Education
B.A., English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, 1973.
Post-Graduate Thomas J. Watson Fellowship: Children’s Theatre in Eastern and Western Europe.
Radio
Independent producer of hundreds of reports, essays, documentaries and special series for National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and foreign networks. Responsible for concept, planning, interviewing, editing, writing, narrating, and engineering. 1977-Present.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Atlantic Public Media, non-profit production and training company, which produced the website, TRANSOM.org, a showcase and workshop for new public radio, and the new distribution system PRX, The Public Radio Exchange.
FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: WCAI the public radio station for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and the South Coast–a service of WGBH Boston.
PRODUCTION: Longtime contributor to NPR’s All Things Considered, PRI’s This American Life, and other national programs. Partial list of special series, produced or co-produced:
The Moth Radio Hour
This I Believe
Lost and Found Sound
Beyond Affliction: The Disability History Project
Legacies: A History of Women and the Family in America
Faces, Mirrors, Masks: 20th Century Latin American Fiction
Breakdown and Back: A Portrait of Mental Illness
Hidden Kitchens
The 9/11 Sonic Memorial Project
Life Stories: First-person portraits
Animals and Other Stories
Living in the Arts
Breaking the Cycle: Child Abuse Series
The Miles Davis Radio Project
AWARDS: Recipient, 1996 CPB Edward R. Murrow Award for outstanding contributions to public radio, the industry’s highest honor; 2002 Public Radio News Directors’ Leo C. Lee Award for lasting commitment to public radio journalism. For productions and collaborations: George Foster Peabody (6), Third Coast (4), duPont Columbia, RFK, Clarion, Gabriel, Headliner, many others.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS: National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, various state arts and humanities councils.
TEACHING: Instructor, journalism and production training-public radio stations, universities, and media arts centers around the U.S. and overseas. Lecturer on citizen participation in public media and building community through shared story.
CONSULTING: Senior advisor to public radio stations and national programs and series.
OWNER AND ENGINEER: Jay Allison Productions, recording studio facility on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
FOUNDER AND HOST: A founder of The Association of Independents in Radio, and of its online forums, including the The AIR Daily.
Television
Independent video producer, generally working as solo crew. Responsible for camera, sound, producing, writing and reporting. Special documentary producer/reporter/cameraman for ABC News Nightline with Ted Koppel in the 1990s.
Castellucci Stone: A Family Business (1/2-hour special)
Marie At 15: Beating the Odds (1/2-hour special)
Safe Haven: The Women of Emerson House (45-minute special)
Castaways: The Boys of Penikese Island (Two 1/2-hour specials, & 1/2-hour follow-up)
Carmen’s Story: Home and Homeless (1/2-hour special)
Articles and essays published in the New York Times Magazine and other publications. 1989-Present.
Jay on the Web
Listeners, producers, and stations collaborating to reshape public radio.-
Extending the power of a story shared…
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A workshop and showcase for new public radio.