The Power of Radio and Night Transit

I have become increasingly fond of radio drama and the entire format of using the radio (or spoken dialogue) as a medium for telling stories. I really like storytelling and the many different ways surrounding the methods behind it. Radio is only one that I have recently discovered, which I have come to love.

I should have suspected this on my constant addiction to NPR on the radio during my summer job half way through college. I had about a 30 minute commute one-way into the warehouse, so I had a bit of time to myself. After exhausting the Top 40 of: Pop, R&B, Classic Rock, Modern Rock, Rap, and Country, I decided to scan to the NPR channels. I really the station in Western North Carolina (aptly named WNCW) because of its bluegrass shows, but also because of their weekend story programs.

I instantly became hooked.

Garrison Keillor became my favorite of all. I instantly became hooked on A Prairie Home Companion and the witty comedy and wonderful stories told on the program. I believe it also resonated with me a lot because I consider myself from the Midwest...ish. (More Heartland, but more about that later.) It made me feel good, and still does to this day, that there is a program that can poke fun at, criticize, and applaud Midwestern culture. You don't find many more references to the Midwest outside of Garrison Keillor's show.

Moving through time, I came to my road trip out here (Vancouver), where I simply listened to the radio as my only means of entertainment. Yes, I had an iPod with music on it, and I did have my Google Play Music account... But I made it a challenge to myself to listen to the radio with no other recorded sound or music available. I would consider it a success, even if it did mean having to listen between a preacher giving the word of God, or really terrible mariachi love songs. (No judgement on either of those forms of radio, but after 4 hours in a car and those are the only choices you have... It gets kind of old.)

I heard all kinds of news stories and programs. I pretty much was hooked on news my entire trip, for five days straight. And I loved it.

Here was no constantly moving talking heads, no distracting literature, and no cliched riffs or chords. It always was being updated, always on the move, always with wonderful and meaningful stories. I should say I am a little biased here, because I did listen to only NPR the entire way out.

But this brings me to a program I have been obsessing over for the past week: Welcome to Night Vale. Now this is not a "radio show", but a podcast. And this is why I throw in the "spoken word" category. There is so much you can do with your voice, and this program shows it.

Its about a creepy little town in the middle of the desert named Night Vale. That is pretty much all I can tell you coherently. (Without the black helicopters coming to scan my brain.) But the usage of the voice of the announcer (Cecil) is amazing, along with the progression of the format (it is always the "Community Radio" news segment), and the tones and background noises and sounds. The effects capture your ears in no way a television or book can. You have auditory clues and clips, leading you on into certain events, which literature does not. But you are also left without the distraction of moving pixels, and visual clutter in your brain, which television and movies do.)

What is left is a stripped down program you must pay attention to more than television, but not nearly as much as a book. It makes for a strange middle ground. When a creek happens behind the announcer, or a strange noise is heard faintly in the background, it really leaves your imagination up to fill in the blank spots.

And now, the weather.

So tonight I went to see/hear War of the Worlds performed live by the Willamette Radio Group. I really, really liked it.

The foley for the entire show was awesome, and the narrators and reactions of how it all played out were great. But it was also nice to sit back and just stare to a wall in the room and imagine yourself in the situation of the people in the program. At the beginning of the show they said they strive to make you feel apart of the action and story, to make it feel like you can hear it as if it were going on around you. It takes a special kind of touch to get that harmony of sound effects and descriptions to line up correctly. And they did it without fault.

I bumped around town for a bit, and shopped for a new phone charger and some batteries. I found the batteries, and eventually found the phone charger, but it was way too expensive. And somehow I ended up with five free flashlights with the battery purchase.

Whoops.

But there is always that nostalgia/reflexive attitude the night bus, or in this case bus and rail, can give you when traveling. After a long day, I was headed back home on the bus, and felt really proud of myself. The reflections in the windows bounced back my situation to me, and let me know that... Everything is alright in the world. All of it is quite dandy.