SEQUIM — John Grissim may beat his chest at a “Mingle with the Cast Party” on Saturday, Jan. 8 — but if he does, it will be only to illustrate how he made the sound of rotating helicopter blades that will be heard in the radio drama, “Adrian Cross, For Hire.”
Grissim — writer, director and producer of the show that will air at 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16 — will share war stories and introduce the cast at a fundraising party that will predate the first broadcast of the locally produced show on Sequim’s nonprofit station, KSQM 91.5 FM.
Admission will be free to the party from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Olympic Cellars Winery, 255410 U.S. Highway 101, between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Olympic Cellars is donating the space, said Shelley Taylor, spokeswoman for the production and the voice of Christine Hale, Cross’ love interest, in the production that tells the tale of a “Sequim Bay boat bum” who “is hired to find a priceless artifact, leading to a deadly chase on the raging seas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.”
Fundraising will be accomplished through soliciting donations and through CD sales, which will allow holders to hear the show before it is broadcast, Taylor said.
Excerpts of show
Those at the party also will hear some of the scenes from radio drama, made in the old-time tradition.
Grissim, a Dungeness-area resident, plans to present about 30 minutes of excerpts from the show, which has expanded to one hour and 14 minutes.
“We’ll center them around dramatic moments that will demonstrate some of the bells and whistles that we’ve been able to achieve but also to showcase our actors,” he said.
He’ll talk about work done behind the scenes.
Some sound effects can be purchased, Grissim said, but others are handmade.
Thumped his chest
To get the sound of helicopter rotor blades — heard when a Coast Guard member is speaking — just right, Grissim thumped his chest “really fast.”
It took about three takes to get the sound just right, so to record 30 seconds of background sound, Grissim beat his chest for about a minute and a half.
He was sore afterward, he admitted.
The work is an example of the “lengths that a director will go through to get the right sound,” he said.
In at least one case, inspiration struck him in his sleep.
The crew wanted the sound of a safe-cracker turning the combination.
“We wanted a tiny ratchet sound. We couldn’t find it anywhere,” Grissim said.
“I woke up in the middle of the night and thought of my three-quarter socket wrench.
“So that’s what you hear” when the safe is being opened.
Another example:
“We needed the sound of a sail exploding with air in a raging storm. . . . There’s a loud whumpf sound.”
So the crew made a trip to The Home Depot in Sequim and bought a 6-foot-by-8-foot tarp.
“On a count of three, we yanked it open.”
January’s show is expected to be only the first installment in the Adrian Cross series, Taylor said.
All locally produced
It’s the first radio script for Grissim, who wrote for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco in the 1960s and ’70s and who is a former editor for Surfing magazine in Australia.
Adam Stern, who conducts the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, wrote the score, which was recorded in November on the Port Angeles High School auditorium stage.
The show stars Ron Graham as Cross, an adventurous, self-reliant loner who lives aboard an aging cabin cruiser in Sequim’s John Wayne Marina and works as a jack-of-all-trades who “regularly crosses paths with Sequim’s police chief, with whom he has a flinty relationship,” Grissim has said.
In addition to Graham and Taylor, listeners will hear announcer Steve Berg, Jim Dries as Preston Hale, Graham Reaves as E. Danforth Hale, Chandler Wendenborn as Mitchell Hodder, Ric Munhall as Audie Chambliss, Ric Munhall as Roscoe the Parrot and Frank Romeo as LeRoy Purvis.
And they will hear Sheri Burke as Sgt. Jennings, Jim Weldon as Chief Callaham, Greg Madsen as Nelson Paul, Erika Van Calcar as the Coast Guard dispatcher, Ian Scott as the Coast Guard pilot and Mike Bunnell as Tyler at the fuel dock.
CDs to be sold
During the “Mingle with the Cast Party,” CDs of “Adrian Cross, For Hire — The Schooner Mystic Rose” will be available for sale for $15. Those who donate $30 also will receive the CD.
KSQM memorabilia will be for sale and also will be included in larger donations, Taylor said. That could include specially made Adrian Cross T-shirts.
Wine will be served at a no-host bar. Hors d’Åìuvre by Mystery Bay Seafood Catering will be served at no charge.
How to hear it
When “Adrian Cross, For Hire” airs Jan. 16, listeners in Sequim and Dungeness Valley, and parts of Port Angeles and Port Townsend, can listen to it on their radios.
But the 700-watt station’s reach is small.
It will be accessible to all with computers, though.
Just visit www.ksqmfm.com and click on “Listen Live.”
The show also will be rebroadcast on as-yet-undetermined dates after the premiere.
For more information, visit KSQM’s website at www.ksqmfm.com, e-mail the station at radio@ksqmfm.com or phone 360-681-0000.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
