J-School Launches Podcast Focused on Oakland and Richmond

February 22, 2016

Chris Harland Dunaway (foreground) and Marylee Williams (background) both class of 2017.

The staffs of UC Berkeley’s two hyperlocal news sites are teaming up this spring to produce a new podcast, “Tales of Two Cities: Radio Stories from Oakland and Richmond.”

The podcast will air every other Thursday and will feature news, interviews and discussions produced by the first-year master’s students who staff the Oakland North and Richmond Confidential sites. Listeners will be able to follow new episodes streamed via both of the news sites as well as SoundCloud.

Each episode will be centered on a different theme. In the wake of the Super Bowl, the episode focused on sports and featured stories about the big game, and two local sports clubs that are finding surprising success.

Richmond Confidential and Oakland North are independent news sites based at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Founded in 2009 with a significant seed grant from the Ford Foundation, and now solely supported by the School and by private donations, the hyperlocal sites focus on the diverse populations of each city and other sections of the Bay Area that often are under-reported. They serve as functioning news labs where reporters produce stories using a variety of media and covering schools, government agencies and local businesses.

The sites have also broken news of national importance. In 2014, reporters at Richmond Confidential reported on Chevron’s investment of millions of dollars to influence a local election. The story was picked up by several national media outlets. PBS’s Bill Moyers called Richmond Confidential “a real news site run by the school whose reporters cover Richmond the way the mainstream media should, but doesn’t.”

Kara Platoni, editor of Oakland North and Richmond Confidential, says that “Tales of Two Cities” will build on the success of the news sites and allow readers to engage in a different way. “Our readers already know they can find us on websites and social media feeds, which have become very strong over time, and launching a podcast gives people a new way to interact with news that is absorbing and enjoyable. We hope people will listen while out for a jog, commuting to work or washing the dishes at night,” Platoni says.

The podcast follows a tradition of creative innovation by the sites. In 2011, Oakland North produced a video series called “Bandwidth,” about up and coming musicians in the East Bay, and in 2009, Tasneem Raja, now a senior editor of NPR’s “Code Switch,” created the podcast Oakland North Radio. “Tales of Two Cities” is the first podcast featuring stories from both Oakland and Richmond. “It’s a valuable training opportunity for students who might eventually make their own podcasts or work on one for a radio station or podcasting network,” Platoni says. “It’s also a great exercise in teamwork and creating a project from scratch.”

This collaborative project will also allow students to take part in Berkeley’s tradition of audio storytelling and gain experience in the rapidly expanding universe of podcasts. Last fall, KQED’s Joshua Johnson taught an entire class on podcasting to second-year students. Berkeley’s audio program has come a long way. In 1983, students were cutting reels of tape with scissors. Now, students produce award-winning digital pieces and are increasingly recognized for their work in audio. In 2012 and 2015, alumni were selected for prestigious Kroc Fellowships at NPR.

by Matt Beagle (’17)

Dean's Newsletter

Quarterly Newsletter From Dean Geeta Anand

Spring 2024 Dear Berkeley Journalism community: With great optimism about the future of our school, I share with you news of the largest gift in the history of Berkeley Journalism:…