A New Arena for Radio’s Joe Frank : Television: His short film ‘Memories’ airs tonight on CBS. The actor-dramatist hopes the oddly moving montage will lead to a series.

For the past four years, radio dramatist Joe Frank has been mesmerizing listeners with his series of haunting stories on “Work in Progress,” which airs twice weekly on KCRW-FM (89.9).

Tonight, he can be seen trying his hand at a new medium when CBS’ late-night variety show “The Midnight Hour” airs “Memories,” a short film produced for television by Propaganda Films.

Based on a story by Frank, who also appears in the film, “Memories” marks the beginning of a new phase for the writer-performer, who hopes to begin work on his own series by the end of the year.

“I tried every permutation in radio I could imagine and want to try something new,” Frank said during a chat on the set of “Memories,” which came together during a whirlwind two-day shoot last week.

Shot for just $10,000 in black-and-white film, mostly at locations on Melrose Avenue, “Memories” is a vintage Frank story--which is to say, it’s nakedly personal, a bit bizarre and oddly moving.

“This is a montage that tries to come to terms with the past,” said the writer as he watched the crew put finishing touches on a set meant to approximate a funeral parlor. “The past is the most important theme in my work because for me the past seems deeper and more profound than the present.

“Each of us carry our past in our blood and bones, and I’m sure I’ll go to my grave with unresolved questions going back to the first few years of my life. Think how you feel when you hear a piece of music that reminds you of a significant experience you had--you almost feel like you’re going to faint, you’re so moved by it. That’s the power of past.”

Directed by Paul Rachman and featuring 10-year-old Trevor Barish, who plays Frank as a child, “Memories” was originally slated to be one of three Frank films to be produced by CBS.

But according to Kevin Stein, the CBS director of late-night programming who green-lighted the project, “The deals take longer than the creative process in television, so it turns out we only get to do one. I hoped to do a full-blown pilot with Joe, but some people here got scared. But if we don’t do it, somebody else will. Joe is a wonderful writer and a lot of big-name people have been trying to get him to write a movie.”

Though Stein is very much in Frank’s court, not everyone at CBS is convinced, and as Frank explains, “This is sort of an audition for me to get my own series. The response I need is for the CBS executives to like it and say yes--and, perhaps naively, I believe this piece will appeal to a broad audience and I’ll get the support I need.

“I don’t feel at all cynical about television, although I must admit the only things I watch are the news and PBS. I don’t want to be on PBS, however, because I’m not interested in addressing a cultural elite and want to reach the broadest audience possible.”

Though Frank feels optimistic about his future in television, he’s a bit unsettled by the creative process it entails. After years of working as an auteur in radio--where he was in control of the writing, recording, editing, music, sound effects and casting of his shows--the collaborative aspect of television takes a bit of adjusting.

“The most difficult thing about working in television is the loss of control,” he says. “With radio, it’s my work exclusively--and I tend to be a perfectionist--but with this I have to trust that people understand what I’m trying to do and get out of their way and let them do their jobs, and that’s hard for me.

“But mostly, I’m very happy with what’s happened. The people I’m working with are very competent and I love the sense of camaraderie. After years of working alone, I find the shared sense of purpose you feel on a set really wonderful.”

Helping take the edge off for Frank is the fact that he and director Rachman are very much in synch with one another. “I loved the slow pace and dreadful mood of (his radio shows), and found them incredibly soulful,” Rachman said. “They’re kind of imaginary and dreamlike and have funny twists, yet they come from the heart.”

With various TV deals percolating, a book in the works, which will be published next year by William Morrow Co., and a series of recordings of Frank stories slated for release next year on Windham Hill Records, Frank’s career at KCRW would seem to be a thing of the past. Not so.

“I haven’t done a new show in a few months, but I’ve been building a body of new material that’s waiting to be committed to tape and I hope to get to it soon,” he says. “NPR is getting nervous that I’m not giving them new shows, but KCRW has been very patient--there are 68 shows in the library there and they just keep rerunning them.” (Frank’s show airs Saturdays at 11 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m.)