Arts & Culture

WKMS Youth Radio Project

The WKMS Youth Radio Project seeks to build a relationship with area kids who have an interest in radio. This project includes youth reporting, like Patrick Jones' interview with Murray State Basketball Coach Steve Prohm, or sound collages of local youth events like a behind-the-scenes scoop of Playhouse in the Park's summer camp production of Disney's Cinderella Kids. You'll find book reviews, commentaries, and other things created by kids, featuring their thoughts and voices. Our hope is to create a virtual community for kids that would be an online showcase of what they're doing in school, in the arts, and beyond in a way that is educational and enlightening.This project is destined to grow! If your child is interested in participating, or if you are an educator and have great sound you'd like to share, please send an email to msu.wkms@murraystate.edu.Here's a fun tutorial by Radio Rookies, from New York Public Radio:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYl5ZnwkzmESee more youth oriented programming on WKMS:Poetry Minutes 2012: Journey Stories

[Audio, Slideshow] 'Martian Cat Movie Battle,' A Youth Radio Drama

WKMS | By Matt Markgraf

Published December 31, 2015 at 11:00 AM CST

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Photo by Kristen Swisher

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Photo by Kristen Swisher

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Photo by Kristen Swisher

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Photo by Kristen Swisher

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Photo by Kristen Swisher

As part of the WKMS Youth Radio Project, Matt Markgraf collaborated on a recording activity with Kristen Swisher's 6th Grade Class at Murray Middle School. In this month long project, the students listened to a radio drama from A Prairie Home Companion and then wrote and starred in their own radio dramas, learning along the way how to tell a story through character-driven narrative, dramatic conflict and, of course, sound effects. The parents from each group got a recording of their student's play.

Here's one of plays, unofficially titled "A Martian Cat Film Battle" starring Isaac Bourne, Emily Burditt, Lucy Mitchell, Eliana Purcell and Katelynn Stanczyk.

Our special thanks to Kristen Swisher, the students and their parents and Murray Middle School.