About Us

The Association of Independents in Radio (AIR), was hatched in 1988 by a group of ten independent producers* sitting around a kitchen table on Murray Street in NYC. The organization has since grown into a global social and professional network of 750 producers – both independent and those employed by media organizations – representing an extensive range of disciplines, from NPR news journalists and reporters, to sound artists, station station-based producers, podcasters, gearheads, media activists, and more. The medium of sound is what unites our membership, and in this 21st century world, AIR’s members are rapidly diversifying and expanding their craft as they cut new edges in digital public media.

AIR is the primary advocate for producers in public and commercial media and its training programs have in the last 14 years helped hone the technical, editorial, and strategic skills of hundreds of media professionals. The AIRdaily’s vibrant 24x7 discussion group is a daily destination for hundreds of members who interact on-line each day. AIR’s newest program, MQ2, under the sponsorship of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, provides – for the first time in 20 years – direct funding to producers who are leading new ways forward for digital public media. To learn more about AIR and our vibrant community of makers, contact us at 617.825.4400.

Sue Schardt
Executive Director
Sue is a respected radio veteran and award-winning producer whose path has taken her through public, commercial, community, and international media. She founded SchardtMEDIA Strategies 1998 to focus on independent, ideas-driven projects and worked extensively with the networks and leading stations and producers across the country. She assumed leadership of the AIR, a growing, 740-member organization in September 2007. AIR marked its 20th anniversary in September 2008 with the launch of Makers Quest 2.0, a new, producer driven initiative funded by CPB. The MQ2 funded projects, set to launch in Spring 2009, will cut a new edge for taking public media viral. Schardt also serves as a Director of the DI Committee of the NPR board, sits on the board of the World Sound Foundation and is an Artistic Advisor to NPR’s From the Top. She is a musician, and a long-time volunteer music DJ on free-form radio station WMBR in Cambridge.  

Erin Mishkin
Membership Director
As Membership Director, Erin is primarily responsible for responding to the needs of AIR's diverse membership. Prior to joining AIR, Erin attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies radio program in Portland, Maine and directed the Digital Natives research project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She also worked for several years at the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS), where she drafted communications, shopped for tchotchkes, and managed PRSS's presence at public radio conferences and events. When she's not at the AIR office, you can most likely find Erin at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, working with teens to help them express themselves through new media arts.

Angelynn Grant
Interim Webmaster
Angelynn is a freelance designer based in Cambridge, MA, where she spends equal time on print and webdesign, and also writing about design and related topics.  She is a leading authority on the history of album cover design. In addition, she is the producer, engineer, and host of Coffeetime, a jazz radio program first heard at Harvard’s station WHRB in the summer of ‘91 and heard since then on MIT’s station WMBR. You can see more of her work at angelynngrant.com. 

Samantha Schongalla
Publications Manager
Sam is a free spirit, in true AIR form.  You may find her managing the AIRblast publication from the tropical shores of Maui, composing custom graphics from the rainy streets of Portland Oregon, or hand coding HTML in a New York City café.  Sam proudly lays claim to her very own web and graphic design business, “Schongalla”,  a gnarly creature with beginnings that are directly linked to her foray into public radio and support from AIR.  Just as it has been, her whatsits and whereabouts will continue to be dictated by the winds.

Julie Drizin
Talent Manager, MQ2
2009 marks the 25th year of Julie Drizin’s career in public radio. She got “hooked on radiophonics” at WXPN-FM in Philadelphia, where she garnered many awards as News and Public Affairs Director. After a stint as an independent producer, she moved to Washington, DC at the dawn of the Clinton Era, to become News Director and later National Bureau Chief for Pacifica Radio. There, she launched and produced the successful “Democracy Now!” Julie was the founding Senior Producer of NPR’s “Justice Talking” and “The Intersection,” a multicultural regional news-talk experiment at WETA-FM. Most recently she was Assistant Director at J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, where she helped manage an annual award for innovation, an intensive on journalism and gaming, and two competitive funding streams: the New Voices citizen media project and the New Media Women’s Entrepreneur initiative. She was a judge in the Public Radio Talent Quest and a finalist in launch round of AIR's Makers Quest 2.0 initiative. Throughout her career, she has trained, edited, nurtured and learned a great deal from independent producers and freelance reporters around the world. She is jazzed to inherit the role of Talent Manager for MQ2.

Katina Parker
Producer of Program Engagement
Katina Parker is MQ2’s new Producer of Community of Engagement, where she will lend her expertise in new media, viral distribution and on-line community building. Parker also serves as Executive Director for New Orleans: A Labor of Love, a social networking community committed to recruiting volunteers and resources for the Gulf Coast. Prior to creating New Orleans: A Labor of Love, Parker worked as a visual artist in Los Angeles, where her body of work encompassed film and magazine writing, directing and producing; graphic/web design; and photography. Her clients included Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Saul Williams and Cody ChesnuTT. She also spent several years working as a Media Strategist for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where she fine-tuned her public relations and communications savvy.  Parker received her M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Southern California and her B.A. in Speech Communications from Wake Forest University. Previously, she has been mentored by Inaugural Poet Maya Angelou, Poetry Legend Sonia Sanchez, Emmy Award-winning documentarian Alan Berliner, and Veteran sitcom Director Peter Bonerz. Media.

Publications:
Deb George, Feature Editor
Stevie Beck, Copy Editor
Charles Lane, Publications Evangelist

AIR Board of Directors and Advisors

*AIR was incorporated on November 15, 1988.  The founding members were:
Lauren Krenzel
Jay Allison
Stephen Erickson, President
Deborah Begel
Karen Michel
Marjorie Van Halteren
Susan Poulsen-Krogh
Sandy Tolan
Steve Rathe
Karen Frillman