Tonight’s Sonic Sp
eaks interview is the wacky quintet of Adam Baugher, William Mead, Ian McGowan, Daniel Williams, and Todd Roth who make up the creative force behind Harbingers of Calamity or A Beginner’s Guide to Interplanetary
Destruction.
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Who listens to Audio Drama anyway? That’s always been the big question we who create new Audio plays always asks. Is this a medium that’s still mostly appreciated by Baby Boomers? Or is it the Gen X’ers who listened to A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Star Wars Radio Drama in the eighties which sparked their imaginations for all things audio?
Well, David Farquhar from Moonlight Audio and Voices in the Wind Theatre has some interesting stats.
Without taking up more ink, let’s let David describe his findings.
WHO LISTENS TO AUDIO THEATRE? YOU MAY BE SURPRISED!
Audio Theatre or Audio Drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance and with no visual component, depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story. As noted by Tim Crook in his book Radio Drama Theory And Practice “It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension.”
Audio Theatre has been around in one shape or form since the 1880’s when they were listened to on cylinders. It wasn’t until the late 1920’s that audio theatre achieved widespread popularity on the emerging medium of radio. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s, however, audio theatre lost some of its popularity, and in some countries has never regained large audiences. So, does this mean that this once popular art form has just faded away into oblivion? Only listened to by the over 65 crowd?
Now, this is where it starts to get really interesting! By looking at the download demographics we can find the answer as to what age groups are actively listening to and downloading audio theatre.
(The following statistics are derived from Moonlight Audio Theatre’s website traffic and download traffic as calculated by Google Analytics and Moonlight’s Podcast Provider)
DOWNLOADS / LISTENS BY AGE GROUP
18-24 – 27.5%
25-34 – 33.5%
35-44 –15.50%
45-54 – 12.50%
55-64 – 5.50%
65+ 5.50%As it turns out it’s the under 34 age group that represents the majority of audio theatre listeners at 61% compared to the over 55 age group that represents only 11% of listeners. If you include in the 35-44 age group that percentage increase to 76.5%! The ratio of male to female listeners is approximately the same with males at 54.15% and females at 45.85%.
So clearly, the modern day revival and rejuvenation of this old art form is being driven by a younger demographic and by technology. The visionary media guru Marshall McLuhan once said ‘The medium is the message’ and that medium today is the Internet, Smartphones, Tablets, Apps etc. It’s ‘Cool’ to listen to audio theatre.
Audio Theatre has never faded away; it just keeps morphing with the times. As long as there is a good story to be told, there will always be an audience for this most imaginative and creative art form called audio theatre.
David Farquhar, Producer
Moonlight Audio Theatre
http://www.moonlightaudiotheatre.ca/
Our second installation of Sonic Echo brings the fantastic and sadly short series Luke Slaughter of Tombstone! Tonight’s show includes two episodes from archive.org, “Duel on the Trail” and “Tracks out of Tombstone.”
With the patience of a saint, Gin
ny Ward has meticulously one by one begun loading the entire backlist of the Sonic Society on to our Youtube Channel. So go back nine years and listen to the Golden Age of Modern Audio Drama/Podcasting. Hear the Sonic Society and all these great shows again for the first time! Pass on the love, and get a whole new generation hooked on Sonic. Subscribe to our Youtube Channel and we’ll look at getting some video of recordings of new EVP shows as well!
Sonic, you hear all about what you’ve been missing!
This lovely posted video of “Because the Scenery is Better: The Magic of Radio Drama” gives a fun look behind the scenes in British Audio Theatre of the 1980’s! It’s hard to imagine, but it’s grown more popular world wide now since those “heady” days! Return with us, ten years later and we’re
Bill Hollweg from BrokenSea Audio Productions joins Jack and David in the search for the weakness in the fabric of Podiospace with tonight’s features being the incredible Colonial Radio Theatre‘s “Vincent Price Presents: The Abominable Mr. Phibes”, and “The Epic Adventures” by Sean T. Young
Brand new Golden Age style pulp hero is roaming the streets of Crescent City! The Fault Line Players present “The Silver Fox” written and directed by Ted Falagan. We’d love to put their show in the Sonic Society, but as you can see, the FLP’s are mixing visual with audio, and that would make for a more confusing listen. But still, as lovers of all things AD, we’d be remiss in not pointing out to you where you can find them! Enjoy!
Starting off the inaugural interview is none other than Gregg Taylor, chief architect, writer, producer, director, and audio auteur of the amazing Decoder Ring Theatre. We talk about Gregg’s passions and Jack’s reactions to the recent DRT change in broadcast release announcement. Remember Sonicateers, don’t ever drive angry.
What a fantastic project! Free Firearm sound effects!
From the Free Firearm Sound Effects Library website:
The firearm sound library was the brainchild of a team of college students with a mutual passion for the audio and visual arts. In November, 2013 we launched a Kickstarter campaign to develop an extensive open source firearm sound effects library, and on December 7, 2013 our project was funded by an incredible group of backers and we went into full tilt production. This website serves to connect our backers with our two libraries, as well as to give credit to the backers who made it all possible.
Along with the availability of these sounds comes the need to understand their proper application. The metadata included in the sound files along with some instructional videos will help make these sounds serve you to their full potential.
Our team holds CC0 NO RIGHTS RESERVED for this library. It may be used without royalty or credit (though we would love to hear how you’ve used our sounds) for any application, personal or professional. Have at it!
Grab the raw files, or refined ones. Select which sound effects you want or grab the whole bunch!
On top of that help them complete their Medieval Weapons Sound Effects Library by donating to kickstarter!
With the a cloud of dust and the burning acrid smell of GUNSMOKE. The premiere of Sonic Echo has Jack introduce William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon in the classic series with “Billy the Kid” and “Jaliscoe” from archive.org! 