Creating podcasts with Crystal Ligori

By: Ainsley Vondeling

Podcasts have become popular in the last few years for great reasons. They can provide information, tell stories and just entertain the listeners. A lot of work goes into making a good podcast that usually isn’t recognized. With the help of Crystal Ligori, we learned the ins and outs of making a successful podcast.

Crystal Ligori has years of experience in radio and reporting on the air, receiving her education at the University of Montana School of Journalism. She has worked with music radio stations at a few companies before she settled at her current job at OPB and knows all there is about producing, audio-editing and news casting. Friends of Lincoln supported her time with Mass Communications as a teaching artist here at Lincoln over the past period.

After learning about Crystal’s background and career we had the opportunity to ask her questions about what it’s like to work on radio. Our class learned how fast-paced and exciting radio really is, as Crystal described the kind of decision making skills necessary for newscasting. Hudson Longaker, a student at Lincoln, remarked how she “think[s] it’s cool [Crystal] gets to do such a variety of things in her job.” Other students also found that the diversity in this career field was attractive. Having a wide range of skill sets and freedom in what types of tasks you do is an aspect of podcast making that the class did not expect.

Getting real podcast experience came after learning about Crystal's background and listening to samples of podcasts. After plugging in the microphones, each group had the chance to converse about their own topics. Darina Miroedova, a junior, stated how she  “liked using [Crystal’s] professional microphone.”

Crystal taught each group the proper way to hold a microphone and emphasized speaking at a clear and consistent pace and volume. Keeping the conversations authentic and fast-paced was difficult, but the groups found that the learning curve came quickly. Students then edited and shared their podcasts using Audition, an audio editing application.

Working with professionals on real-life career projects seems to be a great way to gain experience. One student went as far to say that he “learned so much… probably the same amount in two classes with Crystal [than he] would’ve learned in two weeks of regular classes.”



Links for student-made podcasts on www.archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/trimetpodcast

https://archive.org/details/GROUP1Mixdown1

https://archive.org/details/trends_201804

https://archive.org/details/MusicGenreInterview

https://archive.org/details/GROUP2PODCAST1

Photo by Mary Rechner