Twenty-two years ago, the Southern Oregon Historical Society began producing a series of historical stories for the Jefferson Public Radio series titled “As It Was, Tales from the Mythical State of Jefferson.” Today the program airs its 2,500th episode since the series resumed in 2004.
Researcher-writer Carol Barrett wrote more than 1,200 of the early scripts, many published in book form in 1998. The first narrator, veteran broadcaster Hank Henry, died in December 2003, but his recorded voice continued into the next year. After a brief period, the program returned with a new voice, that
of -- yours truly -- actor Shirley Patton.
More than a dozen writers comb Southern Oregon and Northern California for material, offering listeners a fresh story five days a week, including holidays.
The program mission is “to tell stories that … give a sense of the colorful, varied – if sometimes disquieting – history of the region, and thereby give us all a richer sense of what it means to live” … in the mythical State of Jefferson.
Winner of the historical society’s 2012 Heritage Award, the all-volunteer-produced
“As It Was” welcomes new writers with a story to tell.
