Radio Flyers take to the airwaves

The Whit, 1991

By Rich Mardekian

There was a time when there was no television.

No television you say?

What did people do for entertainment, you ask?

The answer is simple.

People gathered around the radio every night to listen to their favorite programs: dramas, comedies, serials.

The late, great actor Orson Welles was extremely popular in the late 1930s with his weekly series of radio dramas called Mercury Theater.

Radio shows were all but gone with the invention of television, but now they are making a comeback.

The radio drama is being revived by a group of Rowan’s Campus Players called the Radio Flyers.

The Radio Flyers will present classical dramas once a month on the campus radio station WGLS (89.7).

The group’s first production was Lucille Fletcher’s “Sorry, Wrong Number” presented at 6 p.m. Sunday.

According to Susan Meister, the director of the program, this particular play was picked because it is a good representation of the 1930s era radio drama.

Meister said the idea of presenting radio dramas at Rowan was the brainchild of visiting professor Robert Hegyes.

No auditions were held as the project was basically cast with those who showed interest.

WGLS adviser Frank Hogan said the Radio Flyers program is a good way “to expose the talent at Rowan to the rest of South Jersey.”

The first installment of the Radio Flyers’ dramas was “Sorry, Wrong Number”. It is the story of Mrs. Stevenson, an invalid woman, played by Gail Albanese.

While making a phone call wires get crossed and Mrs. Stevenson gets connected accidentally to two men (played by Joe Ranoa and John Kucher) while they’re discussing a murder set to occur later that night.

She tries to get the number traced but her calls fall on unsympathetic ears from the operators (Amy Anson, Christine Catto and Stephanie Abramowitz) and from the police (Steve Jusko).

Mrs. Stevenson starts to panic and things get worse when her husband sends word (cont’d from pg. 12) that he is going away on business. She tries to get a private nurse to come stay with her but to no avail.

The plot then takes a twist when the listener discovers that the person who’s destined to be murdered is Mrs. Stevenson herself.

She hears an intruder in her house while still on the phone trying to get an unsympathetic operator to believe her. A blood-curdling scream signals the end of her life.

Meister said she feels an important aspect of the shows will be the sound effects, which she describes as the “essence of radio dramas.”

A phone box was used in “Sorry, Wrong Number” to simulate the ringing phone Mrs. Stevenson heard.

Meister said she believes that radio drama is much different then stage because actors don’t have to memorize their lines or get into costume.

She also said in many ways radio dramas are harder to present because the actors have to coordinate their lines with the sound effects used.

Anson, who played one of the operators in the story, said she feels it is different acting on the radio.

She says that even though you don’t have to memorize lines, you still have to “get a good idea of the character you are playing.”

The next presentation of the Radio Flyers will be in March and Meister said they are thinking of performing The Hitchhiker.

So, once a month, turn off the TV, turn on the radio, tune it to 89.7 and listen to a great drama.