audio – Learning Signs

Digitally Resurrecting Family Audio Memories

September 30, 2026 Dad brother, dad, littlesister, podcasts, sister, stringandme, video, voicethread, websites, youtube

Since I’m a dad who likes to “play with media” and act as a family “storychaser,” we’ve recorded a LOT of audio and video over the years. I’m in the midst of a HUGE project to migrate at least 38 different websites / domains / subdomains from the web host I’ve used since 2018 (8 years ago) to a new one. My server plan on the new web host has twice as much RAM memory and will cost less than half what the old one did on a monthly basis. I documented my previous web host migration journey in my March 2018 post, “16 Years of Web Hosting Changes with WordPress and Other Web Platforms: The Lessons Continue,” and wrote a little about the new, AI-assisted methods I’m using now in my June 2026 post, “Archive WordPress with HTTrack.” I also wrote (what I expect will be) my LAST post on speedofcreativity.org last week, “23 Years, and Still Blogging,” sharing a little more about this massive website migration project that has taken multiple weeks and TONS of hours.

One of the great things in this laborious and time-consuming process has been successfully “digitally resurrecting” old media content which had gone offline and was ALMOST lost to history, and our family specifically. Last night, I finished the restoration of my SOUNDS blog, which is a website I started back in 2011 after I published my first book, “Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing.”

Sounds of My World – ambient audio recordings by Wesley Fryer (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer

The first post my sounds blog is 15 years old and has an audio recording from my 2nd of 4 trips to China. It’s titled, “Shanghai Subway Walking.” The last post on the sound blog is “On Eagle’s Wings,” which is the recording of our middle child, Sarah, singing at the funeral and memorial service of my mother on February 18, 2023.

Tonight I shared links to several other audio / sound recordings of significance to our immediate family, which include:

Let It Shine (An April 2012 recording from a musical at our Edmond church, featuring a short solo by Rachel 28 seconds in)
Reading Narnia at Bedtime (Shelly reading “The Horse and His Boy” to Rachel in October 2011 before bed)
Hungry Sea Lions (a recording from an exciting moment at the Oklahoma City Zoo, during a school field trip with Rachel in October 2011)

There are MANY more recordings here (like 73 in all I think) but those are some standouts tonight that have special family significance. I’ve not only moved this site to the new web host, but I’ve also converted it to “static HTML,” taking it off WordPress and therefore reducing the vulnerability of both the site and my entire web server to malicious attacks from bots and bad actors. I hope to preserve these audio recordings for posterity: Our grandkids and even their kids!

One other “digital resurrection” related to family media from this past week is the “String and Me” YouTube channel and archived WordPress website (with some archived comments as well) which I helped our son, Alex, create back in 2008, when he was 11 years old. He created his string figure YouTube video series 18 years ago, and the most popular video, “Jacobs Ladder String Figure,” now has almost 200K views. Unfortunately we never turned on ‘monetization’ for that channel!

It’s wonderful to have recordings like this of our kids’ voices when they were so young, and also as they got older and shared their musical talents with our community.

There are many more audio recordings to still work on “digitally resurrecting…” I think I have downloaded versions of all the “AudioBoo” recordings we made as a family somewhere…. and probably more. Before my original VoiceThread account went offline or the recordings were erased, I did download some of those and upload them to my primary personal YouTube channel. Some of my favorites include:

“Merry Christmas 2007 from the Fryers” (17.5 min)

“Getting a New Haircut” (2 min, from 2003)

Have you conducted oral history interviews with members of your family? If not, you should! I have resources about this on storychasers.org, on ShowWithMedia.com, and on my media literacy lessons / curriculum website. I’ve collected oral history recordings from our family on history.wesfryer.com/oral-history, and will be working on a larger family geneology project (including oral history interviews / links) in the months ahead, before our next August 2027 Fryer Family Reunion in Cody, Wyoming.

If you don’t take time NOW to record the voices of your family, who will? You can become your family’s own “digital witness!”

2 comments audio, blogging, famil, history, voicethread

Saving Family Audio from 2010 on iPadio

September 2, 2019 Dad littlesister, podcasts

One of the hazards of using 3rd party websites for recording and sharing media files is they sometimes go offline. Some people (like @tonyvincent) have referred to this as the ‘web 2.0 graveyard.’ This evening, thanks to an older comment on one of my WordPress sites, I learned that iPadio.com has ‘almost’ gone offline. Officially was discontinuing support and hosting for existing audio files in April 2019.

iPadio.com Goes Offline by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr

“iPadio.com Goes Offline” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Thankfully, however, 15 of the 17 recordings I created and posted to iPadio starting back in 2010 are still on the website, so I was able to download them and upload them to Amazon S3. Each one of these was originally posted here, to our family learning blog, so I’ve also added the Amazon S3 link on the original posts. I’ve also linked those below as “captions.” So thankful to be able to preserve these audio recordings!

The title / subject and details of each recording are included BELOW each embedded audio file as a “caption.”

“One Rice, Thousand Gold” by Rachel Fryer (4/5/2010)

“Humidity and Bread” by Sarah Fryer (5/12/2010)

“Rachel explains how the eye works” (5/14/2010)

“Rachel Endorses Art Snacks” (5/25/2010)

Public Schools Are Not Businesses: Why Educational Sharing Matters (22 min, 56 sec, Wes Fryer, 10 June 2010)

Meet the Tesla Electric Car (3 min, 17 sec, by Wes Fryer, 11 June 2010)

A Ghost Story from Colonial Williamsburg by Rachel (2 min, 15 sec, Rachel Fryer, 29 June 2010)

Rachel and Sarah Fryer in Colonial Williamsburg by Wesley Fryer, on Flickr

"Rachel and Sarah Fryer in Colonial Williamsburg" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

A Ghost Story from Colonial Williamsburg by Sarah (4 min, 14 sec, Sarah Fryer, 29 June 2024)

Things we Learned about Colonial Williamsburg (15 min, 11 sec, Wes Fryer, 3 July 2010 – Original blog post)

Rachel Buys Her First iTunes Audiobooks (5 min, 35 sec, Rachel Fryer, 2 Sept 2010)

Rachel on Toy Story (43 sec, Rachel Fryer, 27 July 2010) – Original blog post)

Stories We Wish We Had Recorded (11 min, 35 sec, Wes Fryer, 29 July 2010)

Rachel Teaches at AudioBoo and the Zebra Print at the University of North Texas (14 min, 12 sec, Rachel Fryer, fall 2010)

Study Guide for “Technology for Teachers” Final Exam (11 min, 47 sec, Wesley Fryer, fall 2010, archived course curriculum)

An Interview with Fred McPherson

January 21, 2013 Dad dad

This Friday I’m going to share a presentation at TEDxOU in Norman, Oklahoma. I’m planning to talk about the importance of storychasing the voices of our families, and am going to tell a story (among others) about Fred McPherson. Fred was like a grandfather to me, and a father to my mom and uncle who also spent some wonderful summer months with him and his wife, Alice, in Itasca, Texas.

In October 2005, my parents interviewed Fred about his life. This is the 78 minute audio interview they recorded with Fred.

I am going to share a 92 second edited excerpt of that interview in my TEDx talk on Friday, which I’ve shared to SoundCloud using the title, “Remembering the Early Days of Radio.”

Rest in peace, beloved Fred. My how you’d be amazed to see how your family members are communicating now around the world.

Leave a comment audio, family, interview, recording

Learning about Lincoln at Ford’s Theater

July 3, 2009 Dad brother, socialstudies, travel

Alexander recorded this AudioBoo after we toured Ford’s Theater today in Washington DC.

My AudioBoo account is linked to Twitter so a link to this was automatically tweeted out, but when I posted this with WordPress for iPhone I was NOT able to copy/paste the actual embed code unfortunately. It would be great if AudioBoo would adapt their mobile interface to permit copying of the embed code on an iPhone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

2 comments audio, audioboo, history, lincoln, record, recording, washington, washingtondc