Press
January 16, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Knowledge and exuberance: Meet the experts and personalities behind radio's "Be the Media"
"Be the Media" on CHLY 101.7 FM showcases the latest in media creation and consumption from artist to audience across technologies and platforms - the Web, music, radio, books, magazines, TV, film, and theatre.
The hosts of this one-hour weekly radio program are seasoned professionals each with numerous years working and volunteering in radio. The unique qualities of the show are a result of the broad range of knowledge and interests of each host, from music, books, and magazines to community activism, women's issues, digital communications, and more. Each host is available to speak as a guest on other programs. Read on to learn about their backgrounds and experience.
Marian van der Zon - Producer and Co-host
Media activist and artist Marian van der Zon has been active in radio since her university days at the University of Victoria, hosting shows and contributing sound art and radio documentary pieces to campus and community stations, pirate radio, and the CBC. She relishes the imaginative elements that go in to producing radio. She plays banjo and sings in the roots band, Puzzleroot, who are currently releasing their second CD and touring Europe in 2012.
In 2010, she co-edited the anthology, Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada (New Star Books). She's been involved in artist in residency programs including DeepWireless2004 and festivals such as Paved Arts and CFCR: This City is a Radio, and Voices on the Edge: 5th Annual Women in New Music. "I love creativity, be it in sound, short story, or nature," says Marian. "I spend a lot of time creating, often exploring voice."
Marian is a professor in the Media Studies and Women's Studies departments at Vancouver Island University, teaching courses in Digital Audio, History of Communication, Popular Culture & Mass Media, Young Women & Leadership, and introductory courses in web design and video. Her research interests and expertise lie in media activism; community, campus, co-op, pirate, unlicensed, and low-power radio; sound and audio art; radio documentary; women's issues; and social justice.
Niel Scobie - Technical Producer and Co-host
Vinyl records are what make Niel Scobie tick. He's an avid collector and contends that vinyl isn't making a comeback - it never went away. Although Niel "just can't shake the feeling of dropping the needle on vintage or newly minted wax," he still acknowledges the versatility and convenience of mp3 files and is a fan of products such as Scratch Live by Serato Audio Research that combine the best of both worlds. "The best part about this technology is the ability to create customized edits and remixes at home and play them out the same evening," he says.
Niel has many years of experience as a radio and club DJ, an audio engineer, and music producer for which he was twice nominated for a Juno award. He is currently studying Digital Media Studies at Vancouver Island University. He is particularly interested in how digital technology affects how people communicate and create art. Niel has experience and knowledge in hip-hop music production and history, DJ culture, sound engineering, sampling, soul and funk music, and vinyl culture.
Joy Gugeler - Host, "Books & Bytes"
Joy Gugeler is a self-confessed textaholic so the book, magazine and online worlds take a pivotal role in her life. Her career in publishing began as the founder and host of a bi-weekly radio program called "Write On." Through interviewing Canadian writers and poets, Joy met agents, editors and publishers, leading her to work on the editorial boards of two national literary magazines (Room, ARC), and review books for the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. "Once I caught the publishing bug, I was infected forever," Joy says. As an in-house acquisitions and structural editor at four Canadian presses (Raincoast, ECW, Beach Holme, Quarry), Joy had the privilege of working alongside many talents - Michael Crummey, Bill Gaston, Ken Harvey, Amanda Hale, Terence Young, Adam Schroeder, Norma Charles, Andrea Spalding, Julie Burtinshaw, Beryl Young, and others.
Joy's love of media doesn't stop at books and publishing; as an undergraduate instructor at Vancouver Island University she teaches Interactive Communications,Technology & Identity, Digital Media Literacy, Digital Social Narratives as well as multiple publishing courses in editing, books, and magazines. She has a strong interest in cross-media solutions and publishing entrepreneurship. In addition, she teaches courses at Ryerson and Simon Fraser universities and is the publishing executive at Chameleon Consulting.
"Media is like mercury on a table, beading, morphing, and reconstructing in a way that is both slippery and fascinating," she says. "I would be voiceless without it." Joy is completing her PhD in Communications at SFU. She has many connections in both the print and digital publishing fields and has particular expertise in media literacy, fiction writing, print editing, journalistic practice and technology's effect on identity, privacy, and ownership.
To discuss opportunities to have Marian, Niel, or Joy on your program, please contact "Be the Media" publicist, Rachelle Stein-Wotten at rachelle@bethemedia.ca or 250-739-2729.
For podcasts and more information about the show, visit http://bethemedia.ca.
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter: http://facebook.com/BeTheMedia and http://twitter.com/BetheMediaRadio
October 17, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHLY's Be the Media's 1st Year Features Local and International Stars
NANAIMO, B.C. CHLYs weekly hour-long talk show Be the Media showcases the latest in media creation and consumption from artist to audience across technologies and platforms - the Web, music, radio, books, magazines, TV, film, and theatre. The savvy show celebrates its one-year anniversary on Thursday, Oct. 20 with star-studded highlights from the last 52 episodes.
A review of Be the Media's digital archives speaks volumes about the biggest players in the industry near and far: The Editor-in-Chief of Wired; the Head of Digital Engagement for The Guardian; the Mozilla guru who made RiP: A Remix Manifesto; New York iPad DJ duo AndrewAndrew; Senior Editorial Director at Yahoo!; two History Channel documentarians; the Director of Digital Design at The New York Times; a filmmaker from Occupy Wall Street.
And, closer to home: organizers and artists from Nanaimo's film, (Islands) folk, fringe, music (Green Mountain) and Living Legends (Cowichan Valley) festivals; the director of the Western Edge Theatre; a sculptor from the Nanaimo Art Gallery; the hosts of Gabriola's Co-op and Duncan's Rez pirate radio stations; and a resident academic expert on Graphic Matters: Women Making Comics.
Hosts Marian van der Zon, Niel Scobie, and Joy Gugeler will excerpt highlights and revisit some of the stories that captured the media zeitgeist in 2010-11: Twitter's role in the Iranian and Egyptian revolutions, the Google Books project, The Facebook Effect & The Social Network, fan fiction, copyright debates re digital collage and sampling, and Marshall McLuhan's long shadow across it all.
The show was founded by van der Zon who conducts and produces most live features with the support of contributors who teach and study in Vancouver Island University's Media Studies Department and Media Research Lab. Regular segments include Alanna William's coverage of reality, childrens, trash and talk TV across generations in Television Through This Mothers Lens; digitally created voice and music soundscapes from Robin Davies with Further Excerpts from the Aural Machine; and publishing's brave new world in Joy Gugeler's Books and Bytes.
Be the Media's 3 hosts are well-connected in their respective fields and consistently attract media makers and shakers who are at the vanguard of local and global media ventures and trends. The hosts are available for guest spots as commentators on the following topics (see www.bethemedia.ca for full bios):
- Marian van der Zon
- media activism; community, campus, co-op, pirate, unlicensed and low power radio; sound and audio art; radio documentary; women's issues, and social justice.
- Niel Scobie
- hip-hop music, production, and history; DJ culture; sound engineering; sampling; soul and funk music; and vinyl culture.
- Joy Gugeler
- book and magazine publishing on and offline; media literacy; fiction writing; print editing; journalistic practice; and technology's affect on identity, privacy and ownership.
Be the Media airs every Thursday at 1 p.m. on CHLY 101.7 FM. For podcasts and a synopsis of each show aired visit http://chly.dailysplice.com/bethemedia/ or check out its Facebook page at http://facebook.com/BeTheMedia.
MyReadingTree.com
For Media Literacy Month, September 2011, MyReadingTree.com profiled Be the Media contributors Marian van der Zon, Niel Scobie, and Joy Gugeler and the roads to media literacy they took to arrive at their current positions and passions.
Synergy Magazine
Synergy magazine's Alison Roberts reviews the history and interviews the hosts of Be the Media: I AM the Media:
The vibrant material showcased on Be The Media is living proof that the future is being created by spirited, imaginative, tech-savvy people who feel passionately about their subject. After listening to a couple of shows, I was informed about homelessness on Gabriola Island, how a dancers desire to perform translates into social action and what it takes for a television series to stay on the air.
Nanaimo Magazine
Nanaimo Magazine's David Dixon provides an overview of the new radio show, Be the Media, in Nanaimo Magazine's Technology Column, Feb 2011, p13.
Contact: Rachelle Stein-Wotten, Publicist
rachelle@bethemedia.ca
250-739-2729