The hardest-working man at WMRG.
Chester is the floor manager at WMRG. Everything you see in the studio, from the microphone stands to the sign that lights up, got there because Chester carried it or told someone else to. He has a last name. His parents know it. The station manager has it on a form somewhere. Nobody else has ever needed it, because if you say "Chester" in any room in the building he is already on his way, holding whatever it was you were about to ask for.
He arrived at the station as a boy who swept up, and he has never technically been promoted, so much as he kept doing more things until the things were the job. He runs the clock. He counts the show in and out of every break. He holds up the cards that tell the studio audience when to applaud, and he takes the results personally. Sections that clap late get a look. Sections that clap well get remembered.
Chester's real art is sound effects. He can do a horse with two coconut halves so convincingly that people at home have written in asking about the horse. He can do a door, a wind, a fire, a kettle, a car pulling away, and a very specific kind of rain. He practices. He would like you to know that he practices. It is a skill. The horse in particular took years.
He does not go on the air, ever. He is a man of few words and most of them are numbers. He is married to a woman named Meg who runs the church bulletin and has the same relationship with the choir that Chester has with the studio audience. They have two sons, both of whom can already do a passable canter.
Every production of Christmas on the Dial is cast from its own community, so the face changes from town to town. Your program has tonight's cast.
Meet the others: Bing Marlow, Vivian Vale, Maggie, The Kids, The Narrator, The Hi-Fi Five, WMRG.
