth Development Center, a juvenile correctional facility in South Portland, Maine. Every eight weeks, the participants in our program make a supervised visit to WMPG to broadcast their own work - live. They produce some of our most popular shows.
In partnership with YOUTHINK and PROP, Blunt has a neighborhood-based production facility in Portland's Kennedy Park neighborhood. Young people from the Kennedy Park area meet weekly to produce shows about issues unique to their experiences.
Funding
Blunt is a free program for all participants. We estimate that it costs $2500 per year for each young person who is a member of the program. Blunt depends on support from the community and from foundations who want to invest in the lives of young Mainers. If you would like to make a donation to Blunt, please contact Claire Holman (below) or donate via PayPal.
Blunt receives major funding from the Open Society Institute and the Chrysalis Youth Action Fund. The Eastland Park Hotel sponsored Blunt's 2006 partnership with StoryCorps.
Staff
Claire Holman, Director
207.650.5835
c h o l m a n @ u s m . m a i n e . e d u
Kerry Seed, Assistant Director & Senior Producer
207.650.5911
c u r i o @ k e r r y s e e d . o r g
Awards
Presented by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters:
2005 Silver Reel - Local Public Affairs - Adam, Branden, James, George, Lashanda, Tyler, Zack, Kerry Seed and
Claire Holman - Incarcerated Youth Speak Out
2003 Special Merit Award - Local News and Commentaries - Carolyn Snell - Body Image
2003 Silver Reel Award - National Documentary - American Road Trip
2003 Silver Reel Award - Radio Drama - Kathleen Ross - And How Does that Make You Feel?
2002 Special Merit - Pre-produced Local Affairs Programming - Joey Thompson - Joey Interviews a Cutter
2001 Silver Reel Award - Live Local Affairs Programming - Selena Juneau, Justin Vogel, Sarah Margolis-Pineo - High School Proms: From Dress Shopping to the Anti-Prom
2001 Golden Reel - Promotion - Blunt Promo Sampler
1998 Special Merit - Station Promo - Blunt Show Promos
1998 Golden Reel - Public Affairs Programming - Blunt Telescope Excerpts
Presented by the Maine Association of Broadcasters:
2006 Radio News Award - First Place - Feature - Bly Lauritano-Werner - Race, High School and Katrina
2005 Radio News Award - First Place - Feature - Mark Cassette and Kerry Seed - My Criminal Life
1999 - Radio News Award - Second Place - Feature - Julie Joy, Jon Merrfield, Dan Kramer, Claire Holman - Students with Disabilities
1998 - Radio News Award - First Place - Feature - Bethany Marchand, Claire Holman - High School Student Explores Sex Industry