WRW RETROSPECTIVE

Written and Produced by

John F. Barber

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 11, Episode 07

Final draft

WRW RETROSPECTIVE

Radio storytelling by the Willamette Radio Workshop

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 11, Episode 7
Final Draft

Premier broadcast: July 17, 2023

Written and Hosted by John F. Barber

Sound design, Music composition, Post-Production by Marc Rose

Graphics by Holly Slocum

Synopsis
This episode of Re-Imagined Radio celebrates more than two decades of radio storytelling by Willamette Radio Workshop. From origin to podcasts, Sam A. Mowry, founder and director, and Marc Rose, composer and sound designer, provide a wide-ranging story of the radio theater troupe, based in Portland, Oregon, and active in the Pacific northwest since 2001.

This episode were first broadcast July 17, 2023. In July 2024, Sam Mowry died. We revisited this episode, to provide an appropriate memoriam, a redux, to our friend and mentor. See "Willamette Radio Workshop, Retrospective, Redux" for more information.

Color Code
Yellow highlighted text = sound effect(s), either pre-recorded or created for episode, or pre-recorded audio used as content in this episode.

Magenta highlighted text with strike through = text deleted for episode timing

MUSIC = pre-recorded

MUSIC = bespoke, created for this episode

COLD OPEN
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "WHY I'LL NEVER RETURN TO ALBUQUERQUE."
SAM
Our next story is . . . a story. Well, that's the way it starts . . . but once again, the perception is all. "Why I'll Never Go Back to Albuquerque" is written by William E. Gregory.
(. . .)
BARBARA
I, I walked the few blocks from the hotel to Old Town. I was a bit disappointed. Most of the booths, both the Hispanic and the Indians were just filled with tourist trash.
I was about to go back to the hotel when I saw and old man squatting on his heels against the wall. He was wearing faded jeans and a Levi jacket. I could tell by the elaborate rolls of white hair at the back of his neck that he was a real old-time Navajo.
He had what looked like a saddle blanket spread out on the ground in front of him. I could see several pieces of jewelry on the blanket. It was all museum-quality stuff. Heavy, old, patinaed silver. Deeply colored turquoise with copper-colored inclusions.
NAVAJO
Here, this is for you.
BARBARA
Suddenly I remembered the stories I had heard as a child about Navajo witches and how they could gain power over people.
No. Thank you.
NAVAJO
Barbara. Barbara, it's for you. I'll give it to you. Barbara, come back.
BARBARA
I don't want it.
NAVAJO
No, Barbara, come back.
BARBARA
NO! NO!
NAVAJO
It's for you.
BARBARA
NO!
NAVAJO
I give it to you . . .
BARBARA
I turned. I ran from the market. At one point, I looked back once and I saw the old man running after me. He was holding out the necklace.
Oh, god, I turned on every bit of speed I had and I ran all the way to the hotel. It's a wonder I didn't have a stroke and die right there on the street in Albuquerque. By the time I reached the hotel I was completely winded.
Would you do something for me?
WAITRESS
Si.
BARBARA
I'm leaving today but I want to know. Could you go down to the market and see if there is an old, Navajo man sitting on a blanket selling some jewelry. Just at the corner. I, I can give you very exact directions . . .
She agreed. And returned, quickly.
WAITRESS
No, senora. There wasn't anybody like that. None of the others had seen him. I asked my cousin Monica too. She and her husband are in their booth all the time. They say they never saw anyone like that.
BARBARA
Oh, I feel so much better just telling you this. Thank you for listening. Okay. So what do you think. Did I just panic? Did I lose out on a really great bargain? Or, did I escape becoming a witch's slave for the rest of my life? And maybe beyond?
(DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)
NAVAJO
Barbara . . . I found you. Here. This is for you.
SFX: CLOSES WITH WIND SOUNDS.
SFX: CROSS FADE TO . . .
MUSIC: RIR THEME
HOST OPEN
ANNOUNCER
Welcome to Re-Imagined Radio, a program about radio storytelling. I’m Jack Armstrong. With each episode we combine dialogue, sound effects, and music to engage your listening imagination. This episode is no different, and here to tell you about it is John Barber, producer and host.
HOST
Thank you Jack. Hello everyone. Welcome.
Our episode is "WRW Retrospective." It's a story about Willamette Radio Workshop, a group of enthusiasts based in Portland, Oregon, who volunteer their time and effort to promote radio theater by performing it live for audiences around the region.
I'll talk with two members of the Workshop, who, looking back and looking ahead, have some very interesting stories to share.
Our episode originates from KXRW-FM, Vancouver, Washington's community radio station. We thank them for their support.
And we thank YOU for joining us as Re-Imagined Radio presents "WRW Retrospective: Two Decades of Radio Storytelling."
MUSIC: CINEMATIC TRANSITION
HOST
Willamette Radio Workshop, abbreviated as WRW, is a collaboration of actors, writers, singers, musicians, and sound designers interested in radio theatre. Their live performances and studio productions of radio storytelling span two decades and have attracted regional, national, and international attention, along with several awards.
You'll hear samples from WRW productions. And you'll hear from two people who know the WRW story from origin to present, Marc Rose and Sam Mowry.
Marc Rose is a composer and sound designer whose credits include many performances of Willamette Radio Workshop.
Sam A. Mowry founded Willamette Radio Workshop, in 2001, and continues to direct its efforts. 
Thank you both for joining us. Let's begin with you, Sam.
STORY 1: ORIGIN
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Thank you so much for having me, John. I feel like saying having "us," as the Workshop.
HOST
It's a pleasure to visit with you as well Sam, and the Workshop. Let's start with some context. How long has Willamette Radio Workshop been involved with radio storytelling? And how did you begin this adventure?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
This is our twenty-second year. We started in October of 2001. The way we started is always kind of fascinating to me because I've been a stage actor for forty years. I've always loved radio. My father was very much into radio. I have several album collections of The Shadow and ahh Fibber Mcgee and Molly and ahh things like that.
I worked at ahhh KBOO when I first moved to Portland . . . and umhh . . . I think it was my father that first turned me on to that. So even before . . . That was before I was an actor and, ahh, an interest in radio to the point that my father was like, "oh, well, here's something that you should do then." And I really enjoyed working at KBOO back then.
Jump to the . . . The . . . 2001 and I was reading the newspaper and checking for auditions and there was this thing about ahh a meet up at the library for people interested in doing radio dramas. And I was like, "That sounds interesting. I wonder how that would happen?"
So I went, and showed up, and it was at the library in their big meeting room, and first thing I noticed was there were like eight other theater people I knew who were there and I didn't know that they were into radio. They didn't know that I was into radio. And we sat there and a young man, Michael Hopcroft . . . Ummh . . . The the spiritual godfather of the Willamette Radio Workshop because he had this meeting . . . And he got up and explained his vision which was a science fiction series where everyone would record their pieces at home and then send them to him and then he would cut them all together.
Now, for all of us stage actors, we were like, "Oh, my god! That sounds terrible! Ahh, not working with each other. How would we know how to read something if we didn't get feedback?"
So, we listened to his pitch and then people started talking about reservations they had about that kind of thing and it was basically, "You'll record something on the mic on your laptop and send it to us and . . . and . . . six months from now we'll have the finished product" and we just weren't really game for it (laughs). You know . . . Now . . . Then, that would sound totally bizarre. Now, I realize that's what, you know, 80% of the audio drama podcasts out there that's how they're done. 
MUSIC: TRANSITION
STORY 2: INTEREST ESTABLISHED
HOST
It sounds like you were put off by the proposed switch from stage acting to radio storytelling. What changed your mind?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM 
What happened was . . . after the meeting, we started talking to each other in a little group and then I noticed these two people over by the side of the room. They were talking with each other and I had very much liked what they had said in the process, and they obviously had more of an understanding of how to . . . edit and put things together just from the questions they were asking.
And so, we came over and started talking to each other and it was Marc and Rob. Just hit it off right away, I'd say. And they started telling us about a project they were working on called Dry Smoke & Whispers. And he was like, "Yeah, we've just come to town and yeah we're looking for more actors and seems like there are some people here that are involved in radio, wanna be involved in radio."
And I was like, "Well sure. Come over to my house. I've got a two car garage and we can . . . You know . . . We rehearse in there. We can come in and you can audition all the actors you want." And . . . ahh . . . We did and it was a great experience and they are both geniuses when it comes to radio drama. And, ahh, you know, we . . . ahh . . . Pretty much everybody who auditioned ended up doing something in the show.
HOST
Just to clarify, when you say you met "Marc and Rob" at that meeting, you're talking about Marc Rose and Rob Cannon. Marc is with us today, and we'll hear from him soon. Rob is a graphic designer and writer. He collaborates with Marc to produce the Dry Smoke & Whispers radio series, about which we will learn more, later.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah, and that was just the beginning of a . . . ahh . . . beautiful friendship and Marc and I have done . . . I can't even count the number of shows we've done over twenty years.
Then decided, you know, we need to do our own show. We . . . we . . . like, we need to get together and create our own stuff.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 3: FIRST PERFORMANCE
HOST
Willamette Radio Workshop is noted for adapting classic radio dramas, and offering innovative radio storytelling. How did this evolve?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
We would meet in the backyard of Rob Kowal and Mary Robinette Kowal, award-winning science fiction author.
We . . . we'd just sit around in a circle and talk about what we wanted to do and what we liked and what we didn't like and what we liked about radio as opposed to theater or movies. And . . . as we went around eventually came down to well we needed to do something, we needed to do something that already had handled all the problems of audio drama for us to figure out how to move forward.
So we decided to do, surprise, surprise, "War of the Worlds." And we set up to do "War of the Worlds." That year, it . . . ummh . . . Friday night was ahh the 30th of October and we got a theater space that we could use at midnight on the 30th of October . . . And . . . We did "War of the Worlds."
SFX: MUSIC THEME FROM ORIGINAL RADIO BROADCAST
HOST
"The War of the Worlds," starring Orson Welles and The Mercury Theatre on the Air is the most famous radio drama ever broadcast. Your first public performance and you decide to go big. What happened?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
 When the doors opened the . . . Our . . . our ticket taking person came up and said, "I've got a hundred and seventy five reservations and the theater only holds a hundred people." (LAUGHS) Like, oh this is gonna be a problem. Luckily, about fifty people didn't show up because there were people at the door as well but we managed to squeeze them all in there and we did "War of the Worlds" and we had big huge giant Foley sound effects . . . and . . . with Marty Gallagher doing the live Foley with . . . ahh . . . Amy Gray . . . the two of them took that over.
And . . . it was wonderful, but we didn't have microphones, we didn't have computers or anything to do sound effects. It was all just us acting out what we thought a live radio show would be.
And we loved it and we had great audiences . . . and so we said, you know, what can we do next?
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 4: LIVE RADIO LIVES
HOST
Marty Gallagher, with his extensive background in stage design, lighting, and sound, along with his talents as a music composer, is a valuable asset to WRW. As for the question, "What's next? . . . That's always the question when you're involved in a creative activity, isn't it? What WAS your follow up to "The War of the Worlds?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
We next had . . . ahh . . . ahh . . . KBOO Radio and Dmae Roberts has a show called "Stage and Studio." And every one once in a while she would hit a point where she was going to miss a show. And she had heard about our show and said, "Hey! Would you like to do a live radio show for us?" I was like, "Sure!" 'cause I'm not afraid of anything.
HOST
Dmae (DEEmay) is a two-time Peabody award-winning radio producer and writer. Her radio show adds national quality arts, literature, and media to our regional arts scene. This was a big break for you, Sam, and WRW. Tell us what happened!
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Tuesday morning, at 10 o'clock in the morning, was our time slot. So, all of our unemployed actors ahh (LAUGHS) agreed to do the show. And we did something that my wife Cindy wrote for us, which was called "The Call of the Mummy."
She had never written for radio before, but I played her a bunch of my favorite stuff . . . and . . . just said, "I need this show in a week" and she wrote it and we rehearsed for a week, then we did the live show and it was . . . I ran across the tape of it when I was looking for things for this show (LAUGHS). It was pretty rough . . . Umm . . . (LAUGHS). But it was live radio theater and . . . uhmm . . . and we just really kinda got us all very excited by the process . . . of doing it.
One of the things ahh I always loved . . was our . . . our . . . our slogan, which was "Live radio lives." And then Chris Porter of course said, "Or it could be live radio lives." So now, whenever I put that on any of our promotions it says "Live radio lives, live radio lives."
STORY ***: INTEREST IN RADIO DRAMA
HOST
Sam, what prompted you, and WRW, to produce radio drama as live performance?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Well, I mean, I think my family history just kind of played in that and also we moved a lot when I was a kid and whenever we would move . . . ah . . . there was always some part of driving, late at night, across the country, and we'd always pick up . . . ah . . . old time radio shows, in the middle of the night . . . from Mexico and New York, that would be . . .
I was always trying to get a series that Marc and I could do called . . . ahh . . . "Million Watt Radio." Ahh . . . about some band of radio theater artists in Mexico with a million watt radio transmitter.
MUSIC: TRANSITION
STORY 5: NAME AND EARLY PERFORMANCES
HOST
When you first started with live performances of radio drama did you call yourself Willamette Radio Workshop, or did that name evolve over time?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah, pretty much because we couldn't agree on what we wanted to do, so of course we argued over things like "what name."
Our inspiration was always Orson Welles . . . as an actor. As people who loved film, which all of us did, he was the god of radio, as far as we knew. And, a lot of people were saying, "Oh, we should just be the Mercury Theatre on the Air."
And I thought that was . . . you know . . . meah . . . not very original.
So, I was like . . . you know, "He did a lot of work for the Columbia Workshop, and you know we have the Columbia River here." Uhm . . . and I said, "Well, again, it will be confusing for people." So, we said, "Oh, why don't we make it the WILLAMETTE Radio Workshop, because, you know, that's the other big river around here."
HOST
So the word "workshop" in your title is a nod to the Columbia Workshop, and their experimental approach to radio storytelling on CBS radio, 1936 to 1943, and then again from 1946-1947.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Exactly. And that's what I've . . . I've always wanted that to the be essence of what we do, is to be a workshop where we try things out, try different things. 'Cause my favorite part of being an actor in theater is the rehearsal process where you try things and they fail. Sometimes they fail. Sometimes they succeed. But . . . uhmm . . . You're always striving to do something new and different. And so I thought that would be a good . . . ahh . . . touchstone for us as a a company to do that.
And, over the years you know we went from . . . when we started to do . . . more live shows we started working with the McMenamins 'cause we had a . . . an actress friend of ours who was the special events booker and she was like, "Oh, you guys should come do a Halloween show for us." and we were like, "Yeah, that sounds great, but we don't have any equipment." And she says, "Oh, we've got some mics and we've got some stuff."
And we went and it was really pretty rough. UMMh. . . (laughs) They had like four mics. They were all different. Ahhh . . . It was ahhh . . . It was ahh . . . It was fun but it was a whole different thing. We added another layer of being a live company as opposed to doing things in the studio where you have much greater control.
Over the years its been one of things I've done is . . . Is accumulate more and more equipment. Because as . . . Ahh . . . A theater producer I always thought that if you owned your own theater that was the best thing to do Because otherwise you're paying more than half of what you make into renting the theater space. So I always wanted to have an old church or something that we could have as a live theater thing so when it came time to be doing the radio theater I was like, "You know, if we had our own microphones, and we had our own mixer, and we had our own speakers, we could just anyplace we could plug in we can do a show.
 And so, Now, sadly, tens of thousands of dollars later, (Laughs) I've got a lot of equipment. And then we had a pandemic, ahmh, (laughs) . . . Couldn't be out there.
MUSIC: RIR THEME FOR BREAK
THE FUSEBOX BREAK
HOST
We'll return to Sam Mowry and his stories about Willamette Radio Workshop, after I tell you about The Fusebox Show, produced by our other guest, Marc Rose. Fusebox is a different kind of radio storytelling, full of quirky conversation and comedy, driven by a madcap but purposeful design. Here's a sample . . .
SFX: THE FUSEBOX SHOW TEASER 
HOST
Learn more at The Fusebox Show website, thefuseboxshow dot com.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, FADE UNDER AND OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING
STORY 6: FOCUS
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. I'm John Barber. Our episode is "WRW Retrospective." I'm talking with Sam A. Mowry, founder, and director, of WRW, Willamette Radio Workshop.
Sam, you founded WRW in 2001. When you started you were willing to be experimental, and take on anything. But, was there a type of radio drama on which you hoped to focus your efforts?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Well, that's a great question. And when we started we had, like I said, eight, eight to ten people who . . . and everybody had their own agenda as to what they wanted to do . . . But after we started to do the shows . . . ahh, it kinda of thinned the herd a little bit . . . In terms of . . . (LAUGHS) . . . It's a lot of work, and tricky . . . It's not . . . It's not the same as live theater and it's not the same as film.
There's a real art to being able to take the script and lift it up off the page that not everybody can do well. I mean everybody can read in front of a microphone, but to be an actor, and really make it come alive, is, is, kinda tricky.
Many times we said, "well, should we just do horror, should we just do suspense, should we just do science fiction?" because at the time, and still today, almost all radio theater troupes have something that they focus in on.
HOST
A specific theme or type of program?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah. Yeah. And so I . . . I always kinda fought against that and . . . And with so many different people it made it easy because if people were like, "Oh, let's do some comedies. Let's do some drama. Let's do some science fiction." And we did 'em all. And, ummh . . . As we progressed and McMenamins was great because they gave us . . . several different slots during the year that we could do at their various properties . . . and so that was great because we didn't have to . . . You know rent a hall they basically gave us a place to perform.
HOST
That must have been great opportunity.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yes! Yeah. Yeah. Our shows got better because our equipment got better and actually, we found out that we ended up bringing all of our equipment to KBOO Because their equipment was so bad. . . . Ahh . . . The first . . . the second show we did for them was ahh "The Silent Avenger" ahh, by the, the, "The Avenger" series. (LAUGHS) and we were in there . . . And . . . and you went up and grabbed the headphones to put them on they didn't have enough headphones for everybody so you had to pass them off and you picked them up off the holder and they fell apart in your hands.
HOST
Oh no!
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
(LAUGHS) so you had people standing there everybody with one one ear covered a person with the other broken end on their end holding it. I wish we had had pictures of us trying to do this. Along with the classic . . . The CD player would not fire properly and so we had . . . The ahhh . . . the . . . ahh, there's a scene where he throws a grenade through a glass window and . . . (LAUGHS) and . . . we "here, take this" . . . And they had the explosion and then the glass broke and (LAUGHS) . . . It was just a . . . a nightmare of things going wrong. And we were like, "we need to bring our own stuff." So . . . we started doing that for KBOO. Own the means of production.
MUSIC: TRANSITION
STORY 7: DIRECTING & COLLABORATING
HOST
Once you've chosen a radio story, how do you prepare and lead your actors to the performances for which WRW is noted?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah, that's a great question and part of it is you know part of it is the thing I do most . . . is . . . ahhm . . . is work with the actors and help them to have a living performance when you're reading. Because that's something that I'm . . . I'm a voice actor for my day job . . . and . . . I've . . . I've . . . I've got a lot of experience of reading scripts and cold readings and . . . ahh . . . Something I do well enough to support myself, so that's good.
And so . . . Most of my work as a director is working with the actors. And then when it comes to sound design and music design and things like that get the most brilliant people you can to work with you.
And that's where I got Marc Rose and Marty Gallagher and Amy Gray and Peter Armetta and . . . Gaylan Huckins for "St. James Infirmary" . . . Amazing stuff that they did.
We would get together and talk about what we were looking for and what I wanted, but I always left most of it up to the designers because they're sound designers, you know, or musicians, and they . . . it's it's interesting with David Ian, he's our resident Foley person now, and (LAUGHS) resident Foley person for everyone in the Pacific Northwest, actually.
David, it's always like, I would go through and say, "Okay, so here are the sound effects I think we are gonna need and I'd hand him a page of sound effects.
And he'd say, "Well, I looked over the script and this is what I have, and he'd have five pages of . . . of possible sound effects. And, when it started out with David I would then go through and say, "Okay, I don't want that, that's stupid, that's . . . But, what we kind of developed as a style of Foley and in sound design as well, is more kind of a suggestive thing. We, we create an atmosphere to listen to, and that's what we want in music, and sound design, and Foley are things that propel the show, bring you into the space.
And. sound design, like . . . and great Foley, are that you don't notice it, you know, when you're listening to it. It just fills a space, and creates the space. So, I mean . . . it's more impressionistic sound design . . . I don't know if there's an actual name for it, but it's just kinda what we developed as we went through was, "Oh, I don't think that . . . I don't think we need that. Try to keep things as essential as possible. And, and, that's ahh one of my jobs, as the director, is to help shape . . . ahh . . . What I we consider essential.
And there are times that I am overruled. You know, I'll say, "I don't wanna do this," and you know they're kinda like, "Let's try it. Let's do it." And we get together and we run through it and I hear the sound effect of the Foley and I'm like, "Yeah, you're right, that works."
I love radio because it is a very collaborative experience. And then working with somebody like Marc, who . . . he and Rob had been doing radio theater down in Florida for twenty years, before you came up here, was it, Marc, before you came up here?
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
Yeah. We started in 1980, yeah.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVI EW
SAM
So I just learned so much from working with him, talking to him, listening to his shows, ahh . . . watching him work. I remember the first time I was cutting together a show, putting in the sound effects, and ahh, I was using protools free which had a maximum of sixteen tracks and I was kind of like, I was in talking with him and said, "Yeah. This is really hard you know. I got sixteen tracks, it's really hard to keep track of," he says, "Oh, well, here's the latest thing I've been working on." (Laughs) it had a hundred and twenty three tracks. I was like, " . . . What on earth is that?" And he showed me this one thing, he's kinda like, "Well, Here's this one sound effect for somebody getting shot and exploding." And it was like thirty different sounds worked together. And I was just amazed. But, just seeing that, seeing that and the different pieces and then he played off each individual component for me, and then he put them all together and I was like, "Ohhh. That's how it's done!" easier to look at than do.
I've managed over the years to get better as a, you know, sound designer on things when Marc's not available, or Marty's busy. Or, you know . . .
That's the thing, over twenty years (LAUGHS) there's a lot of . . . uhmm . . . ups and downs and people working with us and Marc is very busy with his podcast, Fusebox, now, and I understand that means he's not always available to us. And Marc is, Marc is to. . . totally a studio rat as they would say.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
That's a little extreme (LAUGHS).
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
I have dragged him out to more live shows than he probably has ever wanted to do, and even got him to play live guitar.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
Which was fun. A great delight. It was a privilege, actually.
HOST
As I recall, we three met at one of your live performances.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
I don't remember which show it was exactly. Where you came to McMenamins Kennedy School.
HOST
It was one of your Halloween performances.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah.
HOST
We all met there, then, for the first time and it was a great experience. It was one of the few times when I've seen Marc at one of your live performances.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
There you are . . . (LAUGHS)
HOST
I think I can remember only twice that I saw Marc at one of your performances.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
I have pictures of more times.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
Yes, we'd . . . One or two more, for sure (LAUGHS).
MUSIC: TRANSITION
STORY 8: MUSIC
HOST
Sam, you've talked about scripted dialogue, and sound effects. You just mentioned Marc playing guitar . . . Can you tell us more about the use of music in productions by Willamette Radio Workshop?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Music, is, is, is key, and another one of the things that makes our productions sound so good is that we've had so many wonderful musicians working with us. Ahhh, one of the shows that was on . . . ahh . . . Re-Imagined Radio earlier in the year was our "Hiro & Liling," and, ahh, Peter Armetta composed the music for that. And, it it's beautiful. And, ahh, we did "St. James Infirmary" where Gaylin Huckins put together a jazz group to ahh basically play variations of "St. James Infirmary" as the interstertial music and as underscoring for certain places.
Ahh, Marty Gallagher . . . ahh . . . one of my favorite things that he did for us was . . . ahh . . . "The Wind that Shakes the Corn" and it was written by Sam Gregory . . . And . . . It starts off as a . . . as a narrator and I imagined a small mid-western Presbyterian church that my grandfather used to preach at in the distance and you could hear this pump organ playing this very mournful little tune that when Marty sat down and started to play that it just completely set the entire production.
HOST
We have a sample of that. Let's listen to it now.
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "WIND THAT SHAKES THE CORN."
SAM
(MUSIC)
The wind blows through time, through space, over the landscape of memory. It's the middle of the previous century, in the autumn of the year. The landscape of gentle hills rolls into the distance covered with rustling fields of corn, dark oak trees, their leaves brilliant orange in the golden autumn light, stand beside white frame houses nestled in the corn fields. The sky and roads are a light gray which fades to white in the distance.
HOST
Marty did a great job evoking place and space didn't he? Just that bit of music and my imagination takes over, creating a world and a way to be in that world.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
He's great at that. Marc is great at that, at finding a style of music or instrumentation that provokes an emotional response beyond just kinda like, "Oh, that sounds pretty," or "that fits there." It, it, ahh, it it creates emotional depth and resonance to what's happening.
MUSIC: SFX ENDING FROM "ALBUQUERQUE" AS TRANSITION. ALLOW FOR DECAY OF THIS SFX AT END. 
HOST
Let's talk now about Marc Rose. He's a three-time Emmy Award winning sound designer. He produces his own radio shows, Fusebox, as we heard earlier, and Dry Smoke & Whispers, which we'll talk about shortly. He has composed themes for AT&T, Jack Hanna’s Wildlife Adventures, Busch Entertainment, Capitol Radio London, and many independent films. Sam, tell us a story about working with Marc on a Willamette Radio Workshop performance.
SAM
Ummh . . . I remember . . . One of the first times Marc and I worked on "War of the Worlds" and he created a new . . . ahhh, you know the . . . the original had Bernard Herrmann and his . . . you know . . . probably twelve piece orchestra . . . ahh . . . playing something that Herrmann wrote underneath the end of "War of the Worlds" and . . . you couldn't, you couldn't pick that out . . . ahhh . . . and we just didn't happen to have a twelve piece orchestra but we did have Marc Rose and that ahh he was able to create ahh a stunning ahh underscoring underneath it and you know we had rehearsed several times and then he came in with the music and what was amazing was I was able to just read it and the natural flow and sweep of the piece that came up to the end just timed out perfectly. It was like the first time I read it to the music we both finished right where it was supposed to be (LAUGHS) it was just kinda like. That's . . . that's absolutely perfect and he does that time and time again.
When we did "The Martian Death March" he had some lovely underscoring . . . ahh . . . Which had so many . . . ahh . . . pathos-filled speeches and moments and the music just . . . ahh . . . brought such extra emotional depth and weight to the piece. I love to do it over and over.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
You know, if I could . . . if I could just add one thing here that . . . that's . . . that occurred to me during all those working with all those things . . . is having worked with these actors over a period of years . . . you . . . you really start to get a sense for how they might approach something. Not predictive . . . But you . . . you get a sense for what the timing might be and I think that helped a lot in those two instances you just cited, Sam, because I could . . . I could hear them in my head. Like how they would do this and how . . . where . . . where they might take a turn or whatever, and so it was ahhh . . . ahh . . . kind of inviting them to do what they were going to do by default anyway but . . . ahhh . . . yeah I . . . I too . . . I was sorta stunned (LAUGHS) to see the results of that.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Well, part of the . . . the beauty of that is that Marc is ahh . . . ahh . . . fabulous voice ACTOR as well and he understands the . . . the . . . Ah . . . needs of . . . of . . . doing radio radio drama as an actor and . . . and how music can help carry things along.
But, yeah, we really lucked out. We've had some fabulous people. We did an American Gothic thing and we had a group of shape note singers come and sing with us. So, yeah, I mean, I . . . I . . . I agree music is just essential and it's ahh . . . but it's . . . it's also very hard with a live show because it's you know a live band or a live musician requires a whole separate kind of control in terms of mixing them in and their sound and what they can hear and ahh . . . It's a . . . it's a challenge but it always is, and it should be . . . you know . . . any artistic adventure should, should be challenging. It shouldn't be easy and we've . . . we've done a lot of shows and they all offer their own in particular challenges.
MUSIC: SAMPLE FROM MARC ROSE'S ENDING TO "THE WAR OF THE WORLDS"
HOST
These are very interesting stories, Sam, about the working relationships between you, and Marc. They speak to a number of performances by Willamette Radio Workshop. I've heard about one performance that I'd like to know more about.
Allegedly, Marc suggested using a computer program during this performance, to achieve a special sound effect. And at that time, this program was not being used in the manner he suggested for the results you both desired.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
You . . . You may remember this . . . ahh Sam. We were talking about how to . . . because I think at that point it was still Foley and then maybe there was a tape recorder or something involved you know to fire off effects and stuff.
I had been just experimenting with this piece of software that was not utilized for this purpose what-so-ever but it was . . . ahh . . . embraced rather hardily by the dance community . . . and still is, it's still in very active use . . . and that was a piece that's called Ableton Live which allowed you to trigger things in real time . . . ahh . . . extend them, slow them down ahh play with their in and out points, do mixes, all on the fly depending upon what was happening on the stage which is sometimes very important because things are happening on the stage that are not necessarily predictable. So you wanna be able to respond to that and this software seemed to be like a natural fit for that and I don't remember what the first show was . . . but . . . it may have been one of the Halloweens.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
I think it was . . . I think it was "Frankenstein."
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
Oh . . . I think you're right! Yeah . . .
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW 
SAM
I think . . . ahhh . . . because of the time I remember most there was a . . . a moment where . . . ahhmm . . . they were . . . ehh Frankenstein and . . . and . . . ahh . . . his mentor were . . . were talking out in the street and you had horses on and carriages rolling by and people walking by . . . and . . . ummh . . . Marc was able to do it so that they started doing the horses hooves and . . . and the sounds of the bridles and stuff and we had the two Foley people doing that and then they would stop doing that and go over and start working on a different . . . piece of Foley but Marc had picked up and recorded the . . . ahh . . . horses and was able to just loop that into the background and it was like a ten minute scene and your arms would have fallen off you had to do the horse hooves all the way through with the coconuts. And the thing was, I was telling people about it afterwards, and nobody noticed it. It was just so completely natural and sounded so completely natural, that nobody picked up that it was actually being looped . . . ahh . . . into it. And then we also used it . . . ahh . . . to excellent effect on . . . ahh . . .  "The Confessions of . . . ahh . . . Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." So that was . . . . that was a great . . . ahh . . . piece of equipment. We haven't used it as much because it requires a little more . . . ahh . . . 
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
(LAUGHS) It requires an operator yeah. (LAUGHS again)
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yes. Yes.
MUSIC OR SFX: FROM "THE FALL OF THE CITY" FOR A TRANSITION
STORY 9: THE FALL OF THE CITY
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "WRW Retrospective." I'm John Barber, talking with Sam A. Mowry, founder and director of Willamette Radio Workshop, and Marc Rose, award-winning sound designer who has contributed to several WRW performances and productions. One of your performances relies heavily on sound design and sound effects. Please tell us about producing "The Fall of the City."
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah, that was . . . ahmm . . . ahhh . . . It was fairly early on . . . and . . . once we started I started listening to a lot more radio theater looking for pieces. And . . . ahh . . . I came across that ahh online. And Archibald MacLesh, who I had known a lot about as the ahh . . . Poet Laureate of the United States and I had heard a lot about and he wrote JB and he had written some things for stage but I had never heard of "Fall of the City." And then, I saw the Orson Welles was involved so I was more excited and I listened to it and just loved the whole piece. I love poetry. I love the political . . . mileau . . . it it listens . . . Marc and I were talking earlier and said, "it's it's been perfect for every generation since it was written."
Sadly, we don't learn these lessons.
But ahmm it's a beautiful piece and so uhmm I brought it back and played it for the whole group and everybody loved it and we decided that we go ahead and do it.
And, talked to Marc about it and he was like, "Oh, yeah, I love that." And so, we, he came in on it and we . . . we did it in one day we recorded over at PCC's Sylvania's theater . . . ummhm . . . ahh . . . we were able to rent the theater for a day and we had the entire cast in there and we recorded the whole thing in one day. We did all the live Foley of the . . . the crowds and . . . ahh . . . it was it was an amazing day.
We had ahh let's see Michael Gansy came and did the recording brought his Nagra setup (LAUGHS) and his microphones which were great. Just a . . . it was just a really special day and then . . . ahh . . . Rob, who was producing it with me, Rob Kowal, and we were talking about it and Marc was going to do the sound design and he said, "Oh, well, give it to me and I'll, I'll let you know when I'm done," and it seemed like it was just a couple of days (LAUGHS). It might have been longer but it seemed like an impossibly short amount of time.
He . . . showed up with this and it was just perfect. It was the most amazing sound design I'd ever heard. I couldn't believe it was us when I (LAUGHS) was listening to it. And . . . ahh . . . that's one of the things that I always talk to young audio dramatists when they're talking about you know, "what's the most important thing."
It's kinda like to have an idea of the space you're in. And that seems to work best for actors too when you're talking to them, you know, "imagine the space you're in." You know, when I was the reporter and I'm whispering into my microphone because something's going on in the distance and other times when I'm screaming over the sound of the mechanical monster that's ahh coming into the city. Just . . . ahh . . . what creates the the various spaces you're in.
And . . . ahh . . . there's a beautiful moment with Linda Gertz . . . ahh . . . playing the the the dead woman who rises and comes and speaks to the town the city and you know she had just a wonderful sense of being one lone person in the middle of this huge and a whole city surrounding her and Marc was able to create a sound design that just perfectly evokes that. And, it's not an easy thing to do and it was amazing.
HOST
Let me jump in here to say, for listeners not familiar with "The Fall of the City," that the setting is outside, in a huge, open plaza of an unnamed city where THOUSANDS of people are gathered.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah.
HOST
The Columbia Workshop hired a large crowd of extras for the original recording of the crowd scenes and used the Armory Building in downtown New York, as a sound stage. You and Marc had maybe a dozen people. Despite these production differences, the sound design magic that Marc created is really quite impressive and definitely makes one feel present, part of the event that is happening.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah. If you get a chance to listen to the original Burgess Meredith is also in it and . . . just . . . amazing performances.
And their are some pictures online (LAUGHS) and you can see where, in the Armory Orson is in in a little Whisper Room surrounded by all (LAUGHS) the extras that were every high school and college actor that they could get to come in and be the crowd. And they have him in this booth and the picture . . . the door's open and as a voice over I'll tell you . . . yeah . . . he . . . the door's open and he looks like he's melting. It's just kinda like (LAUGHS) sweatin' to death in that booth.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
I think it's important to note too that the crowd and their feet steps and every that's all an active performer in this particular story. It's not just a background, it's an actual element. It's an interactive element.
HOST
The sound design you created has a presence. It's felt, and real, like that of a character. Let's listen to this sample from "The Fall of the City," sound design by Marc Rose, and performed by Willamette Radio Workshop.
SFX: SAMPLE FROM "FALL OF THE CITY"
 SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Marty Gallagher directed all the all the walking. Unhh . . . (LAUGHS) He did an amazing job. Umhh . . . but it's . . . it's you know that's I've I've just been incredibly lucky to work with such talented people and everybody feels . . . ahh . . . that sense of wanting to strive to do better. Could what's the what's the best thing we can do you know.
Some shows, yeah, they're not our best. And some shows you know they just get done but umhh you know it's the beauty of a live show is it has to happen. Ahh (LAUGHS) and umhhn but I've been so lucky to have so many great people who just want to work together.
Ahh . . . my wife Cindy did a Writers on the Air workshop for several years and we got a lot of great scripts out of that and ahhh she's ahh wonderful writer and a wonderful teacher and she was able to take the lessons she had learned writing for us and help out other people who wanted to write for us and . . . and that we all learned from each other as we worked on these scripts.
STORY ***: AWARDS
HOST
It's an amazing collaboration . . . and an award winning collaboration. Tell us, please, about the awards and international recognition received by Willamette Radio Workshop.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
We got like nine different awards, we've got the ahh American Theater Festival Awards, Cindy got the best script for their script writing competition. We've had awards for "The Fall of the City," "Frankenstein," "Jekyll and Hyde," so many different awards for . . . for . . . individual shows.
Ahh, one of my favorite things were when we had won a Convergence Award and we were there with Marc who had won one ahh as well and we were sitting down with the people who ran the . . . ahh . . . the competition and we were talking and we said you know, "Oh, we're working on a ahh production of 'Frankenstein,'" and they . . . ahh . . . they . . . the two of them just kinda stopped, looked down, I was like, "What?" he says, "Ahhm, that's great, just . . . ahh . . . don't send it to us, okay? Just ahh . . . everybody wants to do "Frankenstein" it's like "War of the Worlds" everyone wants to do "Frankenstein" everyone . . . they send it us you and know and they're just really not that good. You know. So, no offense. I'm sure it will be wonderful but, you know, don't enter it, don't pay, you know, because they're it won't get it won't get any award."
So of course, being us, we naturally sent it in and they they gave us ah ah an award ahhm for it ahh "Best Production." So, we we were so proud that not only did they like it, but we actually . . . in the face of all their prejudice . . . still ahh they like it and we thought that was ahh very much a Sally Field moment "They like us! They really like us!"
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 10: MOVING FORWARD
HOST
We're enjoying a wide-ranging discussion with Sam A. Mowry, and Marc Rose, about Willamette Radio Workshop, a well-recognized radio theater group based in Portland, Oregon.
Sam, you've shared some great stories from the history of Willamette Radio Workshop. Let's look now in the other direction. What are your plans for the future?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Well, I just found out that we've been offered to do "A Radio Christmas Carol" at the Kiggins Theatre again, so . . . umhh . . . we've got that.
HOST
So that's your acceptance then. It's on radio for everyone to hear, right?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yes. You got me. Got me now.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
(LAUGHS) He's got a commitment. (LAUGHS)
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
The pandemic really kinda put us on our butts ahhm for the last three years. Ahh we just did our live shows. We did a show for you ahh at the Kiggins and we did something at the Bell Mansion and we were very excited by that. And a lot of people saying, "When are you doing the UFO Festival again? What are you doing for Halloween? When are you doing The Hobbit again?" 
We're . . . we we really wanna move forward. I'm glad we're doing more things with you again . . . umhhm . . . John because that's ahh . . . you have been . . . you know . . . first it was the McMenamins that that gave us something to do on a regular basis and then we went through, what was it, like I wanna say six years of of doing a bunch of shows a year and I loved that, I love working with you because your depth of knowledge of shows and scripts and genres is unsurpassed in my my book and I love working with you and I love when you would say, "You know I was listening to ahh this Gunsmoke and I just it just seems so modern it's just such a great script." And I'd listen to it and you were right and so you know let's do that and that's when we said, "You know what, this really lines up well with 'The Silent Avenger,'" which is my favorite Shadow episode of all time which is about you know killing and the cost of that and training soldiers to do that and the Gunsmoke was about Matt Dillon tired of being of killing people and and wanting to stop and stop being a Marshall. And then he does. He quits and comes back and suddenly the ahh you know, the town's being overrun by bad guys and they killed the school teacher and this that and he's gotta strap on his gun again and go." And I thought, you know, what a great connection that was.
And when you said, "Why don't we do 'Fall of the City'" and then we both noticed I think that "R.U.R." came right after "The Fall of the City" in the Columbia Workshop and "R.U.R." was the first appearance of the the term "robot" and we were like, ahhm, "Oh wow! Well, we should do those together."
HOST
Yes, those radio dramas worked well together. "The Fall of the City" and "R.U.R." for the reasons you noted, and the "Bloody Hands" episode from Gunsmoke and "The Silent Avenger" from The Shadow because they talked about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, before it was named, understood, and recognized on a national scale.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
But that's the thing, John, I think you know and you you pushed me. I always shied away from doing comedy because I always thought that they were really based on the performer and ahhm and you were like, "We should really do funny" and we did "Laugh Your Dial Off." Did a bunch of comedic shorts and I loved 'em. And I and that's what I love about working with you John, you always inspire us to do more and different and outside of our comfort zone and ahh finding exciting ways to ahh work for new new new adventures in audio. And I thank you for that. And . . .
You've done an amazing job and you really are the the lightning rod for audio drama in the Pacific Northwest and I think around the world and ahh I'm hoping to do more with you that's gonna take us forward and we're gonna be looking for new people ahh new actors new writers new musicians new sound people just ahh constantly trying to find ways to bring new bring new people into the fold.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
STORY 11: PODCASTING
HOST
Sam, what about podcasting? It's current. It's popular. It's easy to access. Might it be a way of, as you say, bringing "new people into the fold"?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
More and more people are becoming aware of audio as a as a as a as a medium and something that they listen to and take part in that they hadn't for years before. And, to me, podcasting is just radio drama on demand and ahh so we're we're hoping to continue on and do more stuff and ah hopefully I'll be around to do it and hopefully I'll have people around like Marc and yourself and Marty and Cindy and Sam and everybody. Uhhm . . . David and Dino.
HOST
What impact do you think podcasting will have on Willamette Radio Workshop's future storytelling?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Yeah, well I think . . . like I was saying earlier, I think that podcasts are are the new currency we . . . It's harder and harder to get on actual broadcast and it's one of the things I love about Re-Imagined Radio is you actually broadcast and are actually on radio. Ehh . . . (LAUGHS) I think that's fabulous. Ahh But podcasts are here and probably are gonna be the future and, you know, we we actually, several years back we did "PDX Podcast Live" and we did ahhm one of our shows "Through the Turnstiles" and we had our friend Christopher Hart and his podcast of "Exoplanetary" do a live version and ahhm "The Diarist" which is another podcast and neither of those had ever done a live show and so we . . . We got together with them and they were interested in doing a live show with us and so we created kind of a live podcast show. And, it's one of the things that we talk about more and more, is is looking for more of these kind of collaborations with other artists that the Workshop can be again, more of a workshop and see what we can do and see how we can ahh develop and expand ahh scripted pieces on podcasts.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, OPEN. ESTABLISH, THEN FADE OUT UNDER THE FOLLOWING.
BREAK #2--THE RIR BREAK
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. I'm John Barber, producer and host. With each episode we explore radio storytelling using voice, sound effects, and music. Here are some examples . . .
SFX: RE-IMAGINED RADIO AUDIO TRAILER 
HOST
Future episodes include a look behind the "I Have a Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, a documentary about the coordinated terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the remount of Dry Smoke & Whispers you'll hear about in just a moment.
More information and listening opportunities are available at our website--reimaginedradio DOT net.
Re-Imagined Radio is also available as podcasts. Subscribe, listen, like, and review wherever you get your podcasts.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, RETURN. ESTABLISH, THEN CROSSFADE TO THE FOLLOWING
STORY 12: WHAT'S NEXT?
HOST
Marc, I understand you and Sam are revisiting Dry Smoke & Whispers. Can you provide some details about what you are planning?
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
Sure. Yeah. Ahh. We're going to remount . . . We seem to do this about every eight nine years we seem to trot out another story, I don't know what that's about . . . But we are going to do another one . . . And of course Dry Smoke & Whispers was a series that ran for several years, syndicated. It was the very first thing I ever syndicated on public radio in my whole life. And ahh it's a series we keep coming back to and, ahhh, we've gone back through the archives. We've found a story that we first did in 1980 and I think we're going to remount that one again, and it will be premiered of course on Re-Imagined Radio because ahh why not. But yeah, we're gonna be working with Sam, we gonna be working with ahh a lot of folks in our mutual universe here to bring this one back to life. And I'm lookin' forward to it. I think it's gonna be . . . It's gonna be a hoot.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
We did a live original Dry Smoke & Whispers for WRW at the UFO Festival one year.
SFX: MARC ROSE RECORDED INTERVIEW
MARC
That's right. Yeah. Ahh, "The Jewel" it was called. That was an experience! That was a real experience I gotta tell you. (LAUGHS) I've spent my entire life in a in a booth you know, so it was like, "Well, this is gonna be interesting not only live but having other people you know around you at the same time interacting so it was just a really great experience. Really grateful to have had it.
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
It turned out really well and we had the best poster EVER ahh because Rob did the poster and he's a professional graphic artist.
And that's also the plus about working for John and ahh Re-Imagined Radio is he has so many brilliant designers doing the posters over the year. I hope someday to have a studio big enough that I can display them all.
CODA
MUSIC: SWIRLING BACKGROUND AMBIENCE FROM "FALL OF THE CITY" FADE OUT UNDER THE FOLLOWING
HOST
We're almost out of time, sadly. Is there anything else, Sam, that you'd like to say about Willamette Radio Workshop and your two decades of radio storytelling?
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
Oh, well, I . . . I know I'm leaving peoples and shows and moments out of everything . . . umhhm . . you know, from Liz Russell and Claudine Hemingway. I think you, I think we've pretty much covered it. Ahh . . . as much as you can in an hour of twenty-two years worth of ahh work and . . . and ahh . . . I suppose the real fun of it is is that there are a bunch of stories I haven't told, bunch of stories I'll tell again, ahhm (LAUGHS) and we'll be creating new stories as we go along because that's . . . I think that it's the beauty of radio, and I use that unabashedly, yes, it's radio, is that it's it's the ultimate storytelling medium. And it's you and your listener. And, ahh, during World War II it was the, you know that, amber glowing light in the living room that gave people hope and led them through the worst conflict in history, and ahh made them laugh and made them cry and ahh connected them with the rest of the world. And the Golden Age was brief and fabulous but I think that there's another era coming, the Platinum Age of ahh radio that we'll see coming after us and ahh I hope that we ahhh keep it going and inspire more young people to join in.
MUSIC: TRANSACTION
HOST CONCLUSION
HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "WRW Retrospective," a wide-ranging storytelling session about Willamette Radio Workshop, the premier radio theater group in Portland, Oregon.
I've been talking with Sam A. Mowry, founder and director of WRW, and Marc Rose, a three-time Emmy Award- winning sound designer, who has made, and continues to make, great contributions to Willamette Radio Workshop, and Re-Imagined Radio. Not for Hollywood wages by the way . . .
SFX: SAM MOWRY RECORDED INTERVIEW
SAM
(STEPS ON HOST'S COMMENT) But he is more than willing to work for Hollywood wages anybody out there looking to hire him.
MUSIC: RIR THEME, ESTABLISH, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
HOST CREDIT ROLL
HOST
Re-Imagined Radio is produced with support from KXRW-FM. Vancouver, Washington's community radio station.
Episodes are archived at our website, reimaginedradio DOT FM. Podcasts are available at the major platforms, or our website.
Content curation and script by John Barber.
Sound Design, music composition, and post-production by Marc Rose.
Graphic design by Holly Slocum Design.
Our announcer is Jack Armstrong.
This is John Barber, producer and host. Thank you for listening.
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
ANNOUNCER CLOSE
SFX: RECORDED ANNOUNCER CLOSE
ANNOUNCER
This is a production of Re-Imagined Radio. Our radio broadcasts are heard on local, regional, and international community radio stations.
For on demand streaming, point your browsers to our website, reimaginedradio (all one word, no punctuation) DOT net. 
Thank you so much for listening, and please, join us again for another episode of Re-Imagined Radio where we'll continue our exploration of radio storytelling.
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, AND TO END