James Kicklighter sent me a link to a new video out with himself, Edith Ivey, Berry Stolch and Jonathan Pope live from the Macon Film Festival.

Hear about the background of the film, what it was like making it, and of course, some delicious tidbits about the golden age of radio!

Do check out James Kicklighter’s site for more information about Theater of the Mind and his projects, and recall our conversation with him a few months ago about turning memories of radio into film!

Now this is fun!

Radio Drama Revival is now being syndicated on Red House Art Radio.

Red Radio bills itself as “an innovative project of the Red House Art Center and is Central New York’s first listener-generated arts and ideas Internet radio station. Red House Art Radio [Red Radio] explores audio as an art-form and communication platform.”

Sounds good. And they are into radio drama, too! It goes on:

Red Radio is not conventional broadcast radio nor is it like any other Internet radio station. Instead, Red Radio is a cutting-edge communication medium that unites local and global artists, musicians, philosophers, leaders and commentators on one stage.

For the moment, it seems you’ll just be able to get the Radio Drama Revival podcast on their website in addition, of course, to this main feed. However, in the future it looks like they are going to be offering a streaming online radio station with a whole slew of interesting content.

As broadcast models continue to evolve and change, this is an exciting model to follow, and of course RDR is excited to draw in more listeners from wherever they come.

Paul Potts writes a great article on What is a Podcast — from an aesthetic/production/creative sense. In addition to espousing just about everything about podcasts that I love, too, he has also some great things to say about radio drama.

And I love what he says about professionalism (as much as I try to make a “polished” show!):

The podcast world is vast, and contains multitudes. “Polish” is code for “make it sound like everyone else does, or we will look down on you.” “Professional” is code for “people without a lot of money need not apply.” Oh, and also “people who want to record something important and true to them, but that won’t fit into a recording studio, or sound just like NPR, need not apply.” Really? I love some of what goes down on NPR, but it ought to be obvious that there is an NPR “style,” and expecting everyone to conform to it is just as bad as expecting everyone to conform to the commercial FM radio style.

Needless to say, I’ve got another feed in my iGoogle and another podcast in MediaMonkey. Thanks Paul!

Well, the death toll for diversity has already been sounding for some time, but it still didn’t make it great news to hear that the XM and Sirius merger has been approved. I can’t applaud either company for making an exceptional effort at redefining the radio medium, but given that satellite seems destined to be “FM without commercials” I suppose the way things have gone is the only inevitable path.

Let’s just hope that Sonic Theater makes the transition and that there remains a place for full-cast audio production… but I’m not holding my breath.

Well, blind-sided I am again with the holiday season, and as I scamper to get some great Christmas stories in the line-up, I figured I’d take the time to highlight some of my favorite listening of this past year, as well as the stuff that’s a sure-win for any audio fan on your list. And hey, even if they don’t love audio yet, give them some love! They may turn into fans yet…

The first place to start with is ZBS. While it’s a damn shame that Lodestone shut down, ZBS is almost undebatably the most diverse and interesting contemporary audio theater catalog out there. You of course have the marvelous work of Tom Lopez aka Meatball Fulton, with such classic series as Jack Flanders and Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe and searing new work by Crazy Dog Audio Theatre and Great Northern Audio Theatre.

I just recently finished the two classics Moon over Morocco and The Fourth Tower of Inverness, which are as well deserving of canonical audio theater status as the works of Orson Welles, Norman Corwin and scratchy recordings of Lights Out and The Shadow. And speaking of the classics, The 60 Greatest Old-Time Radio Shows of the 20th Century selected by Walter Cronkite as recommended by Tony Palermo, is as good an introduction to what OTR is about than any your likely to find (and once you’re hooked, check out Noirdame.com for some really juicy stuff).

Back-tracking to ZBS for a moment, I was very exciting to see that they have Crazy Dog’s latest, The Stuff of Myth and The Salmon of Black Pool. I recently had the chance to hear both care of Roger Gregg himself and was completely blown away, especially with the latter… just don’t listen to them too quickly and spoil your chance to hear them on this show!

Now a great stocking stuffer is a subscription to Audiofile Magazine, produced locally in Portland, Maine and amazingly supportive of audio drama arts, especially the work of William Dufris (who has several great audio horror collections).

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the work of Dry Smoke and Whispers, who you’ve heard several times on the show. Their fantastic stories take the gritty splendor of the detective story and sprawl it across a galactic empire both exotic and familiar. Treat your fantasy or sci-fi junky with one of their beautifully packaged CD collections and prepare yourself for a thank you card that comes with chocolate.

Another gift that might break some medium boundaries is the BBC’s fine adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. While purists will still have their stones to throw, it’s a heck of a lot truer to the text than that Peter Jackson thing and has some really great “visual” moments… making it the perfect gift for someone who’s yet to learn how to use their ears! In general, the BBC has more audio drama collections to purchase than I know where to start with and certainly has got something for anyone.

Also take a listen to Blackstone Audiobooks, who have impeccably fine taste and produce the likes of Yuri Rasovsky — famous for his great adaptations of classic texts. Quicksilver, I’d love to throw you guys a link to follow up this claim, but I believe they’re yet to make it on the web!

As a closing note, don’t forget the profound gift that is an audio player (and far be it from me to get into comparing audio players and picking out ear buds), especially to someone who knows how to use their iPodder… and why’s that?

• Wormwood
• Decoder Ring Theatre
• Dick Dynamo
• Dream Realm Enterprises
• Darker Projects
• Afterhell
• Doug Bost
• Central Audio Theatre
• The Wireless Theatre Company
• Eye of the Storm
• Second Shift
• Dreamseed
• Wander Radio
• Podiobooks
• Shadow Falls
• Icebox Radio Theater
• and of course… Radio Drama Revival
• Not to mention the dozen or so I’ve inevitably forgotten… to whom I apologize and will add on this never ending list of diverse and compelling audio producers, experienced and newcomers alike, who make this whole internet thing so exciting for us audiophiles

Hopefully this is enough to get you started!? And hey, pick up a thing or two for me while you’re at it…

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?