In his career in radio, Peter Solomon has two passions – his love for jazz music and a penchant for utilizing the medium to tell captivating stories.
Solomon, the on-air host and music director for Delmarva Public Media, received high praise for his storytelling prowess in addition to the DPM staff as they took home 13 Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association Awards, including “Best in Show,” at the annual event held in Ocean City earlier this summer.
Solomon won first place for best specialty reporting for his series on last year’s National Folk Festival.
“It’s nice to get recognition and it’s recognition from a group of peer journalists,” Solomon said. “I think it’s very meaningful and encouraging of the work that we’re doing.”
Solomon’s series featured four profiles of performers that included Irish-American violinist Eileen Ivers, the Ukrainian folk ensemble Gerdan, the sacred steel guitar gospel band The Campbell Brothers, and Chincoteague cigar box guitar maker Stan Opiel, providing an eclectic array of backgrounds and biographies.
So, how did Solomon narrow down his selection of clips to submit to the judging committee? The answer was a simple one.
“I’ll be honest with you … I didn’t realize my stuff was being submitted,” Solomon said with a laugh. “But it was a determination that our director of production and operations, Bryan Russo, and also our news director, Don Rush, made to enter the pieces. They felt that they were worth submitting to the AP Awards.”
Rush, who himself took home five awards in the categories of best enterprise reporting, outstanding serious feature, and outstanding use of sound, said Solomon’s entries enabled listeners to get a better understanding of the subject matter.
“When you think about the audio version of the medium, it’s about capturing the essence of who the people are and that’s what really shines beyond everything else,” he said. “When you hear these people talk about the music, you can hear that enthusiasm and passion in their voice, and I think that’s what captures it the best.”
Rush said stories like Solomon’s and others are things that are crucial in helping Delmarva Public Media shift to create long-term success in serving the community.
“We try to cover stories and do material that is important to the medium, that’s the important thing,” he said. “In those four minutes we have daily and the hour we have on Fridays we try to dig into the meaning of the story and what it means to the community and to the people as well.”
Solomon, who said he never felt constricted telling stories with only sound, said that in the process of creating the stories, he wanted to match the legacy of storytelling heard on National Public Radio, from which Delmarva Public Media relays programming.
“While I was doing those pieces, I was very cognizant of how am I going to tell this story not only with the words but the sounds that accompany each of these stories,” he said. “I love telling stories with sound, and I think it’s a medium you can tell a story just as well in sound as you can with words or as you can in pictures.”
