DICK BROOKS TRAINS KHOI REPORTERS

April 2, 2013 - 4:00pm -- Debbie

Dick Brooks has over 35 years of experience in public and commercial radio. He has worked asa reporter, producer and manager for print media and public radio. Brooks has numerous national and international broadcast awards and fellowships and served as a consultant to the Corporationfor Public Broadcasting. He is very active in providing station-based training for community radio broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

His most recent work with ActionMedia, the company he founded in 1994, has involved hundredsof interviews and focus group projects that have led to new understandings of how people hearideas in relation to their own ideas rather than as an analysis of facts. These ideas are vital to betterinterviewing and better writing for successful communication.
Mr. Brooks’ training workshops are very popular and he is in high demand as a speaker. He was
initially invited to Ames to address KHOI volunteers by Station Manager Ursula Ruedenberg, who
has attended many of these events over the years including a seminar at the National Federation of
Community Broadcasters conference last year.
 
“I knew Dick Brooks could provide our reporters with necessary skills and a better understanding of
community radio,” Ruedenberg said.
 
When asked what he hoped to accomplish during the two-day workshop, Mr. Brooks’ answer laid out
a daunting agenda.
 
“I wanted a number of things: I wanted to go over the basic concepts of radio as a medium; to
describe the medium’s strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to talk about radio as a brand new kind
of medium focused on the community; not just the people that listen to us but the community as a
whole. I want to help journalists and reporters produce shows that resonate and are meaningful to
their communities.
 
Topics covered during the two-day workshop included: ‘Understanding and Using Our Medium’
and ‘Interviewing Skills and Writing: An In-depth Examination of the Pre-Interview Process’.
 
One of the overarching ideas discussed throughout the weekend was KHOI’s own stated mission
of ‘building community through communication’. Brooks brought volunteers back to this idea time and
again.
 
“Radio is a medium that can be focused on creating understanding and dialogue and fundamentally,
we hope, makes a better community. It’s not up to the producers at KHOI to say what is necessarily
better but, it is up to them to make programming that tries to guide the community to make better
decisions with respect for others in the community.”
 
He continues, ”We should provide an examination of all sides of an issue; put options on the table so
that even when decisions are made, we can all make the best ones for the community in which we
live. That is the power of community radio.”
 
Among the eighteen volunteers attending the workshop, reactions were positive.
 
“I wasn’t bored for a second,” Creator’s Calendar host and Local Talk/Heart of Iowa reporter Kay
Puttock said, “It was engrossing and very useful.”
 
Linda Manatt, one of the reporter/producers on social issues show ‘Walkin’ the Talk’ said, “ [Mr.]
Brooks gave us insight into how to create an interesting attention-grabbing show. The pre-interview
section showed us how to use our time better. It made me re-think everything.”
 
For reporter/producer Deborah Bunka activities like mind-mapping and the pre-interview exercises
were eye-opening and made the workshop worthwhile. “Dick Brooks definitely showed us how to
bring both the heat and the heart to the stories we’re trying to tell.”
 
Reporter Joy Leister said, “ I loved the sessions! All that I learn about radio makes me appreciate it
more. As I sat there, I realized that I was experiencing community through communication, such a
powerful awareness that I had to blink back tears
 
As a such a powerful presence who left his mark on each of us, we leave the last words to Dick
Brooks. “I am convinced that when people talk to each other, they learn things. We feel better, they
know each other better. When they know each other better, we can accomplish more together. If
radio is done well, the listener is not likely to forget it.