Kitchen aid

Ania Mianowska

Ania Mianowska

Arthur Yorinks grew up in a household where the radio was always on. "My mother was a radio nut," says the Upper West Side–based playwright, director, children's-book author and cofounder, with Maurice Sendak, of the Night Kitchen Theater Company. Now Yorinks is aiming to create a new generation of radio nuts. He has launched the Night Kitchen Radio Theater Company, a group of actors and sound-effect artists modeled in part on Orson Welles's legendary Mercury Theatre on the Air (Sendak is not involved with the new project, though he did contribute the company's logo art). The ensemble's half-hour weekly show started broadcasting on the satellite service XM Radio in late January, and its work can also be found on Nick.com and NickJr.com.

The Night Kitchen's programs are a rollicking, fast-paced blend of music, satire and humorous serial narrative, geared to appeal to kids over age seven (the NickJr.com content is aimed younger). Among the segments are "On Rosie's Stoop" (based on Sendak's book Really Rosie), fake ads and "The Evy Show," the thoughts and observations of a real-life 11-year-old girl turned loose on the world with a tape recorder. The result, multilayered and wickedly irreverent, is unique on today's airwaves. Adults will find plenty of jokes aimed at them, as well; Yorinks incorporates a century's worth of pop-culture references into his scripts.

Yorinks believes that today's kids have plenty of room in their lives for the magic of radio, despite their full menu of multimedia diversions. "With the right content, I think it's a welcome antidote to the barrage of visual images we're subjected to," he says. "It taps into the rather ancient but compelling idea of using your imagination. I think kids, more than anyone, are capable of doing that. And I firmly believe in the power of radio."

The Night Kitchen Radio Theater is broadcast on XMKids, channel 116. For schedule information, go to www.xmradio.com.