Deidre Randall's 'Writers in the Round' celebrates 106 shows on Portsmouth Community Radio 

For two years now, volunteers like Deidre Randall have manned the airwaves of one of our trusty independent radio stations, WSCA-LP 106.1 FM, putting countless hours into the many locally flavored shows that dance into our radio and computer speakers. Randall’s “Writers in the Round” has provided some quality cross-pollination in our arts scene since the station’s genesis, gathering together a few musicians and pairing them up with a different fine local poet each week.

For two years now, volunteers like Deidre Randall have manned the airwaves of one of our trusty independent radio stations, WSCA-LP 106.1 FM, putting countless hours into the many locally flavored shows that dance into our radio and computer speakers. Randall’s “Writers in the Round” has provided some quality cross-pollination in our arts scene since the station’s genesis, gathering together a few musicians and pairing them up with a different fine local poet each week.

For two years now, volunteers like Deidre Randall have manned the airwaves of one of our trusty independent radio stations, WSCA-LP 106.1 FM, putting countless hours into the many locally flavored shows that dance into our radio and computer speakers. Randall’s “Writers in the Round” has provided some quality cross-pollination in our arts scene since the station’s genesis, gathering together a few musicians and pairing them up with a different fine local poet each week.

The series began long before WSCA was a twinkle in anyone’s eye—once a month, musicians and their friends would climb the creaky wooden stairs to the bar above A.D.’s Barbecue on State Street to perform and talk shop. A.D.’s is long gone, and the space upstairs is now home to a lounge called The Red Door. But when WSCA started asking for show proposals, Randall pitched her idea.

The idea of doing something on air appealed to her, as did freeing herself from the responsibility of putting bodies in the seats of a club.

“I wanted to do the radio series because I was interested in doing something different, so I put in my proposal,” says Randall, who is a fine singer/songwriter in her own right. “They called me and said ‘Can you put on a show next week?’”

The program has faithfully aired each Wednesday night at 7 p.m. for more than 100 weeks. Show number 106, significant for its shared value with WSCA’s location on the dial, airs on Wednesday, Dec. 13, and Randall is turning it into a celebration. Anyone interested in seeing the show recorded live is welcome to join them in the studio at 909 Islington St. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and coffee and dessert will be available from then until 7 p.m. This special edition of WITR will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

“The first week I think I could only get two guests,” she says, chuckling, “but luckily I knew a lot of songwriters and poets, and it just started to roll.”

Usually she has three songwriters and a poet perform. Musicans like pop-punker Geoff Palmer from The Guts, indie folkie Justin Carloni, rocker Nate Laban and many more songsters of every conceivable genre have worked their craft over the airwaves, along with poets like the acclaimed Jack McCarthy, who was on Boston’s national poetry slam team, and Mark Decarteret, who is one of founders of Beat Night at The Press Room.

In the early years, before the station had more gear, Randall and the performers all had to pile into the station’s tiny control room, precariously swinging the boom of the mic stand from one person to the next as they took their turns performing in “the round” under severely cramped conditions. Now they stretch out in the relatively luxurious lobby just outside the control room, surrounded by mic stands and snaking cables, with volunteer engineers Lou Clark, Gordon Sharp or Eric Reuter on hand to modulate the sound.

“I wanted it to have the feeling of just sitting around in the living room playing,” Randall says of her original idea for the series. “A lot of non-musicians don’t have a chance to experience that. I also noticed that they were just as interested in the talking between the performers when they play together.”

“So, when I started to think about this series,” she continues, “I knew I wanted those things, and I also knew I definitely wanted to get poetry involved.”

The enthusiasm of the show’s participants is seemingly bottomless. As an extension of the show, each year Randall spearheads a four-day gathering at Star Island, an idyllic spot for such an artistic retreat. The musicians and poets who participated last September paired up for an exercise in cross-genre collaboration, and teamed lyrics written by the poets with original music from the tunesmiths. The results were cathartic. “Every single one of those combined pieces were all great songs,” she says. “Literally every one of them was amazing!”

With the radio program, Randall originally thought the show would provide her with an opportunity to play her own new songs, but now she says it’s more about getting influenced and inspired by the other performers.

“Lately, I’ve been writing more poetry than songs,” she says. The creative energy during the shows seems to inspire everyone involved.

“They do seem to reflect off each other as to what they do sing or read,” says Randall of the musicians and poets on the show. “Sometimes they’ll say ‘Well, I was going to read this other piece, but because of what you just played I’m going to read this.’” The listeners are reacting, too. The show rated number one among the locally produced programming on the station during a listener survey WSCA conducted in February.

Randall was thrilled.

“I get a big adrenaline rush