by Paul Benson
Wednesday, November 21st, Parkland Radio, WPCD 88.7 FM, will air three classic radio Dramas throughout the day. The dramas will start with The Lone Ranger at 12:00 PM, Flash Gordon at 4:00 PM, and Boston’s Lone Wolf Terror at 8:00 PM. For those who would like to listen online, visit parkland.edu/WPCD and click the yellow “Listen Now” button.
I sat down with both the Director of the Parkland College radio station, Deane Geiken, and Parkland Professor/Parkland’s Record Label Advisor, Adam Porter, to discuss the upcoming dramas. “It’s something that both Adam and I wanted to have happen. We decided to pull the trigger on it about 4 years ago and do classic radio drama using foley – which is creating sound effects and stuff like that. So, we put it upon the Com 142 students to create these dramas. As we’ve learned to do it, we’ve incorporated and collaborated with the Theater 103 students and Com 140 students, to do the voice work. Where the Com 142 students do the production and the editing,” said Geiken.
While people might be more aware of the classic 1940’s comic serials, The Lone Ranger and Flash Gordon, since they still show up in modern pop culture, they might not be aware of the Boston’s Lone Wolf Terror. “I’ve never heard of it before, It’s kind of an art, noir, crime, drama,” said Geiken. While people may not be familiar with Boston’s Lone Wolf Terror it seems like it will be very moody. 8:00pm is a perfect time slot to really get immersed in the aesthetic noir theme. “I forgot, because I used to watch some of these old television serials back when they were on TV. I forgot just how cheesy they really are, and the Flash Gordon held up to that.” Geiken said. “It held up to that cheesy script writing and acting, but the students pulled it off, as cheesy!” Geiken continued, “I’m looking forward to The Lone Ranger one, because I love The Lone Ranger stories. They’ve adapted it to be a little bit more modern and they’ve taken out some of the more offensive type of language, and verbiage, and stuff like that. So, I’m looking forward to The Lone Ranger one to come up. I think it’s gonna be the most interesting.”
The students are doing original foley work similar to how radio dramas used to do foley. The difference is that instead of recording the foley live, the Com 142 students edit the foley and other audio work together beforehand. This is a long process for Com 142 students, “it’s almost a month in full when it’s all said and done. They get raw audio and then they’re tasked with turning that into a high-quality story,” said Porter. The raw audio files being both the dialogue/narration the Com 140 and theater 103 students record, and the foley audio 142 students create.
If you haven’t listened to WPCD yet, give it a shot! There are different student DJ’s on at different times of the day with their own personalities and spin. Their program Parkland Spotlight acts as an interview platform for Parkland students and staff on Wednesdays. Take A Break is a similar platform only it focuses on interviews with members in the more general community. Thursday mornings at 8:30 AM, is Deane Geiken’s show, Geeking with Geiken. Monday mornings at 9:00 AM is Adam Porter’s show called the Analog Hour, where he plays music on vinyl or cassette. “There’s all kinds of stuff. If you tune in at any given time your gonna find a DJ who’s got a different take or a different taste in something and presenting it to the listening audience. Then, there is always the awesome music that we play,” says Geiken. “Can’t forget that,” Porter chimes in.
If you are a student interested in radio dramas, Com 142, Com 140, and Theater 103, might be classes you’d be interested in. Com 142 is Radio Production and Communication class, Com 140 is a Voice and Diction class, and Theater 103 is a Performance of Literature class. It’s wonderful to see all these departments working together to put on a production for the listeners of WPCD. Check out Parkland’s Radio station if you haven’t already. If you want to find out more about WPCD, search for, parkland.edu/WPCD. Stay tuned, November 21st, for WPCD radio dramas!
