Another great sound design video via Paeter from Spirit Blade Productions.

He explains how they created the “Dreadgloom Swamp” sequence from the audio drama “Pilgrim’s Progress: Similitude Of A Dream”!

Says Paeter:

I’ve been asked multiple times exactly how this sequence was created, given all of the water involved. It was easily one of the most challenging to record! (But still a lot of fun as evidenced by the video.) And for the first time you can see how it was done!

Don’t miss his previous video, Making A Dragon SFX, or our feature of his show from a year ago

In our final installment of our three-year anniversary special, I look back at some of the experiences and strategies (intended or accidental) that have made this show what it is.

Are you looking to start your own podcast?  Want to be a bigger part of the audio drama community?  Then I hope these tips help out a little bit.

1. Reach out to the community
   
   When I started this show, I had no idea where all of the content would come from.

   The very first thing I did is send out a blast to the Radio Drama Listserv looking for content and WOW did they respond.  I have never actively seek new content since (though, of course, I still do).Huge kudos to Craig Wichman and Jay Stern who let me air their work without having any idea what I would be doing with this show.

   Quicksilver Radio Theater has gone on to be one of our most appreciated, and frequent, guests, and having them on the show brings me to the next point…

2. Interview a Lot of People

   As I said, Craig Wichman and Jay Stern were happy to be interviewed way back in the early days – also special thanks to Scott Hickey and Brian Price who got involved early on.Interviewing all these storytellers, producers, writers, and directors has taught me a lot.

   I’ve learned who people are and where they’re coming from.  What starts people down the mad course of becoming a radio dramatist – the challenges they’ve faced, the fun they’ve had, and the things they’ve learned and would do differently next time.

   Not only has this been great content to share with all of you, but it’s taught me a lot in my own life as a dramatist.

   I picked up field recording early on, avoided some missteps, learned the rigors of live recording, and have gotten the jist of how you make a production happen and what good audio sounds like.

   So, for everyone who’s ever been so generous to spend some time to talk to me, THANK YOU.

3. Do a Halloween Feature

   Bob Arnold has started calling October “Audio Drama Month” and I’m in agreeance.As a lark, for the first year of RDR I produced a month-long series of spooky stories and saw traffic to this podcast blow up.  The audience continued to grow at a steady basis until 2008, when I for the second time did a whole month of horror programming – kaplam!

   Another big spike in traffic.

   And this year, when I was running myself ragged with lack of sleep putting together my own live radio drama for Halloween, traffic spiked again, higher than ever, for Halloween 2009.

   October is huge in audio drama.  Milk it.

4. Share the Love

   What makes the audio drama community so great is that it is full of pretention and egos.Unlike, well, some other performing and produced arts, audio dramatists are laid back, geeky people who you can have a beer with and talk shop.  You’ll especially notice this if you have the opportunity to go to the National Audio Theater Festivals.

   So, I make an effort to give back all the gifts of time people have given me by linking out to their shows, promoting stuff they’ve got going on, and connecting them with other people who might be able to help them out, or dig their work.  It’s what numerous other people have done for me, and the least I can do is pay it forward.

   And so far, it seems to be working.  Radio Drama Revival continues to grow.

5. Pay Attention to Google

   In case you were ever wondering why this show is called “Radio Drama Revival,” not “audio drama revival,” it’s because of Google (well, RDR is also a little more catchy).Though we dramatists tend to call our work “audio drama” or “audio theater,” people who are looking for it for the first time tend to call it “radio drama.”  And so, I pelt it out, week after week – radio drama, radio drama, radio drama…

   I am a search marketer by trade, so I have a bit of an unfair advantage, but plenty of people can do what I’ve done without knowing all the other junk I know.

   Get set up on WordPress, install a few SEO plugins, and name your posts things that actually mention “radio drama” or maybe the genre of the show you’re featuring.

   It’s not rocket science.  And hell, if producers want me to give an introductory course on SEO for audio producers, let me know!

   Also, things like making sure your mp3 files have ID3 tags, are named consistently, have artwork that comes up right in iTunes, etc… are all really subtle, but make your podcast look more professional and polished.  RDR is produced for essentially $0 but that doesn’t mean I have an excuse not to look pro.

And so concludes our week of self-reflection…

I probably won’t do this again until we hit the big five-er   But, things continue to grow in audio drama, and believe me, you’ll see some pretty exciting news on this blog soon.

So, as always and ever, keep your mind and your ears open and let’s be in touch.

Today we continue our three year anniversary special and self-reflective analysis.  Today we focus on the most memorable interviews I’ve ever done.

This was a really hard one to put together, because I’ve done a ton. In fact, here’s a link to all interviews on Radio Drama Revival.

Here are some of what I consider the very best:

1. Roger Gregg @ Crazy Dog HQ in Ireland (Episode 117)

   I’ve had the huge pleasure of speaking with Roger Gregg on several occasions, but none more interesting than in his den of iniquity in Dublin, Ireland.

   Roger speaks of the promise and challenge of audio programming, and how innovative use of art is the way to keeping audio relevant in the YouTube age.

2. Tom Lopez on ZBS Film Noir (Episode 127)

   This past summer I was looking for people to talk about the National Audio Theater Festivals (NATF) and it made sense to talk to Tom Lopez again, arguably one of audio’s most influential and creative producers.

   This interview was fun because we got to talking about short-form audio drama and experimenting with a visual component.  Like Roger’s interview, we got a veteran’s view of audio in our society and ideas on how audio can keep its place in an environment of media glut.

3. Sue Zizza and Pat Fenton (Episode 84)

   In what I think is my only interview with both producer and writer, Sue and Pat talked about the work that went into the audio dramatization of Jack’s Last Call, including a lot of fun anecdotes about Jack Kerouac’s life and some gems about audio production.

4. Scott Hickey and Brian Price Talk about the Slasher (Episode 81)

   Ihad the occasion to sit in behind-the-scenes in the recording of “The Slasher,” an – ahem – killer work by The Grist Mill and a great opportunity to see seasoned vet Brian Price do what he does best.  This interview brought in producer and director to talk about their ambitious approach to audio – producing stories by published authors – and getting together an incredible cast and a professional recording space for their show.

5. Erik Bauersfeld and Jim McKee Talk About Radio Drama in the Bay Area (Episode 134)

   In case interviewing Tom Lopez wasn’t good enough, I got to talk to his mentor, Erik Bauersfeld, who’s been inspired by radio drama since he first heard the Witches’ Tale back in the 1930s.

   In this interview we touch on everything from his early days at KPFA doing Black Mass to his pioneering productions in field recorded audio drama.  By the way, Erik won the prestigious audio luminary award from Third Coast Audio Festival this year!

Did I miss something?  Disagree?  Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Welcome to day two of our three year anniversary special and self-reflective analysis.  Since Jan 2007, I’ve had a chance to feature a LOT of good work on the show.  75 hours and counting of audio goodness so far!

It’s impossible to feature everything that’s good, particularly because there are episodes in so many different genres, from a heavy dose of horror to holiday tales, classic retellings to contemporary drama, sci-fi, fantasy, and even a little bit of romance.

However, sometimes you just gotta pick your favorite babies.  Here are some episodes I think you should listen to again:

1. Dialogue with Martian Trombone (Episode 13) – What can I say?  I’m a lover of jazz music and this absurd martian tale showcases the endless wit of Great Northern Audio Theater.  Having David Ossman and Philip Proctor from the Firesign Theatre certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
2. Buried in Falling Sand (Episode 16) – While Dreamseeed has not produced much else, this gem of a sci-fi bears deserves a listen.This inspired, eerie tale does what science-fiction does best: use a society not so unlike our own to tell us truths we’d rather not know.  What WOULD happen if we had a drug that made us forget the work day?
3. God of the Razor (Episode 94) - The Grist Mill has produced many fine tales, but God of the Razor may be the best.Moody, atmospheric, and unremittingly dark, Joe Lansdale‘s God of the Razor tells of the dark that lurks in the basements of East Texas… and in the hearts of men.
4. The Salmon of Blackpool (Episode 52, Episode 53, Episode 54, and Episode 55) – Okay, here’s a cheat, because it’s a series of four episodes, not just one, but it is worth it.Crazy Dog Audio Theatre‘s “Salmon of Blackpool” is simply one of the most compelling produced and moving pieces of audio drama I’ve ever heard.  The only thing I’ve listened to that deserves the name “audio cinema.”  Give a listen and tell me you don’t agree.
5. Hayward Sanitarium (Episode 126) – And let’s not miss this entry from the catalogue of audio suspense.While we only featured one episode of it, “Hayward” is a masterfully written and produced tale of the goings-on at one strange home for the mentally in coastal Maine.  The precedent for shows like Wormwood and Shadow Falls, even if they don’t know it!
6. Medusa on the Beach (Episode 138) – Okay, well this is #6, but I couldn’t help myself.  I’m addicted to myth and Wireless Theatre Company‘s “Medusa on the Beach” retells the myth of medusa beautifully.  Cheeky, moving, and dark, I’m delighted from the first few minutes.

Did I forget one of your favorites?  Want to share what you thought about a great audio artist?  Leave something in the comments below.

Tomorrow, we talk about the greatest interviews with audio artists over the past three years.

It doesn’t seem like so long ago that a chance opening at local radio station WMPG gave me a great opportunity: start my own weekly radio show dedicated to radio drama.

My goal from the beginning: expose more people to the medium of radio drama and give me an opportunity to share my own work with others.

Suddenly it’s 3 years later, and Radio Drama Revival has gone a lot of places I never expected and given me the opportunity to do a lot of cool stuff.

I’ve talked to lots of really awesome people, legends like Tom Lopez (two times), Roger Gregg (two times on the phone, and once in person), Tony Palermo, and Erik Bauersfeld, authors Mort Castle and Joe Lansdale, and all sorts of great independent dramatists, such as Brian Price and Jerry Stearns, Marc Rose and Geral McQuinn, Doug Bost, the guys behind Wormwood… the list goes on.

So, in light of all this, and a little sentimental, this week on Radio Drama Revival I’ll put posting some “top 5″ features – “best of,” if you will, from my heavily biased and nostalgic perspective.

We’ll start today.

5 Most Interesting Web Stats

It’s the digital age, and as a podcaster I have a LOT of data to try and comprehend. Here are some of the more interesting giblets:

1. Radio Drama Revival has approximately 400 regular weekly listeners via RSS (as reported by Feedburner).  RDR has had over 300 subscribers since the end of October, 2008.
2. Each episode gets 500-1000 (!) downloads right away, and stuff deep in the archives (episodes 100 and lower) still gets downloaded!Pretty much every archived episode gets at least one download a week.
3. The single most popular day on Radio Drama Revival, ever, was October 31, 2009, with about 500 people landing on the website.Overall, the October horror stories effort has been a huge success which is why I keep doing it. I’ll talk more about that in a follow-up post.
4. God bless Google.Nearly half of all traffic to this website comes from Google alone, particularly because of the good rankings I get for “radio drama” and “radio drama podcast”There seems to be some name recognition, though, because a decent amount of traffic comes from the word “Radio drama revival” and 20% of visitors actually return using a bookmark or typing in the domain by hand.
5. It’s not a surprise that the biggest audience for RDR is the US (about 66%), but outside of the US, the show is quite a global force! 155 countries tune in to the show, with every inhabited continent representing (sadly, no listeners from Greenland). The top 10? U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Phillipines, India, and France. Radio drama is an international phenomenon!

Tomorrow, we’ll be going through the archives to find the Top 5 Episodes You Should Listen to Again.

And if it seems like I’m missing anything, do leave a note in the comments!

Lots of audio groups have success doing remote recording – having cast members from across the world record their lines independently and then email audio files of their lines to one producer who puts it all together. The baker with all of the ingredients from the cake, if you will.

Darker Projects, Brokensea, and Pendant Productions all come to mind as groups who regularly or occasionally use this method. And if you know what you’re doing, it can come out very well!

Of crouse, if you’re just starting out, there are a lot of beginner’s errors you can make that result in uneven, or unusable, results. Which it was why it was so great to come across this presentation by Richard Elen, who presented this talk at OpenTech 2009 in London on producing “Radio Drama At A Distance” using Skype:

Thanks, Richard, for this fantastic presentation. This really sums up just about everything the basic audio drama technician needs to know to get started. We’ll be corresponding with Richard via email and featuring his feedback here in a couple more weeks.

Greetings all,

My wife recently had surgery for appendicitis, and between doing my work, taking care of her, and looking after my 4 year old son, I’m just too beat to write from scratch this week. My essay on Gordon Bok’s “Peter Kagan and the Wind” will therefore be postponed to next week. However, I’m not too tired to type up someone else’s words, so today I’m proud to present a lost piece of radio drama history.

After my review of his dramatic adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” went up, Erik Bauersfeld sent me a thoughtful and fascinating email response. Noting my interest in his cooperative 1984 Hörspiel USA project between Berkeley, California Pacifica station KPFA and German station WDR Köln, Mr. Bauersfeld kindly volunteered to send me information about it. The envelope he sent contained a 1984 copy of the KPFA’s Folio, which included summaries of all the Hörspiel USA dramas and an introductory article by Bauersfeld himself.

This was, of course, much too interesting to just file away. I contacted Bauersfeld and requested his permission to post his essay here, which he generously granted. Together with the show summaries, it presents a window onto a fascinating and all-too-brief bridge between the worlds of American radio drama and German Hörspiel. The dramas showcase an impressive level of dramatic invention and intellectual caliber, demonstrating philosophical depth and artistic boldness. While I share Bauersfeld’s regret that this international cross-pollination was cut short all too quickly, these nine broadcasts alone are an impressive accomplishment. They deserve wider recognition, and more than that, re-release.

I want to make it clear from the outset that this article only reprints Bauersfeld’s essay and the show summaries from the KPFA Folio issue. The words that follow are not my own, and I do not claim them. Furthermore, this post does not contain audio files of any of the actual shows. I only wish it did, as I’m dying to hear them myself. Nevertheless, I encourage any audio drama enthusiast to read on, and audio drama producers even more so. The ideas packed into these shows are rich, fertile, and inspiring, demonstrating even today how much further the artistic boundaries of audio drama can be pushed.

Again, my deepest gratitude to Erik Bauersfeld for allowing me to reprint his words and bring attention to this intriguing chapter of radio drama history.

The Project
by Erik Bauersfeld

Hörspiel USA all began when Robert Goss sent me his translation of a radio play about Helen of Troy written by Wolfgang Hildesheimer, with a note about doing it on KPFA. Hildesheimer is a distinguished Swiss writer, known for his radio work, novels, criticisms, and plays . . . but it was a long script, and I took months getting to it. But it took only minutes after reading the first several pages to get Robert on the phone. Of course, I told him, we must do it. But, I added, not as an amateur production with no funds for actors, directors or technicians.

The next day, I called the Goethe Institute in San Francisco and spoke to Ernst Schuermann. Talking over lunch, he told me he thought the Institute would be interested in funding the play. “But what about a series of Hörspiel instead of one play?” he suggested. And from there the project took off.

Robert Goss went to Köln, Germany, and then spent several months at Westdeutscher Rundfunk listening to over 90 Hörspiele and selecting thirty to choose from. Following that, I received an invitation by the Goethe Institute and WDR to visit radio stations in Berlin, Munich and Köln. It was at WDR Köln, with Paul Schultes, Klaus Schöning and Klaus Mehrlönder that the project was designed.

After that, we sent a series of applications to the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts for additional funds. In addition, WDR became interested in sending several of their directors to San Francisco to assist in the productions of works which they had originally directed. This resulted in two co-productions, Five-Man Humanity and Monologue, Terry Jo. In turn, WDR became interested in finding and commissioning writers and other radio artists in the San Francisco area for productions at WDR, Köln. At least half a dozen such commissions have already resulted. Thus began a major international exchange of radio art between WDR Köln and KPFA, the former’s first such project with American broadcasting.

The result of all this, our first series, Hörspiel USA will be broadcast on KPFA this month. Nine programs, ninety minutes each; six works translated and produced here in Berkeley (at Fantasy Studios) and six original WDR productions: in all, twelve Hörspiel never before heard in the United States.

During the two years of preparation, Ernst Schuermann was transferred to Munich where he now heads the main office of the Goethe Institute. He continues to support the project. Dr. Manfred Triesch, the new director of San Francisco’s Goethe Institute, has brought his own ideas, encouragement, and assistance to the project. At the Institute Library, a center is being developed for Hörspiel works: tapes of our own productions, plus a large collection of original WDR productions are available, as well as scripts and publications. Plans for a continuation of Hörspiel USA this coming year – with emphasis on the exchange of radio artists – are already underway.

Another development has had consequences of more national importance to those of us interested in radio drama – audiences and artists alike. With the coming of television and commercialism in broadcasting in this country, radio drama, which began so impressively, was literally wiped out. But in Europe it continued to develop into a fine art, ranging from the most accessible to the most experimental. For the first time, the United States was represented at the International Geneva Conference of Radio Drama. Four radio artists, Everett Frost of WGH, Boston; Yuri Rasovsky, from Chicago; Dean Boal from National Public Radio; and myself all attended. This, too, was an outcome of our project, through the efforts of Ernst Schuermann at the Goethe Institute and Dr. Schultes and Klaus Schöning at WDR. This extraordinary gathering of radio drama artists culminated with a recommendation by the European Broadcasting Union to our government for increased financial support for radio drama in this country.

Thus, a “regional, national, and international bridge of connections,” to use Klaus Schöning’s phrase, has been set up for the development and exchange of radio art. And even more: these developments and our current series have given KPFA an international status, as Charles Amirkhanian, our Music Director, already has throughout Europe for his artistry in sound poetry and contemporary music. During this past year, three programs were produced and broadcast by Klaus Schöning at WDR Köln on our work here at KPFA. Unlike in this country, radio is reviewed daily in the newspapers of Europe, and our work was fully and enthusiastically reported.

Erik Bauersfeld is director of the KPFA Drama and Literature Department.

Here ends Bauersfeld’s article. I’m attaching the original Broadcast schedule for Hörspiel USA below.

Broadcast Schedule, October 1984

Program One, Mon. Oct. 1, 8:00 pm

During October, KPFA, in association with Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (West German Radio, Cologne) presents a series of nine programs to introduce our audience to the art of Hörspiel. this project, initiated by by funding from the Goethe Institute of San Francisco, and later by the National Endowment for the Arts, includes six classic Hörspiele, translated and produced Berkeley, and six original WDR productions. Two of the works in the series were co-produced by WDR Köln and KPFA (see article, page 1). Kalus Schöning, Dramaturg and producer at WDR Köln, was largely responsible for the development of this project, and on this first program, in conversation with Project Director Erik Bauersfeld, he discusses the art of Hörspiel in West Germany with many examples from its history, before and after the Nazi occupation of German radio. The program will follow with two complete works:

Hörspiel: An Introduction by Klaus Schöning. (WDR Köln production)

Five Man Humanity by Ernst Jandl & Friederike Mayröcker (produced in English)

Translated and directed by Robert Goss in consultation with Klaus Mehrlönder, director of the original WDR production. The two directors introduce the work with a discussion of its meaning and its production here at WDR. This brief work (17 minutes) is a classic in the WDR repertory, becoming in recent years a favorite with school children. Sound poets Jandl and Mayröcker have combined their abstract acoustical art with the cogent theme of militarization. In a Mother Goose-style, five men are born, grow up, educated, conscripted, imprisoned, tried, executed, and born again. The Bay area cast includes Leo Downey, Jack Shearer, Sigrid Wurschmidt, Jude Haukom, Craig Bray, David Frank, Steve LeGrand, Wallace Gorell, David Parr, Tyson Thomas, Ethan Eubanks, Jeffrey Johnson, and Daniel Goss. The work was produced at Fantasy Studios with technical production by Danny Kopelson.

Wind and Sea by Peter Handke (original WDR production)

Handke is one of the most prominent European writers and has produced several Hörspiel. In this brief and largely acoustical work, Handke directed and contributed the sounds of his own breathing. This original WDR production is introduced with a discussion by Klaus Schöning and Erik Bauersfeld.

Program Two, Sun. Oct. 7, 8:30 pm

The First Casualty of the Trojen War by Wolfgang Hildesheimer (produced in English).

Translated and directed by Robert Goss. Wolfgang Hildesheimer, one of Europe’s most prominent authors, has written many dramas for radio. Historically, he is one of the earliest writers for radio, and is still active. In his typically humorous style, this play (Das Opfer Helene) Helen of Troy tells the real story of how the Trojan War began and how unsuccessful she was in preventing it. A discussion of the play and its production introduces this program. The cast of Bay Area performers is as follows:

Helen – Hope Alexander-Willis

Menelaus – Jack Shearer

Hermione – Lorri Holt

Paris – Julian Lopez-Morillas

The play was produced at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.

Program Three, Mon. Oct. 8, 8:00 pm

Monologue: Terry Jo by Max Bense & Ludwig Harig (produced in English).

Directed by Klaus Schöning. A co-production with WDR Köln. Mr. Schöning directed the original WDR production of this story about an American family murdered during a vacation cruise in the Caribbean. Their young daughter, Terry Jo, escaped on a raft and when rescued several days later, speaks incessantly and incoherently about the traumatic experience. We also hear the voices of others, taken from the testimony of the actual case. As Terry Jo becomes more clear, the others become more contradictory and obscure. The incident was reported in a French newspaper, from which the authors composed the piece. This is an exceptional example of a Hörspiel technique, which presents an objective and unsensational acoustical account of horrific events in daily life. Silences, edited pauses, and restraint are dramatic devices with some implication for survival in the contemporary world. The cast of Bay Area actors is as follows:

Terry Jo – Sigrid Wurschmidt

Voices – Robert Goss, Shabaka, Gus Johnson, Cyril Clayton, Nanos Valaoritis, Jenny Sterlin,David Parr, Steve LeGrand, Jerry Cornelius, Morgan Upton, Charles Dean, Elizabeth Keller, Pamela Marsh, and Erik Bauersfeld.

This work was produced at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley with technical production by Danny Kopelson.

Program Four, Sun. Oct. 14, 7:00 pm

Breakfast Conversations in Miami by Reinhard Lettau (produced in English).

Directed by R.G. Davis from a translation by Reinhard Lettau and Julie Prandi. Additional editing of the text by Robert Hurwitt. Directing and production assistance by Maria Gilardin. In this political satire, six former Latin American dictators meet in Miami and discuss their experiences as heads of state over a series of breakfasts at the airport hotel. Their interests shift from such matters as protection from kidnappers, popularity, and dealing with opposition parties to avant gardism, soap operas, sleeping late, and finding the “path to the inside” via cosmic thoughts and deep breathing. The cast of Bay Area performers is as follows:

Narrator – Pamela Marsh

Chairman – H. Robert Haswell

Mimosa – Charles Dean

Professor – James Cranna

Rosa – Morgan Upton

Schneider – Gail Chugg

Torrijos & Cellini – Don Sortor

Wessin – Bruce Mackey

The program was produced at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Technical production by Danny Kopelson. Editing by Robert Howe. Sound design and production by Erik Bauersfeld.

Program Five, Mon. Oct. 15, 8:00 pm

Gertrude by Wolfgang Schiffer & Charles Dörr. (produced in English).

Directed by Oscar Eustis from the translation by Robert Goss. Consulting director for the production was the author and director of the original WDR Hörspiel, Wolfgang Schiffer. Gertrude had been admitted to a halfway house for rehabilitation. Most doctors diagnosed her as an incurable schizophrenic. Listening to the radio was one of her ardent pastimes and she began a series of letters to WDR Köln, where two producers took an interest in her and began to document her struggles to find a new place in society. This attention brought a new meaning and encouragement to her life. Then the program was completed and Gertrude was left, once again, to find her way alone. This original Hörspiel is an outstanding example of documentary used in a dramatic artistic form. Director Eustis tried, in this adaptation, to preserve some of the original documentation. The voice of Gertrude and the people in her life are heard, and our actors carry on the story. The program is introduced with a discussion of how this was accomplished. In the cast are:

Gertrude – Abigail Booream

Producer – Wolfgang Schiffer

Other voices – Drew Eshelman, Gus Johnson, Laural Ollstein, David Parr, Jenny Sterlin

The program was recorded on locations in San Francisco and Berkeley, with technical assistance by Karin Brocco; technical production at Fantasy Studios by Danny Kopelson. Music by Maggi Payne. Director of production for radio: Erik Bauersfeld.

Program Six, Sun. Oct. 21, 8:30 pm

Roaratorio by John Cage (original WDR production).

Radio Play Text by John Cage. This is the first broadcast of Roaratorio in its entirety, in the United States, and one of the most complex works for radio ever produced. It contains a grand total of 2293 sound effects, all referred to in the texts selected from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake. On this program, we first hear a discussion of the work with WDR producer and editor of Roaratorio, Klaus Schöning, including portions of a conversation with John Cage, and his address at Donaueschingen in October, 1979, on having received the Karl Sczuka Prize for the work. The first broadcast at WDR, Köln was October 22, 1979 with the following credits:

Voice – John Cage

Singer – Joe Heaney

Musicians – Seamus Ennis, Paddy Glackin, Matt Mallow, Peadher Mercier, Mell Mercier

Realization – John Cage & John David Fullemann

Cooperation – IRCAM Paris

Editor – Klaus Schöning

Assistant – Peter Behrensen

In this coming season, the Roaratorio will be staged for the Merce Cunningham Ballet Company. Two remarks by John Cage may help orient our audience for this broadcast. First, regarding the text: “I hope that Roaratorio will introduce people to the pleasures of Finnegan’s Wake when it is still on the side of poetry and chaos rather than something analyzed and known to be safe and law-abiding.” Secondly: “I had long come to the conclusion that the purpose of music, and I trust of Hörspiel, is to sober and quiet the mind, thus making it susceptible to divine influences.”

Program Seven, Mon. Oct. 22, 8:00 pm

On Reading Orwell by Mauricio Kagel (original WDR production).

Produced and broadcast this year, 1984 at WDR Köln in recognition of George Orwell’s novel about the same year. In Orwell’s science fiction vision, 1984 was dominated by a Big Brother who altered language technologically in ways that reinforced his dictatorship. Kagel’s text consists entirely of such words, a meta-language. For example, two words connection and secured, become connecticured; unification and clearness become unificearness. These words are spoken and chanted. The sounds represent all the acoustical events mentioned in Orwell’s book, in a form of the daily indoctrination of employees in 1984′s Ministry of Truth: “Hate broadcasts . . . having the goal of keeping ideological loyalty fresh by insistent repetition.” Kagel is perhaps the most inventive and prolific of all Hörspiel artists. His works in all details, recording, directing, editing, composing and producing, are by himself. His work is that of the true ‘auteur’ of radio art. The program includes a discussion of Kagel’s work and a conversation between him and Klaus Schöning, WDR director and producer.

Radio by Ferdinand Kriwet (original WDR production).

This Hörspiel was originally in the series Acoustica International, co-produced by WDR, Köln, French Radio, and Sveriges Riksradio, Sweden. It won the Primios Ondas Prize in 1983. Kriwet is a master of radio collage and Radio draws its composition from broadcasts and archives around the world. “Voices that continually surround us, speaking, singing, buzzing shortwave; a concentration of what is on the air, day in and day out.” The program is introduced by Klaus Schöning, with portions of taped remarks by the composer about his work.

Program Eight, Sun. Oct. 28, 7:00 pm

On tonight’s program, we present two Hörspiele by American writers and members of the international artists’ movement, Fluxus. Both works were commissioned and produced by WDR, Köln.

Natural Assemblages and the True Crow by Allison Knowles (original WDR production)

Allison Knowles won the 1982 Karl Sczuka Prize for her Hörspiel Bean Sequences. On this program, we hear her second work. It is based on her 1982 poetic journal, which explores the subconscious world of childhood. The sounds accompanying the text (read in German and English) were performed by the composer using toys and other reminiscences of childhood. The program is introduced by Klaus Schöning, WDR producer and director, in a discussion with the artist about her work.

Hsin Hsin Minh by George Brecht (original WDR production).

Born in 1925 in Halfway, Oregon, Brecht has been living in Köln since 1972. This is his first radio piece and it is based on the the text from one of the great poetical-philosophical works of Zen Buddhism, Hsin Hsin Minh. The author is the Third Chinese Patriarch, Seng Ts’an, who died in the year 606. “Return to the origin, and the sense of things will announce itself to you; hunt for it in objects and you will miss it.” The program is introduced by a discussion with Klaus Schöning, about the unusual composition of the work, which is performed in four languages: English, French, German, and Chinese.

Program Nine, Mon. Oct. 29, 8:00 pm

The Other and I (Die Andere und Ich) by Gönter Eich (produced in English).

An American family touring Europe have detoured on a hot Sunday afternoon in August, to swim at a resort on the north Italian coast. On the way they pass a desolate fishing village. An old woman stands at the foot of a bridge, watching them pass. Ellen, the mother, sees her and later is drawn back to find her. When she does, she enters a world and life from which there is no escape. Gönter Eich (1907-1972) is the mot famous of all German writers for radio. His work remains more classic that the “New Hörspiel” of the past several programs, but his style is poetic, full of imagery and themes that derive largely from German Romanticism. In 1953, he married the Austrian poet and novelist Ilse Aichinger. A year earlier he was awarded the Hörspiel Prize of the War Blind (one of th emost prestigious awards in West Germany in the 1950′s). Eich explored lost identities in his plays – lost identities between people, between words and their “external correlatives,” and between the living and the dead. The Other and I (Die Andere und Ich) is just such a typical Eich theme. Ellen Harland becomes lost or captured in the body and life of another woman. She cannot return to her own self and her comfortable world, but must live out the whole life of an impoverished woman in a desolate fishing village on the coast of Italy. Directed and produced by Erik Bauersfeld.

The cast of Bay Area performers is as follows:

Ellen Harland / Camilla – Winifred Mann

John Harland – Morgan Upton

Mother – Shirley Jac-Wagner

Father – H. Robert Haswell

Giovanni – Rick Cimino

Philomena – Lorri Holt

Antonio – Mark Rousseau

Aunt – Barbara Oliver

Recorded and produced at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley.

The second installment in the internet marketing for audio drama series came to me rather unexpectedly as I routinely perused the Google Analytics stats for the last three months.

So back in March, Radio Drama Revival saw something like quadruple the average number of visitors to the site. With a bit of a quizzical “What gives?” I dug deeper into the stats, and saw that nearly all of the traffic spike was the result of StumbleUpon. Woohoo! I must’a got stumbed!

Now, at work, I deal with StumbleUpon and many other social networks all the time, but like the mechanic who runs an old jaloppie, I really haven’t made a concerted effort at promoting this site through the web 2.0 world, though I suspect the potential for growth here, even for an offbeat niche like audio drama, is huge (Roger Gregg’s use of YouTube comes to mind, but I think I’ll focus on YouTube another time).

So, in the hopes that all of you out there will expand beyond where I idle, here’s my tips on how to use social networking to promote your blog, podcast, and the art form in general.

Social Networks — What they are and how they work

Alright, I don’t want to start too basic here, but if you’ve never here of StumbleUpon, del.icio.us or Digg, here’s the deal — these sites enable you not only to pick out something that you find cool, but to share that with others. Whereas MySpace and Facebook are all about YOU, these networks are more about what you’re interested in and find useful.

del.icio.us, for example, is a shared bookmarking service — you sign up for the service, download a light-weight browser plugin, and bookmark sites you like for later reference, tagging them with useful things like “audio drama article writing radio theater” for example.

That bookmark is now public, though the chances of other people finding it are a tad slim, unless it’s an article that others have also bookmarked — and if enough people bookmark an article, it gets moved to the ‘popular’ section, where the top articles are bound to see heavy traffic.

StumbleUpon, in contrast, is sort of like channel-surfing for the web. Again, you download a plugin, and then you can start stumbling. Basically you bookmark a page and see if it’s ever been found before, if not, it goes into the network. The fun part is when you go into “Stumble” mode, where you go to a random webpage based on your preferences and the ratings of other users. So, for instance, if a lot of people who found RDR back on that fateful March day chose to give the site a thumbs up, it’s more likely that other users will stumble here later!

I won’t get into Digg too much, because it can be a brutal site, but it’s basically a news site where people choose the news and vote on whether it’s worth reading — e.g. do you “digg” it? The drawback with this site is that it takes an ENORMOUS amount of diggs before you’ll get anywhere where that many people will notice you, though the benefits are so powerful that talented search marketing people are fighting constantly with “legitimate” stories to get the next digged thing up on the front page. There are undoubtedly spin-off sites that would be helpful for the audio drama world, but those shall be another article…

Training Yourself in Social Habits

So now that you’ve got all these plugins installed, you need to figure out how to use them. After all, the first rule of this whole thing is that in order to derive any value out of them, you’ll need to first contribute to them.

So start stumbling, and gives thumbs ups to pages that you find really funny, cool, and interesting. The same for del.icio.us. Why not go and digg all your favorite podcasts — there is a podcast area to digg which is ripe for some audio drama additions!

You’ll quickly establish yourself as a keen member of the audio drama community, and when you tag YOUR work, you have the credibility of being a living actual person with tastes, not just a spammy account set up to try and inflate your ratings and site traffic.

And hey, not to toot my own horn, but there are convenient digg, stumble, and del.icio.us links at the bottom of this and every Radio Drama Revival posts

So Why Bother Do All This?

What’s fascinating about these social networks is that they hook into a really huge internet-savvy audience, most of whom I guarantee you have never heard of radio drama beyond “War of the Worlds.” And while the audio arts have pretty slack visibility on these networks now, what’s to prevent all of us from bringing our community to the forefront?

It’s hard to know how many people go from “Stumble” to “Subscriber,” but every new set of ears, even if it’s only for a second, get’s us more people who at least have heard something of what this sounds like.

So whether you love fan-fic, sci-fi, fantasy, Escape, OTR, NTR, spoofs, mysteries, audiobooks or hard-hitting drama, the audio world needs you.

Share your love, and get stumbling!

As much as my passion is all things audio, my paid gig is internet marketing with a local firm, Hall Web Services. What that means is that on a daily basis I’m grilling websites, writing optimized web code, writing the most interesting copy I can muster and figuring out interesting ways to market products and services online. So it shouldn’t be surprising that I have some observations about the state of the audio drama community’s internet marketing efforts.

For the most part, it’s abysmal.

While the basics of SEO are known and web publicized, on most of the audio drama websites I see the basic principles sorely lacking. This is forgivable, as there’s already enough to learn in terms of writing, casting, recording, and post-producing these things, but the weak marketing link isn’t helping anyone.

So as part of new series of marketing your audio production online, I’m going to talk about the basics of SEO and how it relates to your audio drama site, and how to make sure that you’re at least being found by the people looking for you.

We’ll start with easy and quick fixes that will give you the most “bang for your buck” in terms of increasing traffic to your show.

On the docket today: Name your pages something

This is called the “title” tag in basic HTML, and is quite possibly the most important thing you can change to help people find your site. Technically, it’s the words between the <title></title> tags of your website, but as many of you might be using blogging software or not coding by hand, what you actually change might be called something else.

We’ll get to “how” to change this tag later, but now we’ll handle “why.” And since we like to “show, not tell,” here are some examples pulled out of a bucket by random that showcase a couple of points I want to talk about:

Darker Projects
Title tag: Darker Projects: Audio Theater in a Darker Shade – Science Fiction, Horror, and Suspense

Rating: Pretty Good.

Why? “Audio Theater” is mentioned by name, along with several genre names – sci-fi horror, suspense. Darker Projects, by no surprise, comes up #1 for “Horror Audio Drama” and in the top 5 for “Science Fiction Audio Theater.” A lack of “radio” here, however, kills rankings for “radio drama” related terms. And while it’s nice to give their troupe name and the “Darker Shade” tagline, it’s probably not be doing them any favors in search.

Union Signal
Title tag: Union Signal

Rating: Not so good.

Why? Anyone who’s looking for anything other than “Union Signal” is likely never to find this page. A better tag would be “Union Signal: Radio Drama, Audio Theater Plays by Doug Bost and Jeff Ward.” That would at least help those who already know the producer’s names, but not their production alias, find the site. After they got some basic rankings they could then look at adding interesting variations to the site’s content — “NPR spoof stories,” “audio sci-fi” etc.

This is a very common problem, as, without naming everyone’s names, I could quickly find a dozen other websites where the title of the page was the name of the production company.

This is OK — IF you have a gigantic fan base that is chasing you down dying to download your works (Stephen King, for example, can give a rat’s ass for SEO). But if your name is something you and some friends came up with on a weekend, and you’re struggling to get a half dozen downloads of your stories, then this is un-good.

National Audio Theater Festivals
Title tag: National Audio Theatre Festivals, Inc. – NATF

Rating: Not bad.

Why? Unlike the above example, NATF is a known organization, so having a title tag with the organization name is appropriate. And with a nice solid amount of links (785 as of this count), they come up in the top ten for plain ol’ “Audio Theater.” However, there’s still room to improve — for example, using synonyms and general terms that non-audio enthusiasts will use.

It’s an argument WAY too broad to go into here, but guts and stats tell me that “audio theater” is a fine, term, a wonderful term, even a GREAT term to use to describe this art, but not what people are searching for. “Audio drama” is actually a little more common, and, archaic as it may be, “radio drama” is still the preferred search term.

But then there’s still dozens, if not hundreds, or more of what they call “long tail terms.” That’s stuff like “sci fi audio drama” “audio drama blog” “radio drama westerns” “audio horror stories” and so forth. The Long Tail is a very important concept to understand if you’re producing audio drama, because this IS a long tail industry.

For YOUR audio drama site, you need to think about where you fit in with the bigger picture and what your intended audience is likely to be looking for. Overall I see LOTS of great “hit the street” marketing — heavily using forums like audio drama talk, link exchanges, blog exchanges, etc — but SEO should be the foundation that all of this is based on. If not, you’re promoting yourself only to fight against your ability to be found!

My recommendation for the NATF title tag? “National Audio Theater Festivals Production Training – NATF Radio Drama Workshop”

… And Let’s do one more for good measure.
Tony Palermo’s RuyaSonic
Title tag: Audio Theatre/Radio Drama/Sonic Storytelling

Rating: Pretty Good.

Why? Tony’s covered the bases, even if “sonic storytelling” isn’t the most popular term to search for in the world, the simplicity of the title tag gives this site lots of weight, and finds it in the top ten for “radio drama.” You don’t see “Tony Palermo” there, but I don’t think that matters — a lot more people are competing for “radio drama” than “Tony Palermo.”

What I LOVE about Tony’s site is all the great resources about producing and writing radio drama, and the simple “Writing for Audio Theatre” title does plenty of good. Again, there are opportunities for more synonyms, but overall it’s among the top tier in the sector.

It may not be perfect, but you may now understand why Radio Drama Revival’s title is “Radio Drama Revival! Audio Theater Blog, Podcast”

Alright, so how do I change it?

Well as I pointed out in the example above, there are good principles and bad principles for naming your pages. Here are the basic rules to follow:

1. Keep it concise – 7-9 words tops, 130 characters or so
2. Use good words – Avoid fluff and repeating words. Use synonyms
3. Every page needs a unique name – If you come up with a perfect title, don’t name every page on your site that. Each title should be uniquely suited to the content of that page.

And that should be enough to get you started!

If you’re using a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, there’s generally an option above the working window area for changing the page title. You may also look for a page/site properties dialogue somewhere. If all else fails, view the source code and look for the <title></title> tag. It (better) be between the <meta></meta> tags at the top of the page code.

If you’re using something like Libsyn, Blogger, or WordPress to manage your site, it’s even easier to update.

For WordPress — click “Options” and under the “General” tab, you’ll see “Weblog title.”? Bang, there you go.? By default, all of your pages will have unique names based on the titles of your posts, which is OK, but the bad-ass SEO Title Tag plug-in lets you more densely pack your page titles with good information.

In Blogger, in “Settings” you’ll see “Title” – ba-da-bing.? A similar deal for “Libsyn” — settings, “blog page/podcast title.”

Now that’s it!? You’ve tweaked the name of your blog, website, or podcast to something a little easier for search engines to understand.? You’re one step closer to bringing your show to a wider readership.

What’s next?? There’s still a LOT to know about before you’ve covered all your bases — stuff like organizing the site content, improving page code structure, getting good links to you from elsewhere — and in due time we’ll get to all of this.

And until we get there, you may be interested in tuning into my “other” podcast — a weekly show on web marketing topics called SEO Audio.

Enlightened? Confused? Angry? Let me know what you think below!

The inaugural column of Malleus kicks off a three part investigation of the seminal role of supernatural horror in the contemporary German audio drama explosion. Discover the first German radio drama, learn about German pulp novels, and experience the terror of Konga the Man-Frog.

As I said in the Malleus podcast interview here on Radio Drama Revival, I originally intended to write a 3-part discussion of the entire H?rspiel-Boom. At that time I actually thought doing an overview would be pretty straightforward. Ha! As passionately as I?ve followed the significant supernatural horror element of the Boom, there are many prominent genres I haven?t pursued. These include westerns, children?s serials, straight krimis (mysteries), and science fiction, among others, all of which have a significant history in German audio drama. So rather than pretend to cover everything I?ve decided to focus on what I know well: supernatural horror h?rspiele from 1999 to the present day. This article is NOT a comprehensive overview of the history of German h?rspiel, or even of the recent H?rspiel-Boom. Instead, my intent is to give non-German speakers a context for the many supernaturally oriented h?rspiele that will be featured in upcoming Malleus reviews.

All that said, I do believe and will argue that the Grusel-Krimi (“spine-tingling crime”) genre has inspired and defined the post-1999 Boom more than any other. After all, it wasn?t Benjamin Bl?mchen: Edition 2000 that kick-started the explosion at the turn of the millennium. So while I admit my preference for horror serials, there are historical reasons to privilege them that go beyond personal taste.

Without further ado, the essay I like to call:

REVENGE OF THE GRUSEL-KRIMIS

Americans are used to hearing about audio drama?s inevitable decline. News programs and music drive radio drama off the air and audio books crowd audio drama off store shelves. By and large the BBC and a few older auteurs who produce a small amount of work on an irregular basis define the professional field that remains. (Yuri Rasovsky, Tom Lopez, Phil Proctor, etc.). Audio drama is a constant fight against the odds for most if not all of these producers, one that gets harder all the time as public funding evaporates and audiences shrink. This reality is so deeply ingrained in us that it?s hard to imagine things might be different elsewhere. But they are. In 2002 Yuri Rasovsky stated, “In certain areas of the world where TV is difficult, because of terrain, such as mountainous countries like Greece or the Balkans, radio drama is still a going concern. The best I’ve heard of any in the world is Serbo-Croatian. They make the BBC look like amateurs.” (see http://www.audiotheater.com/yuri.html)

Rasovsky isn?t under any illusions that American producers can emulate the success of radio drama in Greece, the Balkans, or even the U.K.. Given the current state of public radio and the ubiquity of television, its highly unlikely we?re going to see a renaissance of public radio drama in the U.S.A. any time soon. But what might be learned from a successful foreign model driven entirely by the private sector? T.V. is as much a fixture in Germany as it is here. But audio drama has been thriving more than ever in Germany as a commercial enterprise for almost ten years. And although science fiction enjoys a healthy share of the market in Germany, it doesn?t lead the field there as it does in the USA. Since 1999, and arguably much earlier in the 1980?s, that role has belonged to the Grusel-Krimi, or supernatural detective serial. (The term “Grusel-Krimi” is heavily associated with the series Larry Brent, which was first published in Silber-Grusel-Krimis. A more neutral term for the entire genre would be Grusel. I?ve decided to go with Grusel-Krimi anyway because it emphasizes both the mystery/detective/adventure and fantastical/horror elements that the leading German audio serials have embraced.) Here I?ll sketch a brief history of the Grusel-Krimi genre and consider the powerful role they play in the commercial H?rspiel-Boom today. I hope this will be of interest, and possibly of use, to English speaking audio dramatists and their fans.

Germany has a long history of audio drama. The first, Hans Flesch?s Zauberei auf dem Sender (Sorcery on the Radio), aired on October 24, 1924, just two years after the first radio sketch, “A Rural Line on Education,” was broadcast in the U.S. on Pittsburgh?s KDKA station. You can download a modern remake of Zauberei for free here: http://www.mediaculture online.de/fileadmin/mp3s/zauberei_sender.mp3. Among other things, this radio drama contains the most quintessentially German statement you?ll ever hear: “Aber letzten Endes wollen wir die Ordnung und Sie die Unordnung, und sicher ist die Ordnung das Richtige und die Unordnung das Falsche.” (But finally, we want Order and you want Disorder, and certainly Order is right and Disorder is wrong.) The villain of the piece, a chaotic sorcerer who torments an anal retentive radio broadcaster, might be viewed as a prophetic antecedent of the heavy supernatural bent in contemporary German audio drama.

But Germany?s current wave doesn?t descend directly from the public radio legacy of Zauberei, and for the most part it isn?t being broadcast. Rather, the CD-based H?rspiel-Boom traces its commercial roots to the audiocassette and LP adventures that German studios like Europa and Tonstudio Braun released in the 1970?s and 1980?s. Europa, Tonstudio Braun, and other companies published many genres, but one proved particularly influential: horror.

But what kind of horror? Traditional “Universal Monsters”-style horror had a prominent place in the 80?s pantheon of German audio drama. German authors like H.G. Francis (Hans Gerhard Franciskowsky) produced self-contained audio plays about classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and werewolves through Europa. Dramas of this kind are still being produced today: Dreamland Productions is recording modern takes on the H.G. Francis stories, and Titania-Medien?s Gruselkabinett line is doing outstanding adaptations of horror classics like Dracula and Carmilla. But it was really the occult detective serial, or Grusel-Krimi, from the 80?s scene that shaped the modern h?rspiel landscape more than anything else.

The occult detective serial? Grusel-Krimis? What the fahrvergn?gen are you talking about?

Good question. Occult detective serials are essentially a blend of pulp criminal adventure and supernatural horror, one British and American authors pioneered with limited success. Horror writers like William Hope Hodgson (Carnacki), Algernon Blackwood (John Silence), Seabury Quinn (Jules de Grandin), Manley Wade Wellman (John Thunstone), and more recently Brian Lumley (Titus Crow) have all taken a crack at investigators of the unknown. Many of their fictional creations first saw print in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, which ran from 1923 to 1954. German Grusel-Krimi authors started much later than their British and American pulp counterparts and, unlike them, never stopped writing. The first German Grusel-Krimi (most literally, “spine-tingling crime”) serial debuted in 1968 with the publication of Dan Shocker?s tale (J?rgen Grasm?ck) Larry Brent: Das Grauen schleicht durch Bonnards Haus (Horror creeps through Bonnard?s House).

Former chemist Jason Dark (Helmut Rellergerd) published his first Geisterj?ger John Sinclair story, Die Nacht des Hexers (Night of the Warlock), in 1973. He has since written well over 2,000 John Sinclair adventures, and is still cranking out new ones to this day. Ernst Vlcek?s and Neal Davenport?s (Kurt Luif) highly regarded D?monenkiller (Demon killer) serial likewise began in 1973. (Having read examples of all three, I can confirm that despite it?s name D?monenkiller is subtler and less formulaic than the others.) Although D?monenkiller concluded in 1977, the Zaubermond publishing house recently began publishing new adventures. (A new D?monenkiller audio drama series, not surprisingly, is in preparation.) The pulps (groschenromane, roughly equivalent to “dime novels”) die hard in Germany; nowadays those that do often return from the grave for a second commercial life.

All three of the serials mentioned above along with many others became the basis for Tonstudio Braun and Europa audio dramas in the 1980s. The German pulps already had a sizable fanbase that quickly gravitated to the dramatizations, and they became popular with children new to the source material as well. I?ve sampled some Tonstudio Braun Geisterj?ger John Sinclair adventures and Europa serials like Macabros and Larry Brent; to my ear they were probably well produced for their time, but today show their age and are more humorous than frightening. For pure camp, though, it?s hard to beat titles like Konga, Der Menschenfrosch (Konga the Man-Frog, from Dan Shocker?s Macabros serial.)

These and other single-cassette serial adventures made a strong impression on young listeners, and between the 80?s and the year 2000 many of their fans grew up. Some of those fans grew up to be talented producers whose work would far outshine the material that thrilled them as children.

Oliver D?ring was one of them. With WortArt, he went on to reinvent the Geisterj?ger John Sinclair series as Geisterj?ger John Sinclair: Edition 2000 in 1999.

Many date this revival as the beginning of the contemporary H?rspiel-Boom; D?ring himself traces the Boom?s start to the 1980?s cassettes that inspired him. Regardless of where you place the Boom’s beginning, most would agree that the Tonstudio Braun / Europa era had diminished by 1999, and that WortArt was initiating a new phase. The Edition 2000 Sinclair adventures, much better produced and acted than their 80?s predecessors (although Tonstudio Braun loyalists will hate me for saying that), met with considerable financial success. Germans weaned on the 80?s cassettes had gone on to get jobs and make money, and they were happy to spend it on this nostalgic comeback. John Sinclair: Der Anfang (John Sinclair: The Beginning) sold so well that it made Germany?s music charts in 2002, an unprecedented feat for an audio drama. Can you imagine, say, ZBS’ Ruby making the top 40 in the U.S.A.?

After Sinclair opened the way, other new audio dramas and revivals followed. Not all of them were occult detective serials, of course, but many of the flagship titles were. Today many of the big h?rspiel companies have at least one supernatural investigator in their stable, and more are on the way. Even brand new properties like the pseudo-historical Schwarze Sonne set in the 19^th century and modern thrillers like Schattenreich and Gabriel Burns are essentially updates of the occult detective legacy. It?s gotten to the point that Oliver D?ring now worries publicly about over-saturation of the niche he revived with Sinclair. But while a culling is probably inevitable, it hasn?t happened yet. Rather than topping out, the h?rspiel market has been steadily growing and diversifying since 1999, with new companies bringing more science fiction, fantasy, mystery, children?s, and thriller releases to the scene. Even D?ring himself, rather than cutting back, has chosen to roll the dice and begin another supernatural investigator series (the adult-oriented Don Harris: Psycho-Cop). When the market does reach its tipping point, I don?t anticipate a major crash but a gradual process of weeding out weaker material. H?rspiel looks to remain a vital pop subculture in Germany for some time to come.

Will Grusel-Krimis retain their preeminent place within the adult audio drama market? I?m inclined to say no, but despite steady diversification there are still more Grusel-Krimis published than any other genre, and their number is only increasing. Even if they lose their leading position, they will probably always constitute a significant portion of contemporary German audio drama. Certainly there are no signs that science fiction will take the crown from supernatural horror serials, so in this respect German and USA markets are likely to remain distinct.

For further information about the Grusel genre check out the following links:

In English:

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005_08_21_archive.html

(Scroll down for a frank and not entirely flattering discussion of German horror pulps.)

http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005_11_06_archive.html

(English discussion of the first Grusel-Krimi, Larry Brent.)

In German:

http://gruselromane.de/specials/entwicklung/entwicklung.htm

(The most thorough account you?ll find on the net about the history of Grusel Heftromans from 1968 until the present day. The entire site is a treasure trove of information for those interested in the genre.)

Tune in next week for a look at common characteristics of Grusel-Krimi audio dramas and an answer to the strange question: “Why do adult German audio serials rarely feature German heroes?”

Just wanted to let you all know that I’ve written a new article on my production company’s website: Original Radio Drama in the 21st Century.? In the article, I discuss the history of economic models of the radio drama and analyze the current scene in search of a viable one for modern work.? Not academic, but worth a read.

You think I would?ve figured this out on one of my previous projects, but the fact stands: Good preproduction sense really helps you out when you?re trying to pull the project together at the last minute. Lack of preproduction forces you to either get stuck with a product of different quality than you had hoped, or into spending a lot more time, money, or both to get what you wanted because of your lack of foresight. Sort of like having to send something overnight instead of first-class mail because you forestalled the post office visit.

I?m referring presently about the production process of my latest audio story, Drizzle. Drizzle is about a bitter business man who through the aftermath of a random event begins to look at the world differently. It?s only my third drama so far, and only my second with such an intense deadline (I had a huge amount of time to lollygag and figure out what I was doing for Day of the Dead, even if it *was* a significantly more complex project). Anyways, I haven?t had the opportunity, what with the rigors of work and personal commitments, to properly do a recruitment effort for FinalRune Productions. And so pulling Drizzle together was a complete magic trick that happened only because of some fast thinking and great generosity of the people who did act in it. Some time during the second crunch recording session in the WMPG station I thought to myself ?Hmm? wouldn?t it be nice to figure out who the cast was ahead of time, have everyone scheduled to arrive at appropriate times, and then just zip through the recordings?? rather than the frenetic scene-by-scene assembly that this production has turned into.

Now, I don?t feel all that bad about things, since I feel that being able to pull together a project when pressed for time is a great skill and has been employed by some of the best producers since the get-go. Nonetheless, it doesn?t make you staid to make some good judgements and think about things ahead of time. Once I get this project out the door, then sit down for my eggnog, chocolate covered cherries, and apple pie, I?ll be working on some articles for this site that deal with my experiences in production and radio drama writing, casting, etc. I don?t have the kind of experience that many article writers bring to the table, but I do have the perspective of a broke student with $0 as a budget trying to make this kind of work happen to offer. For other indie audio fiction producers, this could just be the thing.

Happy holidays y?all!