Category: Radio (Page 8 of 12)

When The Force Awoke

December 14, 2015 / Jack / 2 Comments

John Madden was “making movies with the lights turned out” by releasing the incredible NPR Star Wars radio drama. With the help of Brian Daley, this never before tried extended series of the original trilogy was an instant sensation and starred Mark Hamill (who Madden proclaimed as a “natural” in radio drama) and Anthony Daniels of C-3P0 fame. Other stars included Ann Sachs as Princess Leia Organa and Perry King as Han Solo (a film role he lost to Harrison Ford, but ended up playing the swashbuckling Solo longer in the extended series than Indy himself).

As The Force Awakens breaks all box office numbers known to humanity, have a listen to NPR’s remembrances of when radio drama sparkled after a low fizzle for decades in That Time NPR Turned ‘Star Wars’ Into A Radio Drama — And It Actually Worked!

Episode 446- Podcast Messages

November 17, 2015 / Jack / 2 Comments

The Message is out! Mac Rogers’ exciting new serialized podfict is our feature tonight for a taste. Go listen to the rest of the series on itunes!

Serial Out of the Box

November 4, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Homophones are not unusual to us in the Sonic Society but when we speak of Serial out of the Box we’re not talking about the your breakfast food in a bowl but rather the popular Pandora (sadly blocked here in Canada) being awarded streaming rights for season two of the immensely popular NPR series- Serial.

Care to have a listen in? Be prepared to open the box!

25th Annual Radio Playwriting Competition

October 15, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

“Creative Writing is a vibrant subject area at The Open University, with courses from beginner and undergraduate, to MA and PhD level. We are thrilled to collaborate with BBC World Service in this important and unique competition, encouraging and supporting talent internationally.”

So says Doctor Derek Neale of The Open University Faculty of Arts in consideration of the call for scripts from the incredible BBC World Service and the British Council. The 25th global annual contest that is looking for two winners- one with English language as a first and another with English language as a second will take submissions for 53 minute plays until January 31st, 2016.

The International Playwriting Competition which has included entries from 83 countries in the past, looks forward to scripts from anyone outside the UK, whether established or new writers.

Look for all the details in The Eagle Online article.

Psycho-Sonicistry

September 22, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Okay maybe “psycho-sonicstry” won’t be as popular as “satellite actors” or even “podjecting” and other terms we’ve come up with here in Sonic Society laboratories, but it’s hard not to consider the affect of audio dramatic storytelling on the psyche. Certain tales work especially well in different mediums. Television and movies have been excellent at adapting many novels, but some remain tantalizingly out of reach. Frank Herbert’s Dune series never really match on film the power and philosophy of the books.

But maybe audio drama could. There’s a strange hybrid feeling that audio has with stage (which we’ve mentioned before), film, movies, and the written word that almost bridges the gap. Maybe its because all the pictures are still manufactured in your head.

Not that HBO won’t try. Their success of Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin has emboldened the flick fairies of the cable realm to give a shot at Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy as a series.

But before we make “psycho-history” a buzz word again, check out OpenCulture’s homage to Mr. Asimov in the world of radio drama and our own psycho-sonicistry with Hear Radio Dramas of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy & 7 Classic Asimov Stories.

Try it out a couple of times. It might grow on you.

Psycho-Sonicistry. Psycho-Sonicistry. Psycho-Sonicistry…

Dare to be Thrilled!

September 7, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Biff isn’t the only one being recommissioned out of of mothballs. B7 Media along with Dan Dare Corporation announced that the Pilot of the Future- Dan Dare will be continuing on air! Check out the incredible details in downthetubes and look to the skies for rocketships of adventure!

BBC Celebrates 75 Years of Radio Drama!

August 29, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

From the August 27th issue of the Independent:

Johnny Vegas directs and acts in The Toffee Tip, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy. “And they have listening figures that TV at that time of day would kill for,” says Jane Anderson, radio editor at the Radio Times. (The BBC happily confirms this. Drama on Radio 4 attracts almost seven million listeners a week.) “But I think many other people have this view that radio drama is always about the Irish potato famine or middle-class people with dark secrets that come back to haunt them. Once you have that in your mind, it’s hard to listen without thinking, ‘Oh God’, and switching off.”

Listeners who overcome that instinct are rewarded. Anderson cites as one recent triumph Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell, the biographical play in which John Hurt played the titular columnist.

CBC Sentimentality

August 2, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Recently Sibby P Wieland was speaking in an interview about the great loss of CBC audio drama. As a child who grew up in the eighties- one of golden ages of the CBC, I concur. My imagination exploded with everything from CBC’s Nightfall, Booster McCrane PM, Rumours and Borders, and of course my childhood favourite, Johnny Chase: Secret Agent of Space among many others. The reasons why CBC doesn’t make audio drama any more are wide and varied (ask me some time), but Howard Fink has an excellent article in the oral history forum as to The CBC Radio Drama Project and its Background for anyone who is as sentimental as I am about the good ol’ days of the CBC.

Floyd Radio

June 20, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Radio Drama OTR and new skits will be performed live tonight! The Floyd Town Jubilee is in Floyd!

From the SWVA Today article:

“The Town of Floyd presents The Floyd Town Jubilee featuring the popular Floyd Radio Show tonight (June 20) at 7:00 p.m. in the Warren G. Lineberry Community Park.

The Floyd Radio Show with hosts Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle is an old-timey variety show with original radio plays, comedy bits, ads, jingles, music and more. The show will feature special musical guests: Minton Sparks with John Jackson, The New Ballards Branch Bogtrotters and Town Mountain.”

Mrs. Robinson… Are you trying to seduce us (with radio drama)?

May 7, 2015 / Jack / 0 Comments

Tracy-Ann Oberman may be famous for her performance in EastEnders but radio drama aficionados,
“she’s the familiar voice from more than 600 (yes, 600) radio plays, comedies and sketch shows since 1995. Oberman’s next role is similarly surprising as she takes on one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic dames, namely Anne Bancroft’s Mrs Robinson from Mike Nichols’s 1967 film The Graduate. In a radio drama. Written by none other than Oberman herself.”

Read the rest of this fascinating story of cougar-mania at Radio Times.