If you’ve ever dreamed of hearing your voice on NPR or the BBC, you’ll want to be sure to attend this Sunday’s Great Northeast Radio Rally.

Hosted by Portland-based Blunt Youth Radio Project, the free one-day conference at the University of Southern Maine’s Wishcamper Center in Portland offers more than 10 sessions led by radio professionals.

Workshops will cover such topics as producing a live show, interviewing musical guests, producing feature reports and how to use radio to tell fictional stories.

“Our intent is to bring people together to celebrate the art of radio production and to share ideas and techniques,” said Claire Holman, director of the Blunt Youth Radio Project. Since 1994, the project has provided local high school students with the chance to produce and host a weekly call-in, public affairs talk show. The show airs each Monday night from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on community radio station WMPG.

In the past, members of the Blunt Youth Radio Project traveled to a national radio conference each year at this time. However, the organization did not have the funding this year to support such a trip.

Instead, thanks to a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, Blunt Youth Radio was able to host its own conference.

Colin Kelley will deliver a session on how to produce audio on the cheap. Kelley is a former Blunt Youth Radio participant who went on to manage his college’s radio station and work on air at WGAN and WCLZ before joining Bates College to work with students producing audio and video.

“Radio is really affordable,” Kelley said. “You don’t need any fancy gear. Anyone can do it.” As an example, Kelley often shows students how to produce audio segments on their iPhones.

“Radio’s always been a really affordable way to tell a story,” he said.

Another session sure to be popular focuses on pitching stories to NPR and other major radio outlets. The session will be run by Andrea de Leon of NPR and Josh Gleason, an independent producer.

Audio segments produced by Blunt Youth Radio members have aired on NPR, the BBC and MPBN.

Following the conference, an Audio Slam contest will be held at 7 p.m. at Space Gallery in Portland. With a format similar to a poetry slam, participants will compete in four rounds, playing one-minute segments of a four-minute piece during each round.

The audio pieces will be judged by Bill Nemitz and Suzi Piker of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Kerry Donahue of the Columbia School of Journalism, Josie Huang of Maine Public Radio and Paul Santomenna of Maine Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Holman noted that at most radio contests of this sort, the best the winners can hope for is to take home a plaque. But the winner of Sunday’s audio slam will walk away with $500.

Staff Writer Avery Yale Kamila can be contacted at 791-6297 or at:

akamila@pressherald.com

Follow her on Twitter at:

Twitter.com/AveryYaleKamila