Connect with Us:

Subscribe via RSS
View in iTunes

Follow Us!

Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter

Friends of Radio Drama Revival

Radio Drama Revival All Stars

Crazy Dog Audio Theatre Dublin Ireland
Quicksilver Radio Theater

Get Listening!


Visit Audiobook Community

 

Great Gear:

New Dramatized Poetry by Roger Gregg – And Comments on BBC Radio Drama

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Fresh from Ireland, a cool new video from a new show, ‘THE BEE-LOUD GLADE: A Living Anthology of Contemporary Irish Poetry,’ with music by Roger Gregg & Crazy Dog Audio Theatre.

Meanwhile, I solicited some pretty candid comments from Roger about the news regarding BBC radio drama:

Behind all this is the well-entrenched paradigm which has been embraced since the year dot over here.

Namely that ‘Radio Drama’ is Theatre on the radio and that ‘theatre’ must always come in the form of ‘plays’.

‘Plays’ are presented in long formats, 90 minutes, an hour, 45 minutes.

Half hour things are ‘Light Entertainment’ or half-hour or less slot ‘Serials’ such as the Archers [which I think is around the 15 minute mark]. … The Radio Networks do the research and time and time again it comes back to them that relatively NO ONE listens to the long-form ‘drama’ – go over half an hour and the numbers go down…down…after 45 minutes down…down…over that .. down …down… gone.

But since ‘Theatre’ and ‘Drama’ MUST always in their paradigm be about presenting ‘Plays’ they are stuck.

I don’t know how many times I’ve banged the drum for SHORT slots citing the wonderful success Dirk Maggs achieved with
so much of his BBC Radio 2 adventure series. Daily in short segments, an omnibus on the weekends and if and when a CD is released or it’s put up on the internet, then you can connect all the daily segments together with discrete track i.d.s between each segment for easy cueing. I have said this in writing to RTE and Radio 2 as well as suggested in writing to a couple of the independent stations,
but NO ONE is interested.

The emprical marketing and listening pattern research is there. Time and time again the statistics and conclusions therefrom are plain to see. Station Programmers meticulously study this data and have adapted old and created new highly successful programming and
styles and modes of presentation.

YET the bastion of ‘Radio Drama’ remains impervious to this. This is one reason why they do themselves no favours and are often regarded as the hindbound nuisance in stations compelled to produce drama.

Youch! Hard truths but worth meditating on. I know that plenty of people listen to long-form drama – on demand – but on broadcast radio it’s a whole different beast.

Roger’s comments bring Tom Lopez’s work on 2 Minute Film Noir, indeed, his work with Ruby and Jack Flanders being released as ongoing serialized shorts. In an environment where attention spans are short and time is precious, less is more.

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Episode 147: Roger Gregg’s “Ghost Behind the Black Door”

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Ghost Behind the Black Door Radio DramaWell, the dust is not yet settled on Halloween and the eeriness seeps into this month… Starting with the original “Ghost Behind the Black Door,” to contrast the same tale we re-told in my 2009 Halloween Live Radio Drama.

So, the story? A couple moves from the city to a remote mansion in Ireland, where every spooky story cliche is abused in this hilariously ghoulish half hour. From the Crazy Dog Live collection.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 147

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Episode 143: Stoddesden Hall is Rather Grim…

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Edgar Allan Poe inspired audio horror taleThis week our Halloween-inspired Ghoulishness continues its fervor and picks up the pace with a haunting tale of woe from the audio masters of The Wireless Theater Company.

In a remote, aging manorhouse in England, Edgar, the disaffected manor-keeper takes out his frustrations on the sickly owner of the mansion.  But blood shed is hard to take back, and soon Edgar is forced to take more and more drastic measures to hid his evil deeds, and finds the escalating madness impossible to escape.

A gore-iously great tribute to Edgar Allan Poe that both lampoons and celebrates gothic fiction.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Written By: Stuart Price
Starring: Knight Mantell, David Beck, Jessica Dennis, Leonie Hill, Josh Cass and Andrew Glenn. Foley by Jack Bowman, Dean Elliott and Reuben Anderson.
Edited By: Scott Wiber
Directed By: Stuart Price
Music By: Michael Bruce

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Episode 132: Behind the Curtain of “The Flickerman”

Friday, July 24th, 2009

the flickerman audio dramathe flickerman is a cerebral, post-modern, interactive audio…. something. Is it a drama? Is it reality? The two seem to blur as we talk to the series’ producer – Lance Dann – who tells us how this intense audio conspiracy was re-created from tapes sent to him by his friend Cornelius, and how the very success of the series threatens its downfall.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 132

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Fred’s Fuze: The Flickerman

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Sansa Fuze
Title: The Flickerman
Author: Lance Dann
Producer: Lance Dann
Type: Audio Drama
Genre: Not Quite Sure
Availability: Free Download

My Two Cents: I don’t want to give too much away on work that’s going to appear on the show, but I have to say something about Lance Dann’s The Flickerman. There’s nothing like it in audio. There might never be again. It’s worth listening to both as a unique audio event and for the intriguing story it tells.

On the surface, the story of The Flickerman seems pretty vanilla – a young man finds himself in a series of increasingly stranger random encounters and soon gets in over his head as things go weird. What makes this story eff’ing brilliant is that the narrative is hooked into Flickr, and the story calls upon you to explore photos through Flickr as the narrator’s life begins to unravel around him. Postmodernism pulled off exceedingly well.

Lance tells me… well, Lance tells me that this comes from tapes recorded by Cornelius himself, so I’m not sure what to tell you. The story bleeds the edge between reality, fantasy, text and subtext. The show does pick up at a slow pace, but if you’re along for the self-reflective ride, you’ll find yourself hooked on this thing.

The Flickerman will be featured on Radio Drama Revival later this month.

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

The True History of Magic Bullet: An interview with Alan Stevens, producer of Kaldor City and Faction Paradox. (Part 2 of 2)

Monday, June 15th, 2009

mblogoo

Part 2 of my interview with Magic Bullet producer / writer / audio dramatist Alan Stevens picks up where we left off and hits the following topics: knowing when to end stories, the creative potential and individual fulfillment to be had in writing with licensed properties, why Avon and Iago are psychopathic bastards (or are they the same psychopathic bastard?), and of course, Faustian bargains. As in part 1 of this interview, audio clips from Kaldor City are embedded throughout. Additional sound clips from Magic Bullet’s The True History of Faction Paradox audio serial can be found in my overview of that series here.  To go directly to Magic Bullet’s website, click their logo above.

Stevens is a unique voice in the field, and whether you agree with his positions or not, you can’t fault the dedication, quality, or intelligence behind his work. Whether you consider yourself a “genre fan” or “above such things”, if you value good audio drama then you need to read this interview.

(more…)

Share With Your Friends:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter