“Audio is an amazing medium for telling stories,” says Third Coast International Audio Festival founder Johanna Zorn. “It creates pictures in the mind’s eye that can be so much more illustrative than actual pictures. It tears down barriers, opening your mind and ears.”
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“It’s extraordinary, still, when you hear it,” Zorn says. “And it was life-changing for me. I thought, ‘Why isn’t radio considered on a par with film in terms of documentary work? Why aren’t more people getting a chance to hear the great work that’s being done? Why isn’t there a Sundance for radio?’”
In 1999 Zorn fleshed out her Sundance-for-radio concept for station president Torey Malatia. They took it to the board of WBEZ’s parent organization, Chicago Public Radio, whose members liked it enough to dig into their own pockets and come up with $25,000 in seed money. The Third Coast International Audio Festival was launched in 2000, with a documentary competition, a broadcast of the winning shows, a producers’ conference, and—as an afterthought, Zorn says—a website. The Richard H. Driehaus foundation ponied up a $100,000 grant that’s been renewed annually ever since, but CPR paid the staff, provided equipment, and covered the gap between income and expenses.
They were off the payroll by April 2009, and four months later all administrative support was gone. They were, however, allowed to continue working at the station, using computers and studios for a nominal $500 a month, on a year-to-year contract.
In fact, they missed three payrolls in the spring. Zorn says everybody hung tight and they were all eventually paid—from a board member’s personal funds at one point. But it was “a hard-learned lesson.”
Sat 10/30, 6:30-10 PM, ballroom, School of the Art Institute, 112 S. Michigan, 312-948-4682 or 773-415-1143, thirdcoastfestival.org, $75 includes a pre-ceremony reception “with small plates and libations.”
