VANCOUVER, Wash. – Re-Imagined Radio is offering two episodes in December—its traditional monthly radio broadcast as well as its first live performance since early 2020.
“A Radio Christmas Sampler, Vol. II” premieres at 1 p.m. Dec. 19 on KXRW-FM, Vancouver, and KXRY-FM, Portland. Subsequent broadcasts and streams will be provided by local, regional and international broadcast partners. The episode samples three Christmas radio programs, featuring the voices of the original actors. The programs are: “Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Kid,” from the Jean Shepherd Show; “Back for Christmas,” starring Peter Lorre; and “Britt Ponset’s Christmas Story,” starring Jimmy Stewart.
“A Radio Christmas Carol” will be staged one night only, at 7 p.m. Dec. 21 at the Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver. Re-Imagined Radio has presented some version of this story every holiday season since 2013.
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” has been adapted and will be performed by the Willamette Radio Workshop, with carols by the Holly Jolly Singers. Tickets are $20 in advance from the Kiggins website, $22 at the door. Concessions will be available, and audience members are encouraged to donate nonperishable food items at the theater for Vancouver FISH (Friends in Service to Humanity).
Re-Imagined Radio originated with live performances in fall 2013. Because of COVID-19 restrictions starting in 2020, performances became radio broadcasts instead. The monthly broadcasts will continue, but “A Radio Christmas Carol” is a special live performance.
“We like to feel that our annual performance of “A Radio Christmas Carol” has become a community tradition—a way to start the end-of-year holidays in a festive, fun way,” said John Barber, faculty member of the Creative Media and Digital Culture Program at WSU Vancouver and founder of Re-Imagined Radio. “It’s wonderful to offer it once again at Kiggins Theatre with live voice actors and Foley artists.”
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