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Hillary Frank became an independent radio producer more than 10 years ago.

"I got in [radio] in a pretty unusual way," says Frank. "I really liked the program This American Life, so I really wanted to get on the show. It was shortly after I graduated from college and I had no journalism experience. I just thought that my writing style could be good for the show, and so I started studying how radio works."

Frank then e-mailed the show to find out what themes they were working on. Although she hadn't been published yet, she told them she was a writer. They put her on an email list and she started getting their themes. She started submitting essays and they kept getting rejected, but they sent her personalized letters telling her why.

Frank happened to have a friend who was interested in the apocalypse (the final destruction of the world). She decided to interview him. She recorded the interview on a microcassette answering machine, and then fed the clips of tape she wanted to use in to a regular-sized cassette. Then she recorded herself reading her script. Finally, she sent the cassette to the station.

"That story didn't wind up making it on the show because there wasn't room for it, but they commissioned another story from me," says Frank.

For her second commissioned piece, the radio program sent her a tape deck to record future interviews, along with some headphones, a microphone and instructions on using the equipment.

"They talked me through how to interview people for the style of the show," say Frank. And since she didn't know how to use digital audio editing programs, they did the editing for her. Frank is now an independent producer for a number of programs on public radio. She is also a novelist and freelance writer.

"It's hard to make a living just as an independent producer," Frank admits. "I supplement my producing by writing young adult novels, and I also produce a podcast."

Frank's podcast is for the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Each episode of the podcast profiles a different faculty member, program or student at the school.

"Most of the [independent] producers I know making a living with producing have a podcast [or] have another project that they manage," says Frank. Another recent project of Frank's was editing and managing an audio tour of sculptures in Philadelphia, for an arts association.

"I'd say with independent producing it helps to have something where people consider you an expert in a field," says Frank. "It helps that because I write young adult novels I'm thought of as the teen person, so I'm called when a program needs a teen angle on a story."

Like Frank, Sean Cole is an independent radio producer without a journalism degree. Instead, Cole has a bachelor's degree in theater and creative writing. He has been working in radio for more than 25 years.

"I started as an intern at a Boston [National Public Radio] member station in the newsroom, and basically stuck around until they started paying me," says Cole. "I treated it like grad school and tried to learn everything. A person would leave and I'd do that job, and then another person would leave and I'd do that job."

Cole now does reporting for a business program on public radio, in addition to his work as an independent radio producer. Over the years he has had many roles in radio, including sound engineer, overnight announcer and field producer, which involved producing all of the stories for a morning host.

"Then they made me a documentary producer, which was fantastic," says Cole. For a couple of years he was hosting and producing hour-long radio documentary specials. "It was me and another reporter," says Cole. "We'd spend a few months going in-depth and reporting on stories."

Cole ended up producing four episodes. One was about the history of a reservoir and the four towns that were destroyed to create Boston's drinking water. Another was about a genre of urban dance music in South Africa called Kwaito. "It became the music of newly liberated South Africa," says Cole.

Whatever story Cole is working on, he tries to be sensitive to the people he's interviewing. Too many people in the media are overly aggressive, he says.

"There are reprehensible reporters out there who are just out to get the story and don't care about the people they're interviewing, not realizing that the people they're interviewing are doing them an incredible favor," Cole says. "Nobody has to talk to us -- they're strictly doing it out of their good graces."

Robyn Burns works as an associate producer and reporter. She has a degree in journalism. As an associate producer, Burns writes scripts for interviews on a current affairs show. This involves phoning guests and getting as much background material as possible. She then writes an intro for the interview and a list of questions for the host.

A good list of questions, in an order that makes sense, is the key to a successful radio interview, according to Burns.

"It makes the host sound like they know exactly what they're talking about," says Burns. "It makes them sound very smart." Many radio producers do this preparation work as part of their job, while larger stations normally have assistant or associate producers like Burns do most of this work. Producers and associate producers also come up with ideas for interviews and stories.

Background interviews with guests for current affairs shows can take 20 minutes or more than an hour. In addition to writing questions for the host, a producer or associate producer also writes background material about the guest.

"It's really up to an associate producer to help the host through," says Burns. "Because sometimes the guest will throw them a curve ball in an interview, and if you haven't put that in the background, the host will be like, 'Where do I go from here?'"

Working in radio is not for everyone. It's a fast-paced environment with unforgiving deadlines. But for many people it's a perfect fit.

"Every day is different," says Burns. "Every day is a new experience, and every day I learn something new about the world around me and the community I live in."