Born to Teachers and Amateur Audio Enthusiasts in the small rural community of Belwood, Jack's first love was stories- writing, reading, telling, and singing. He developed his acting skills through High School, University, and through film and community theatre.
Jack writes the lion's share of Sonic Cinema Production's (previously Electric Vicuna) Audio Drama scripts and has his own writing site at www.jackjward.com. Jack also is the middle of book writing, screenplay production, and is the CEO of the Mutual Audio Network- where he and the best people in the world Listen & Imagine, Together!.
He's thrilled to co-host the Sonic Society with his wonderful, talented, friend David Ault as they enter their second decade in the medium!
a tiger in the arena of radio drama and radio personalities passed. Wisconsinites remember Karl’s decades long commitment to WPR’s Chapter a Day. Inducted in the Wisconsin Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame in 2013, they consider his long career spanning back to The University of Wisconsin station WHA-AM in 1941 while he was still a student at the school.
Read the article from the Current about his life, and consider how many great individuals have carried the torch to this modern age.
Pete Lutz from Narada Radio Company and Pulp-Pourri Theatregives us another episode of pulp with “Time Cutter” this week. It’s time for Audio Drama!
Manga and Anime seem to be burning up the extras by throwing on radio dramas on both DVD’s and CD’s. Add Long Riders! to the list. An original audio drama, written by Longriders, and illustrated by Taishi Miyaki, is being released in the special edition of the 7th volume. Check out more details about the drama and the upcoming TV anime in October from Crunchyroll!
Visiting Vancouver for a couple of days? Just two left to catch the #2 on this Vancouver Courier article:
2. Billed as a “live graphic novel,” The Intergalactic Nemesis: Target Earth combines sci-fi, comic books and old radio drama. Three actors provide the voices, a Foley artist creates the sound effects and a pianist plays the soundtrack in front of a movie screen showing 1,250 comic book panels to tell a sci-fi adventure story set in the 1930s. The ambitious theatrical event takes off April 30 to May 1 at the York Theatre. Details at thecultch.com.
How cool is this? A live spacefaring graphic novel that would make Biff Straker proud!
Some folks are quite concerned with the latest budget considerations for the famous British Broadcasting Corporation. Public radio has a long history of audio drama in England, and if the mother country wants to avoid the terrible state that conservatism has placed the CBC in Canada, they might do well to listen to the words of Sir David Attenborough from this Guardian article:
“There is plenty that viewers can do. Politicians don’t wish to be the people who are branded as getting rid of the BBC. They know that the BBC holds a very precious place in a large proportion of voters’ minds and they can’t play fast and loose with it as they would wish.
“When I saw what the [funding] deal was I thought, that’s terrible, that’s a distortion. What the BBC will say, and I daresay they are right, is the alternative was something worse.”
He added: “The basic principle of public service broadcasting is profoundly important. If we lose that we really lose a very valuable thing, you are throwing away one of the most precious things that we have.”
Let’s hope that cooler heads prevail and the people speak up before the BBC gets gutted.
Like a nervous groundhog peering into the early morning light from the darkness, Hindustan Times ask the perennial question: “Could podcasting possibly be the next big thing?”
When they ask that question, the early adopters of the new age of modern audio drama just sort of wave like they have been waving for the last ten years. OF COURSE, podcasting has infinite opportunities and appeal. But those who think radio has been dead for a long time forget that there are still plenty of radio stations out there. The difference is that with the breakdown of corporate structures in the new media, there’s a whole lot more choices. Someone asked me what podcasting was, the other day.
My new answer is, “As satellite channels are to the bunny-eared antenna of television reception, podcasting is to terrestrial radio.”
Welcome to the new age of entertainment. We’ve been here a while. 🙂
While Radio Alwan operates on a shoe-string budget, its dreams and creativity are surely gifts of avarice. This article from BBC News explains the power of this Syrian soap opera on the radio:
A sorrowful woman’s voice begins to sing – and even if you don’t speak a word of Arabic you can guess that the radio soap opera Sad Northern Nights is going to dig much deeper than the usual kitchen-sink drama.
“She’s lamenting her lost homeland,” Sami, Radio Alwan’s special projects director smiles ruefully. “She’s singing, “we want to come back to you, we want to be reunited, we won’t wait until tomorrow until all your wounds are healed.”
Stoke-on-Trent seems to be just getting stoked now that their alternative soap to The Archers has gotten national attention. The Colcloughs is the first radio drama to be made outside of BBC‘s London headquarters. Check out the full story from The Stage:
A radio soap opera first aired in Stoke-on-Trent 25 years ago is to be featured on national radio for the first time.
Written by a team led by Coronation Street writer Tony Perrin, The Colcloughs aired for one series on BBC Radio Stoke in 1991 – and was the first BBC radio serial drama to be made outside the Corporation’s London headquarters.
Creator and producer Mike Hopwood, who has masterminded the revival, said the show still sounded like a fresh alternative to The Archers, which he described as “a bit mundane and quite middle class”.
Claiming The Colcloughs could “complement” the BBC Radio 4 drama soap, Hopwood said: “Having heard it all again recently, I am confident it remains as relevant and entertaining today as it was in 1991. It’s a real shame it was only ever heard once – on one local station.”
He added that daily airings mean that audiences will now be able to “make a date” with the show more easily than when it was first aired.
“When the drama launched, we only had the capacity to produce one midweek episode, with a repeat at the weekend. But now the serial is ‘on the shelf’ it can be rerun daily… so our audience can more easily make a date with it,” Hopwood said.
It is hoped that a second series could be funded and commissioned if the revival is a success.
The Colcloughs’ 15-minute episodes will air daily from May 16 on RNIB Connect Radio – a station for blind and partially sighted listeners – at 6:40pm.
An agreement with Equity has been reached to ensure the original actors are paid royalties for the reruns.
Art and Adventure in partnership with Renaissance FM has taken the winning formula of a Fringe Festival and applied the ideas to a series of Fringe Radio Dramas.
The Stage Article has more details:
A radio production company is launching the “audio drama equivalent of the fringe”, in a bid to widen the market beyond the BBC’s output.
Art and Adventure, working with London radio station Resonance FM, is looking for writers and performers with stage productions for a single voice – known as a monodrama – which can be adapted for radio. The company is keen to hear from new writers, writing on themes that reflect “the way we live today”.
Each adaptation will be broadcast on the station later this year, which Art and Adventure creative director Roger James Elsgood said would challenge the idea that the BBC is the only platform for audio drama.
“The idea is posited on the notion that broadcast audio drama had become, more or less, the sole province of the BBC and there is no audio drama equivalent of the fringe. It is becoming increasingly difficult for new writers to have work produced and broadcast,” he said.
He added that Resonance has a “large global online audience” which would give the writers exposure. Each writer will be given an adapter for the project, a producer, as well as facilities to produce the programme.
John Bell with Bell’s in the Batfry Mars Rescue Part 2 and Audioblivious’ Winnebago Warrior are our features. It’s audio drama night!
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