|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Doors just keep opening for W.F. Strong, Brownsville resident, Falfurrias native, author and gravelly voiced narrator of the National Public Radio program “Stories From Texas.”
Strong, also a communications professor with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and a Fulbright Scholar, was officially appointed to the board of directors of the Texas State Historical Association on March 7.
It’s a clear case of one opportunity leading to another. Strong, who illuminates little-known nooks and crannies of Texas history for his listeners, explained to The Brownsville Herald how he got TSHA’s attention.
He’d been doing work for Autio, a travel app offering snippets of history and/or culture pertinent to wherever travelers happen to find themselves, narrated by the likes of Kevin Costner (who co-founded the company’s precursor, HearHere), Phil Jackson, John Lithgow — and W.F. Strong.
“I was doing a lot of narration for that,” he said. “I was doing the narration for stories that the (TSHA) was providing to them.”
Strong has also narrated his two volumes of “Stories From Texas” for Audible, and last year narrated “The Essential J. Frank Dobie,” an anthology filled with stories, essays and letters from the legendary Texas folklorist, storyteller and columnist. Add to that Strong’s considerable contribution to popularizing Texas history via NPR.
It all coincides with TSHA’s push to get its content online, including in audio format. Strong explained that TSHA is “largely a publishing enterprise,” putting out the “Handbook of Texas,” “Texas Almanac” and many other publications. The online “Handbook” alone gets some 2 million hits a year from distinct users around the world, he said.
Lifetime TSHA board member Steve Cook, an early proponent of digitizing the organization’s content in condensed audio format, had complimented Strong at some point on a piece he did on Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who died in 1996, and her outsized impact on the Watergate hearings.
“He just thought it was kind of a model for the sort of thing that he would like to see on Autio,” Strong said. “So that’s how I got on his radar, and then he decided that I should be on the board, because of the background I have with oral storytelling.”
Strong said he’s long wanted to do a handbook on Texas literature and suggested as much to Cook, who loves the idea.
“He wants me of course to kind of head it up, to push this particular project forward,” Strong said. “But before we do that one they want to do the ‘Handbook of West Texas.’”
While TSHA’s partnership with Autio ties in perfectly with the organization’s goal of pairing printed and audio content online (largely to reach a younger audience), it has served as an inspiration of sorts for Autio, considering that heretofore its entries for other states have relied largely on historical markers — usually too brief to constitute a full story, Strong said.
“But when they did Texas they were already 300 words long, which is about the right length, very well developed, all the source support there,” he said.
The upshot is that Autio is adopting the Texas model for the rest of the country as the company adds more entries to its platform, he said.
Cook said the TSHA’s relationship with Autio, which started about 18 months ago, is in extreme growth mode, with many more hundreds of Texas stories to be added.
“Bit by bit we’re kind of filling out the Texas map,” he said. “You particularly want to fill it out in Texas, because the drives are so long. It’s one thing to get 50 stories in the Houston area, but if you get in far West Texas you’re going to have blanks if we don’t work at it.”
Encouraging Strong to join the board, meanwhile, was an absolute no-brainer, Cook said.
“He’s a Fulbright scholar and he knows a lot about Texas literature,” he said. “I think he’s a remarkable guy.”
It probably didn’t hurt that Strong is already all over Autio, Audible and NPR. Leveraging TSHA’s 2 million hits a year by attaching audio stories — with the right narrator — creates many opportunities to expand the organization’s reach, Cook said.
“But it takes somebody who’s been there, done that, and has imagination,” he said. “W.F. is perfect for that. I think he’s one of the more exciting board members we’ve added in years.”
For Strong’s part, he already had plenty of projects on his plate and couldn’t turn down the opportunity of a seat on the board — plus it puts him in a position to push the “Handbook of Texas Literature,” he said. At the end of the day, being appreciated feels good, Strong said.
“Anytime your talents are respected, it’s nice,” Strong said.
Strong’s stories on Barbara Jordan and the Texas Polio Epidemic can be heard here and here.
