Sgt. Joe Friday Gets The Facts In Re-Imagined Radio's "Dragnet" -08/05/24

VANCOUVER, Wash. – More than 50 years ago, radio listeners got a real feel for police work by tuning in to “Dragnet.” The show was about boredom and drudgery as well as about heroism, and its narrator, Sgt. Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, was the prototypical hard-boiled detective. 

Webb was also a great radio storyteller. In August, Re-Imagined Radio samples from “Dragnet”” as well as Webb’s earlier radio programs. The episode, titled “Dragnet,” premieres at 1 p.m. Aug. 19 on KXRW-FM (99.9), Vancouver, and KXRY-FM (91.1 and 107.1), Portland. Subsequent broadcasts and streams will be provided by local, regional and international broadcast partners.

“Dragnet” began as a radio series in June 1949, and a television series of the same name continued into 1959. Re-Imagined Radio will feature the early story titled “The City Hall Bombing,” in which a man threatens to blow up city hall unless his brother is released from jail. The episode “has a focus on heroism but also humanity, professionalism, realistic danger and excitement,” said John Barber, producer and host of Re-Imagined Radio.

Webb grew up in Los Angeles, raised by his single mother and grandmother. He loved reading, and acted, announced for his high school radio station, and emceed a fundraiser for the football team. While taking a radio course at Los Angeles City College, he co-created and put on a murder-mystery program that disbanded when World War II broke out. He tried flight school but failed. USO variety programs were the highlight of his military career. After being discharged in 1945, he got his first radio job in San Francisco.

Community Partners

Re-Imagined Radio draws on community voice actors, Foley artists, musicians, sound artists and engineers. Partners include KXRW-FM, KXRY-FM, Fuse Audio Design, the Electronic Literature Lab at WSU Vancouver, Marc Rose and Holly Slocum Design, with Sidney Nguyen.

About Re-Imagined Radio

Re-Imagined Radio was begun by Barber in 2013 to celebrate radio storytelling.  ”We select, produce and perform classic and contemporary stories across a spectrum of radio genres, from dramas to comedies, from oral to aural histories, from documentaries to fictions, from soundscapes to sonic journeys, from radio to sound art,” Barber said. 

About WSU Vancouver

As one of six campuses of the WSU system, WSU Vancouver offers big-school resources in a small-school environment. The university provides affordable, high-quality baccalaureate- and graduate-level education to benefit the people and communities it serves. As the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington, WSU Vancouver helps drive economic growth through relationships with local businesses and industries, schools and nonprofit organizations. 

WSU Vancouver is located on the homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley. We acknowledge their presence here. WSU Vancouver expresses its respect towards these original and current caretakers of the region. We pledge that these relationships will be built on mutual trust and respect. 

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