VANCOUVER, Wash. – Female detective Candy Matson will make her first appearance on Re-Imagined Radio on Nov. 15. "Candy Matson Tribute" is produced by John Barber of Washington State University Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture Program, featuring two episodes of a popular radio series that aired between 1949 and 1951.
"Candy Matson Tribute" will air from 1 to 2 p.m. on Vancouver’s KXRW-FM (99.9 FM) and Portland’s KXRY-FM (91.1 FM or 107.1 FM). The episode will also stream simultaneously with the broadcast. After this initial broadcast the episode can be heard on Portland’s KUIK-AM (1360 AM), Salem’s KMWV-FM (98.3 FM), and CKXU-FM (88.3 FM), Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, which in turn distributes Re-Imagined Radio across Canada. "Candy Matson Tribute" will also be streamed by Vancouver’s Community Growth Radio Network, a news and entertainment listening service designed for blind and visually impaired, disabled persons and military veterans. The episode will be archived and available for streaming at any time at reimaginedradio.net.
“Candy Matson” was a groundbreaking weekly series noted for its strong female protagonist. The series was developed by husband and wife Monte and Natalie Masters. Ninety-one episodes were broadcast. The Radio Re-imagined tribute highlights the first and last episodes, “The Donna Dunham Case,” featuring a jealous-lover murder, and “Candy’s Last Case,” featuring a double murder and a missing diamond.
"Crime and detective radio series were popular from the 1940s to the 1950s, perhaps due to rising concerns for emerging criminal activities at all levels," Barber said. He described Candy Matson as “driven, relentless and disarming. She ran her business from a Telegraph Hill penthouse in San Francisco. San Francisco actors, musicians and colorful locales often played supporting roles."
Radio Re-imagined premieres each episode on the third Monday of the month on KXRW-FM and KXRY-FM. In addition, every Sunday, a random episode of Re-Imagined Radio will be broadcast on KXRW only, drawing on previously broadcast episodes.
Community Partners
Re-Imagined Radio draws on community voice actors, Foley artists, musicians, sound artists and engineers. Partners include KXRW-FM, Marc Rose, Martin John Gallagher, Holly Slocum Design, the Kiggins Theatre, and Regina Carol Social Media Management and Photography.
About Re-Imagined Radio
Re-Imagined Radio was begun by Barber in 2013 to celebrate sound-based storytelling and pay tribute to the radio programs of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. “We select, produce and perform 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. Episodes initially were stage productions for live audiences, with limited opportunities for broadcast or streaming. With COVID-19 restrictions, Re-Imagined Radio became a monthly broadcast and livestreamed event.
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.
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT(S)
Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communication, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@wsu.edu