Hey, FCC. Let XM and Sirius dominate the entire satellite spectrum and I can enjoy a bunch of commercial… err… resistant programming for the low-low price of $6.99. That’s a whole handful of a la carte offerings for the price of two cups of coffee a month, right? Not a bad deal at all. Especially if I don’t have to hear Jolly Johnson screaming to me about used cars for the millionth time in a row. But forbid them their wishes, and we’ll be forced to suffer through $12.99 until the end of time!

Despite my cynicism, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the Sirius/XM merger. On one hand, I don’t really see anyone else coming in and jumping in the satellite band, so why care? It’s so ultra-expensive its impossible to imagine any “homegrown” media outlets taking to outer space, and besides, internet radio offers a great viable… oh, right. We’re trying to eradicate that, too.

What does alarm me, in a very personal way, is the recent decision to cut XM’s Sonic Theater over the weekends. I’ve been very close to buying an XM radio JUST to hear Sonic Theater, and now I hear 28% of its programming has been slashed. That includes dedicated ZBS stuff, and Joe Bevilacqua’s Comedy-O-Rama show. Luckily, the weekday lineup still holds such gems as Harlequin Romance Radio.

Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure what the powers-that-be are trying to do other than help further the RIAA’s agenda and eliminate any chance of hearing something… I don’t know… different? With all of the amazing technology offered by the web, all we can seem to figure out is how to limit our options as much as possible, shush up the voice of emerging artists, and homogenize ourselves back into the same bland trash you hear on the 6 or so type of stations penetrating our brains from coast to coast.

Anyone want to chime in?

Well, this isn’t exactly radio drama, but a fun project by someone affiliated with WMPG and of possible interest to Portland, Maine listeners and maybe those from elsewhere, too.  Last month, former WMPG Office Manager “DJ Mindwrecker” launched PortlandMaine.TV, a so-called “YouTube for Maine.”  This month, he has created another new community site for the Maine Music Community and beyond. PortlandMaine.TV now has its first “sub-channel site”, MaineMusic.TV, which is a messageboard for musicians and bands to post shows and discuss Maine Music, in all genre’s.

Like PortlandMaine.TV, MaineMusic.TV is designed to give Mainer’s a media outlet to disuss all the music that Maine has to offer. From bands, DJ’s, producers, and artists, all musicians and Maine music fans are invited to join and contribute to the discussion. It is free to join, and post your ideas and show dates/services.

I haven’t had too much time to bomb around on the sites, but it looks like there is some amount of community activity, which is going to be essential to gaining any sort of critical mass.  Obviously the numbers aren’t going to be crazy (this is, after all, a small market), but a fair amount of the right kind of targeted traffic will make or break this really interesting start-up.  All the best of luck to PortlandMaine.tv and MaineMusic.tv, from Portland’s foremost radio drama blog!

It was pretty cool to stumble across this article in the Guardian Arts Blog which talks about the future of the audio theater, and features some of my opinions on the sad yet hopeful state of affairs (yes, me, quoted in a real newspaper!). I think one of the toughest things radio drama is facing right now is people not realizing its existence. So articles like this that raise awareness are incredibly appreciated!

There’s also an interesting discussion of devices to put “visual’ in the radio… which while they sound interesting, I can’t help but wonder, isn’t the joy of radio is that the only visuals are the ones in your mind?

Anyways, a really great article overall and worth a read, and maybe a comment?

Taking off the radio drama hat for a second, this morning I was writing an article for my company’s Internet Marketing Blog on Building Community for your Blog (yeah, it’s the job that actually pays).  A couple of interesting things crossed my mind while writing on this subject and especially about building up liberal linking habits.

The importance of linking to other authors first hit me while working on the supporting materials for Day of the Dead.  One of my essays — the New Orleans one, I think — received a whole slew of red ink from my instructors after they read probably three to four pages of scholarship with limited citations.  Having spent five years in university, you’d think I’d have taken care of this poor habit (in my defense, it was a draft), but the tricky part with this essay is that I was writing from common knowledge.  Or, at least what I thought was common knowledge (based on chatting with any number of locals in French Quarter dive bars for the past couple years).

While most of what I wrote turned out to be close to true, it was still important to be able to validate my assertions beyond just “I told you so.”  This probably induces a “Well duh” from you, but the point is that linking to other websites is the equivalent technique in Internet terms.  Besides providing evidence that you’ve read about the subject (or at least spent a few minutes Googling it), links make it easier for people to sniff out your trail and follow it to distant reaches of the Internet.  And since a lot of these radio drama sites aren’t terribly, er, optimized for maximum search engine performance, linking is ever so much more important for us to keep interested listeners tuned in to the great diversity of producers that are actually out there.

So, inasmuch as I can, I hope to link here to all of the dramatists whose work I find inspiring, and words I find insightful.

Stumbled across an interesting BusinessWeek analyzing the monetization of podcasting and why it may be trickier for indie podcasters to make a buck where others, such as a-list bloggers, have succeeded.  To be honest, it’s a pretty amazing that anyone can make enough money off a website to quit their job, though I’m certainly not going to turn my nose up at the phenomenon!  I think it definitely points to the power of the direct producer -> audience relationship that the new social media has allowed, and the good old fashioned ingenuity of those savvy enough to come up with ways to take advantage of an extremely accessible audience.  But don’t worry, AdSense will never come to Radio Drama Revival!

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Quoth the New York Times:

Under the ruling released on March 2, Web broadcasters must pay each time a listener hears a song, at a rate that began at 0.08 cent in 2006 (the ruling applies retroactively) and rises to 0.19 cent in 2010. Besides increasing the charge for each song, the ruling established a $500 minimum payment for each Web channel — making it difficult for companies like RealNetworks and Pandora to offer as many different kinds of music as they do now.

“We would have to provide less choice and less diverse programming,” said Robert Kimball, senior vice president for business and legal affairs at RealNetworks. (my emphasis)

Yes, folks, less choice and less diverse programming, thank goodness the Government’s got our backs. So now that we have one or two different terrestrial radio companies, and two — err, one — satellite radio company, we should make such we nip this tricky little Internet radio thing in the bud before it completely destroys the ability of record companies to make a profit. This is a ruling I really hope gets overturned.

In fact, for once NPR and I agree on something. The royalties to be incurred are absurd, and the justification for their existence is an all too familiar story of the record companies doing everything they can to destroy the natural course of music for the sake of profit. Face it, RIAA — music should be, and wants to be freely accessible to everyone. If the bands you produce are any good, they’ll make their money in other ways. And hey, maybe if you were on board with the internet radio stations, you’d actually promote interesting new music and attract new audiences and rake in the bucks with subscription services…

Well, at least what I’m playing isn’t subject to royalties. Play on, everyone!

Well, looks like I’m on a roll this evening. I had the great pleasure of chatting with Jack Hosley, AKA “The Wander Wolf” from WanderRadio this afternoon and learning all about how he got into the niche podcasting market and the emerging media writers and actors he works with. Time allowed for a special presentation of “High Moon” by Great Northern Audio Theatre. Enjoy!

Radio Drama Revival! Episode 9

I was surprised to come across a story on Maine Web Report talking about a controversy between MPBN (Maine Public Broadcasting Network) and a long-running DJ called The humble Farmer. The humble Farmer is a quirky show with 30s and 40s jazz and big band music with occasional dry-witted humorous stories that comment on the state of affairs of our times in a classic “Mainah” style.

Well, it seems MPBN is setting an ultimatum with the humble Farmer after some more objectionable political opines went out on the air. The problem with stating your opinion, I guess, is that it may be misconstrued as the station’s opinion despite the fact that the opinion is wrapped in humor. And as we all know, MPBN, and all of public radio, is entirely politically neutral.

I don’t want to get too much into the specifics, as I’m not a journalist and have to take this story at face value, but I’ve long been lukewarm as to the operation of so-called “public” radio as it’s mostly a pipeline for national programming, classical music, and a whole lot of literati banter. The network does anything but reflect the diversity and local culture, and this attack, however well-warranted, against one of their few shows that features true local flavor, is unfortunate.

I guess we shouldn’t expect a station that takes government bucks to welcome lively political opinions, though the other question raised is why the national political programming from NPR seems to be subjected to a different set of standards (as they have plenty of political humor, much of it at Bush’s expense). I also wonder why an organization that receives over 75% of its revenue from local listeners has such a small amount of local programming. Does all of Maine really donate to MPBN so they can listen to another edition of Car Talk?

With on-demand programming growing in versatility, radio remaining and increasingly becoming expensive, and an increase in the number of NPR products available on satellite radio, I begin to wonder what the future of our rather sad public media is.