VANCOUVER, Wash. – Re-Imagined Radio joined with the Clark County Historical Museum to create “Hearing Voices,” featuring three stories about life in Southwest Washington drawn from the museum’s Oral History Collection. The episode premiers Nov. 21 at 1 p.m. on KXRW-FM, Vancouver, and KXRY-FM, Portland. Subsequent broadcasts and streams will be provided by local, regional and international broadcast partners.
“Oral histories provide opportunities to hear stories told in the voices of those who lived the experiences,” said John Barber, faculty member in the Creative Media and Digital Culture Program at WSU Vancouver and founder of Re-Imagined Radio. “Oral histories bring the past to the present.”
“They are true stories,” museum director Bradley Richardson added. “The dialogue is unscripted, unpolished and absolutely compelling."
The episode features three oral histories: “Living with Chief Joseph,” the story of a young boy’s life with the Nez Perce people in Washington’s Nespelem Valley (north of present-day Grand Coulee Dam) in the 1890s; “Working the SPS Railroad,” an account of working for the Seattle-Portland-Spokane Railroad during the transition from steam to diesel technologies; and “The Russians Arrive,” where a local reporter recalls the surprise forced landing in 1937 of a single-engine airplane, piloted by three Russian airmen, at Vancouver's Pearson Airfield.
"Listening to these experiences told in the voices of those who lived them, we listeners gain a sense of presence and immediacy,” Barber said. “We are there.”
Re-imagined Radio premieres episodes on the third Monday of the month on KXRW-FM. In addition, every Sunday, an episode of Re-Imagined Radio is broadcast on KXRW, drawing from previously broadcast episodes. Episodes can be streamed on demand from the Re-Imagined Radio website, www.reimaginedradio.net.
Community Partners
Re-Imagined Radio draws on community voice actors, Foley artists, musicians, sound artists and engineers. Partners include KXRW-FM, KXRY-FM, Marc Rose and Holly Slocum Design
About Re-Imagined Radio
Re-Imagined Radio was begun by Barber in 2013 to celebrate radio storytelling. ”We select, produce and perform classic and contemporary stories across a spectrum of radio genres, from dramas to comedies, from oral to aural histories, from documentaries to fictions, from soundscapes to sonic journeys, from radio to sound art,” Barber said.
About WSU Vancouver
WSU Vancouver is in the homeland of Chinookan and Taidnapam peoples and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. As one of six campuses of the WSU system, WSU Vancouver offers big-school resources in a small-school environment. The university provides affordable, high-quality baccalaureate- and graduate-level education to benefit the people and communities it serves. As the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington, WSU Vancouver helps drive economic growth through relationships with local businesses and industries, schools and nonprofit organizations.
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MEDIA CONTACT(S)
Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communication, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@wsu.edu