May 2, 2005

UA's Radio Lab Takes Students to the Landscape of the Mind

Left to right: Dr. Jerry Rosenberg, Alaine Huntington, Evan Hisey, Michael Chesney

The New College Radio Team records in a converted basement vault. Shown left to right: Dr. Jerry Rosenberg, professor of psychology and director of the Radio Lab, and students Alaine Huntington, Evan Hisey, and Michael Chesney outside the vault at the controls. (photo: Rickey Yanaura)

by Joanna Hutt

"Heh, heh, heh (about 15 times). Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Heh, heh, heh (about 15 times). The Shadow knows!

"Blue Coal presents 'The Shadow', a man of mystery who strikes terror in the very soul of sharpsters, law breakers, and criminals."

Dialog readers of a certain age likely know this opening and probably others, like the opening of "Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons," "War of the Worlds," "Boston Blackie," "Inner Sanctum," "The Cavalcade of America": These titles, their openings, the characters, the stories, are familiar to those who grew up during the Golden Age of Radio in America.

Radio, according to Dr. Jerry Rosenberg, professor of psychology and director of UA's New College Radio Lab in the College of Arts and Sciences, was the first media to capture a mass audience from across America. These audio-only stories and adventures engaged and enchanted listeners from the mid-1930s to the 1950s. The shows created a glue that bound all ages of listeners into a common culture.

Old and young alike sat, often in the dark, in front of big wooden radios, with their eyes closed, imagining in this video-less "landscape of the mind," as Rosenberg describes radio's territory, through sound effects, voices, and background music.

So what do these audio shows have to do with current students in their extreme video worlds, their land of Top 40 music on iPods, their cell phones with ring tones?

The Radio Lab has taken them back there, to radio's landscape of the mind, where they use technology in new ways, write scripts, record, edit, and build a studio out of an old vault in a musty, airless basement. Only two summers ago, the program was new. "About five students thought this program was a marvelous adventure," said Rosenberg. "We scrounged all over campus to find recording equipment, computers and a recording studio. We found this old vault."

Beginning in a Vault

The "vault" is indeed an old airless vault in the basement of Carmichael Hall, home of the UA administration until Rose Administration building was built. It housed records, accounts receivable and all kinds of documents. The students got down there and cleaned out all the trash and junk and made a studio out of it.

"My challenge to the students who have become involved with the Radio Lab has been to create something contemporary for radio. We start by listening to old radio dramas to see what you can do with sound effects scripts and voices," said Rosenberg. The students have currently produced about 10 to 12 shows, including programs for the Jerry Rosenberg Radio Hour that have aired on UA's radio station WVUA, audio yearbooks of works by students in UA's creative writing program, and more. Then came "Voices in Black History," which resulted through collaborations with other faculty members. As part of this collection, the students produced a CD of talks with the last of the Scottsboro Boys, Clarence Norris.

Then the idea of combining the pieces and programs for Black History Month with individuals' memoirs making up an archived permanent collection began to gel.

Then all the equipment failed.

It's a heck of a way to get good, cutting-edge equipment and software, according to Rosenberg. He credits the A&S dean's office, particularly associate dean Dr. Carmen Taylor, with saving the Radio Lab.

Left to right: Dr. John L. Blackburn, Rev. Tom Gilmore

Dr. John L. Blackburn (left) and Rev. Tom Gilmore recently participated in Radio Lab's "Memories: Perspectives of Black History." (photo courtesy The Crimson White)

Agents of Change and Memories

A memoirs project recently kicked off a new direction for the students in the Radio Lab: Rosenberg calls it "Memoirs I," and a CD of the first program will be available in a few weeks. The Radio Lab joined with Stillman College in producing and recording "Memories: Perspectives of Black History." These voices from local agents of change during the tumultuous early days of the struggle for civil rights in Tuscaloosa and West Alabama told their personal memories.

Panelists included Dr. Harold Bishop, former special assistant to then UA President David Mathews and currently professor in the College of Education; Dr. John L. Blackburn, dean of men during the integration of the University and the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door, currently a consultant to educational institutions; Tuscaloosa attorney John Bivens, New College graduate, a founder of the first chapter of the Afro-American Association at UA, and one of the first African-American law students on campus; Rev. Tom Gilmore, an early New College student, the first African-American elected sheriff in the Deep South, in Greensboro; Joe Mallisham, a Korean War veteran who returned to Jim Crow Alabama, became a local civil rights activist, and was the first black to be elected to the Tuscaloosa County Commission; and Ms. Willie Mae Wells, professor at Stillman and early civil rights activist who marched in Selma and was arrested several times.

Blackburn remembered the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and the events leading up to it. "I cherish my memories of June 1963. This was a great experience for me," he said.

Gilmore remembers a dark night 15 days before civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He was driving a car carrying King and other leaders on a sweep through the Black Belt on county road 14. An 18-wheeler ran them off the road. Gilmore recounted what happened. The white man walked up to the car in a threatening manner. King rolled down the window and said, "Young man, get back in your truck." The man did; there were no incidents.

Rosenberg hopes this becomes an annual series. "What memoirs can do," he said, "is bring a sense of the speakers' lives to others, give to others the human side that most people never experience, and bring out a commonality and empathy."

Memoirs can also be a catalyst for change, according to Rosenberg. Hearing some of these memories of life in Jim Crow Alabama can be hard. "There are many paths to change," he said, "and one is anguish."

The Lab also recently recorded the African Diaspora Conference hosted by the College of Arts and Science's department of religion.

To get a copy of these or other CDs, contact the Radio Lab at 348-8414 or 348-1918.

UA Home | Dialog Extra | UA News | Faculty/Staff Links | Legislative Updates