Team Aaberg: The Long View from a Little Town

Team Aaberg participates in KCRW’s 24 Hour Radio Race

“The Last Thing You’d Expect”

On Saturday, August 17 2013 KCRW, the leading NPR station in the Los Angeles area held its first ever 24 Hour Radio Race.  Independent radio producers from all over the world participated, from Dublin to Birmingham, London to Toronto – and Chester Montana!  Phil, Patty and Jake Aaberg signed up to compete in the race, with 24 hours to write, record, edit and upload a 6 minute non-fiction radio story.  The topic, emailed to participants at 10am PST was “The Last Thing You’d Expect”.  Twelve hours later a bonus element, a photo of a 20 sided die, was emailed and extra credit given to those successfully incorporating it into their story.

“As soon as we heard the theme on Saturday morning, we knew what our radio entry would be: our story. We live in the farmstead house in which Phil grew up, on Main Street. Our recording studio and bed & breakfast are attached. We have truly traded urban life for extra-rural life out on the high plains of North Central Montana. As one of the shapes of Platonic solids, twenty-sided die are associated with water. A perfect reference for dry land wheat farming! A train came through town just as we recorded the credits, at the end of a fun and long day working on this project.  Phil, Patty & Jake Aaberg– via SoundCloud”

Recording train and bird sounds, interviewing Evan Dahindin out on the grain cart, interviewing Chester native Glee Murray , figuring out how to incorporate the bonus element and editing took the better part of the day and night and lots of coffee – but the piece came together.