Conceptual Framework
Re-Imagined Radio's conceptual framework situates sound-based storytelling as a literary form combined with digital media features and affordances.
Find the frequency
100
episodes produced
90
episodes available
Re-Imagined Radio (RiR) is not a radio station, media conglomerate, or broadcasting entity. We are a Vancouver-based collective of writers, actors, historians, researchers, and artists that re-envision sound-based arts as community-centered performances that go beyond the traditional radio medium.
Your imagination + Our sound. Telling stories together.
Our Mission
We are a collective of writers, actors, historians, researchers, and artists re-envisioning and expanding sound-based arts as community-centered performances beyond the traditional radio medium.
From 2013-2020, we offered live performances, many at or near house capacity. When COVID-19 restrictions halted public gatherings, we adapted via virtual listening parties and on-request distribution of recordings. Now, responding to audience interests, we are building capacity for our strategic return to high-impact live, public multimedia storytelling. With our partners—Clark County Historical Museum, Kiggins Theatre, and the Electronic Literature Lab at WSU Vancouver—RiR will provide community listening experiences in unique Vancouver community venues.
Why We Are Unique
- Live Spatial Storytelling We can successfully gather audiences at local physical venues for live, sound-based performances, dramatic theatre, listening events, and workshops.
- Cultural Preservation Our productions creatively explore and celebrate art, culture, and heritage in Vancouver.
- Immersive Audio Designs Our unique performing style leverages dialogue, music, and sound effects to build immersive multimedia listening experiences for our audiences.
Our Success
- Established Legacy Over 100 audio tributes, oral histories, and theatrical dramas produced since 2013.
- Prestigious Venues Performances at Kiggins Theatre. Sound art installations in local art galleries and Divine Consign, Vancouver City Hall, and Washington State University Vancouver. Public talks and events at Fort Vancouver Regional Library.
- Resilient Pivot When COVID-19 halted public gatherings, we adapted via virtual listening parties and on-request distribution.
Partners
We're always looking for stations, sound artists, voice actors, writers, and fellow storytellers to join
us. Carrying Re-Imagined Radio on your station. Stepping into the studio to
vocalize a character. Grabbing the mic (or the pen) to produce your
own sound-based story. However you work in sound, there's a frequency to fill.
Partner with us→
Research Inquiries
Our research inquiries draw from classic and contemporary examples of audio drama, radio art, soundscapes, sound art, and sound poetry. Our outcomes are just as diverse.
Creative Practices
Our creative practices explore how voice, music, and sound effects combine to spark imagination and promote community listening experiences.
Tuning In
When I heard my story adapted and produced by Re-Imagined Radio with professional actors, it pretty much blew my mind. You all brought the story to life, with voices that seemed spot-on. It captured the spirit far beyond what I expected. The sound effects and music really added to it. Your work is vital these days - oral stories bring history (and fiction) alive.
Tom Vandel
Author
Our station has two groups of listeners — one for the morning political talk, the other for the afternoon music programming. Your show serves as a unique palette cleanser between the two.
KXRY
Portland Radio
You know, it's a funny thing hearing your own work come back to you, but it's even more rare as a teacher to hear another educator and audio drama commentator like John Barber provide context, insight, and deft analysis along the way. Each month John and his team take you on a voyage of discovery using genre theme and an artist's eye to guide you through the experience.
Jack J. Ward
Writer and Producer
Where has this show been? Re-Imagined Radio is well worth my time. It is engaging and smart, well-produced. Radio needs more of this.
Galloway 24
Community Internet Radio
The result of all this is a more than an adaptation of my novel. It's a unique and new and different work, an unprecedented work, in a different medium, created by John and Marc and Re-Imagined Radio, and it's a living work offered in tandem with my novel online, where you can choose to Read or Listen to Figurski at Findhorn on Acid.
Richard Holeton
Author
Kiggins and Re-Imagined Radio have been partnering to produce live “storytelling with sounds” performances since 2013! The Kiggins staff have enjoyed working with John and his team to produce some truly world-class and entertaining performances. We look forward to another decade as Kiggins enters its 90th year!
Dan Wyatt
Kiggins Theater
I've been working with John Barber and Reimagined Radio for the better part of 15 years, I guess. Time flies when you're having fun. I really support John and the Reimagined Radio crew in their mission of sound-based storytelling, or as some people like to say, nothing to see but everything to hear. John's been a great producer to work with.
Marty Gallagher
Writer and Producer
I was thrilled when John Barber and Mark Rose suggested that two of my short mystery stories would work well on reimagined radio. But even better than listening to my stories on the radio, which was an incredible experience, was working with reimagined radio to create the world I'd imagined through sound. The actors, the direction, the sound effects and production, it was all top notch. Even the promotional graphics were so good that I shared them far and wide.
Cindy Brown
Author
Our History
Re-Imagined Radio. Created in 2013 by Dr. John F. Barber, faculty with the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University Vancouver.
Staff
- John F. Barber Director, Writer, Producer, Host
- Holly Slocum Creative Manager
- Marc Rose Sound Designer, Music Composer,
Post-Production Specialist - Caitlyn Kruger-L'Esperance Programs Manager
- Rylan Eisenhauer Video Production Specialist
YouTube Manager - Claire Leyden Motion Graphics Designer