VANCOUVER, Wash. – Re-Imagined Radio will bring radio programs from the 1940s and 1950s to new life in a one-hour radio broadcast at noon Jan. 14. Featuring sound-based storytelling, the episode, titled “New Year,” will be broadcast live over three radio stations as well as online.
The stations are Vancouver’s KXRW-FM (99.9 FM) and Portland’s KXRY-FM (91.1 FM or 107.1 FM) and AM 1310 (1310 AM). The performance will also be available online via the station’s websites. The performance will also be archived at kxry.fm and reimaginedradio.net. Re-Imagined Radio will be a monthly feature for these stations this year.
“Normally, Re-Imagined Radio performances are offered as live events,” said producer John Barber, who is on the faculty of the creative media and digital culture program at Washington State University Vancouver. “COVID-19 restrictions make this impossible, so we are pivoting to our center, radio.”
“New Year” features a 1947 episode of “The Whistler,” one of the most popular American radio mystery anthologies; and a 1957 episode of “Guy Lombardo’s New Year’s Eve Party,” originally broadcast live from the Grill Room in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Lombardo, who led the band the Royal Canadians, was known as Mr. New Year’s Eve.
“New Year” is a community partnership between Re-Imagined Radio and Regina Carol Social Media Management and Photography, Holly Slocum Graphic Design, Martin John Gallagher theatrical sound design and production, and KXRW-FM, an independent, volunteer-based radio station.
“Listening at home will not be the same as joining us for a live performance,” Barber said, “but it will be pretty amazing.”
For more information, contact Barber, jfbarber@eaze.net.
About Re-Imagined Radio
Re-Imagined Radio was begun by Barber in 2013 as a creative research and performance project that draws on community voice actors, Foley artists, musicians, sound artists and engineers to produce its sound-based storytelling as live performances, radio broadcasts and more.
About WSU Vancouver
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