Some Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service listeners will gather round the old radio today to enjoy a new production of an old classic.
The channel, which normally broadcasts readings of newspapers and magazines to sight-impaired listeners, will broadcast its own production of a Christmas episode of My Friend Irma, a weekly radio show that began airing in the 1940s. The new production airs at 9 a.
m. and 1:30 p.m.
today, said Lisa Bordner, station manager for the Northeast Indiana Radio Reading Service.
The new version will be available only to listeners registered with NEIRRS, Bordner said. The half-hour original Christmas episode aired Dec.
25, 1950.
The show focused on the comedic central character, Irma, whom Bordner compared to television s Lucy Ricardo character portrayed by actress Lucille Ball.
The show was unearthed after an Internet search of classic radio shows, Bordner said.
The My Friend Irma episode then won a majority vote from organizers in November.
And it had a fair-sized cast that we could accommodate, Bordner said, adding the episode features six main characters and several one-line voices.
The cast list includes six characters, an announcer, and carolers.
The credited crew includes director Jim Bordner, Lisa Bordner s husband, and producer-editor Chad Burris.
After two rehearsals, Bordner said the cast and crew did two live recordings of the show. Then sound effects, music and the laugh track had to be added.
We weren t sure how we were going to do the sound effects initially, Burris said.
The answer to that challenge came in the form of a couple of sound effect CDs, Burris said. However, that didn t remove all the challenges for Burris, who recalled one particularly challenging montage of sound effects needed when a character inside a house hears carolers outside, opens a window to listen to them, then closes it, and walks across the room to dial a telephone number.
Despite the daunting challenge a tricky sequence like that may offer, Burris said he had fun.
It s really something that I enjoy doing, so I didn t really keep track of time when I was doing it, Burris said.
Burris, who said the recordings were made Nov.
30, said he finished the postproduction work around Dec. 14.
Burris also lent his voice to the production, playing Irma s boyfriend, Al a character Burris described as a shyster who s always on the lookout for the next get-rich-quick scheme.
The re-creation of the old show was exactly the kind of creative challenge NEIRRS volunteers wanted, Bordner said.
Beginning next year, Bordner said the station will offer a radio performance each quarter. She already has a list of 20 people who want to be involved in the next production.
Everyone loved doing it, Bordner said.
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