Warriors to your cockpits! Bill Hollweg’s incredible full BattleStar Galactica series including the “Adam Journals” is our extended feature on tonight’s Bill Hollweg Retrospective. No Felgercarb about it!
Tag: Battlestar Galactica
The Bill Hollweg Memorial Sonic Summer series is set! With gratitude to the folks at Audio Drama/Radio Drama Lovers Facebook Group, and to the big wigs at Broken Sea Audio for their kind permission, Sonic Summer will have two features a week. Our regular Sonic Summerstock Playhouse on Tuesdays (a favourite of Bill’s) and in honour of the Thursday releases at BSA, a retrospective of some of the very best of Bill Hollweg’s audio drama life and work. Please join us as each week we’ll assemble a panel of roundtable guests to talk about the feature and share their memories before we play our episode(s) for the night.
Join us, won’t you?
Know, oh Prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the world powers, there was an age undreamed of. Hither came Bill Hollweg. An audio hooligan. An artist whose pen was as sharp as Aquilonian steel, and whose steely gaze and keen hearing forged many an audio story. A man of gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth who loved Audio Drama, and was beloved by the AD Community.
Ask anyone who has been around for the Gold and Silver Ages of Modern Audio Drama, who they would pick as someone who loved the medium more than anyone else; and you’ll see one person consistently top everyone’s list: Bill Hollweg.
Bill began working with Darker Projects, almost fifteen years ago when modern audio drama was in its infancy on the Internet. Growing up like so many people our age, he had a love for old time radio (which he did his best to share in his show OTR Swagcast), and a uniquely talented hand for artwork. Bill made his money as a commercial artist. While he drew fantastical worlds, he listened endlessly to audio drama. He loved the theatrical and cinematic aspects of the medium, and had little time for audio books. Books? He’d rather read them!
Partnering originally with Paul Mannering, David Sobkowiak, and Mark Kalita, the four of them founded Broken Sea Audio and drew a lot of talented people in their wake including Stevie K. Farnaby, Steven Jay Cohen, Alexa Chipman, Cary Michael Ayers, Brian Bochicchio, Elaine Barrett and so many others. Bill penned most of the artwork for the website, and delved into developing a number of projects himself, as well as lending his prestigious production might to a number of other shows.
Bill was tireless. He often worked three day time jobs, and was up early in the morning at three or four editing audio drama.
Early on, Bill and I connected. He has said to me and publicly many times since then that one of his proudest moments in his audio drama career was getting his work showcased on The Sonic Society. Bill was a great early supporter of our Sonic Summerstock Playhouse, and for many years provided excellent shows that either kicked off the season or acted as finales. He was encouraging. Exuberantly so. But that was Bill. Bill made everyone feel like they were family. Calling everyone who shared his love for Audio Drama “brother man” and “my sister”. We were family.
Bill and I shared so many childhood loves, and I was honoured when he included me in many of his projects. I was Milo and Mendez in his long form adaptation of The Planet of the Apes. We shared a mutual love for Battlestar Galactica and he gleefully cast me as Apollo- a childhood dream of mine. Among the many roles, Bill asked me to play Hitler for his pulp action star Jake Sampson- Monster Hunter. Later I got to perform in his sequel to Jaws, Amity: Dark Waters. He gave my wife Ginny her first role in his science fiction original series 2109 Black Sun Rising where I acted as narrating host.
Bill’s enthusiasm was infectious. Many times after we spoke, I’d go off on a writing tear, returning hours later to talk to him about plot points of a script I wrote. He tirelessly reminded me to complete my John Carter- A Princess of Mars long before the movie came out. He similarly reminded me how often he listened and relistened to Firefly: Old Wounds– telling me it was fan drama that drove him to check out the original show. We talked continuously about putting together new episodes of M*A*S*H* set in a science fiction future war. He always called me “Hawk”, as his pick for the audio version of Hawkeye Pierce. Of course, I called him Trap.
Bill and I loved Conan the Barbarian and I was determined to come visit some day. He’d drive the two of us out to the Robert E. Howard Museum (our own pilgrimage). Bill’s adaptation of Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast is one of the finest I’ve ever heard.
To list off all of Bill’s projects and beloved audio dramas would take a post that would dwarf this one. He touched everyone in the community and communicated faithfully with so many on a regular basis.
Bill Hollweg leaves a legacy in family and friends and through his enormous talents in art and audio works, and he leaves a hole the size of a Black Sun Rising in our hearts that can never be filled without him.
Go listen to the legacy yourself at Broken Sea Audio Productions for here was and is, for me, the Grand Master of the Modern Age of Radio Drama.
Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen, Trap.
As a young lad just developing my love for Audio Drama, one of the fun CBC shows I listened to was Johnny Chase- Secret Agent of Space. It ran weekly for a time on Saturdays. Johnny fought all kinds of evils and even set a kind of Battlestar Galactica like fleet quest to look for a new Earth for humankind to settle on. But no hero is complete unto themselves and Johnny had Dante- his insufferably brilliant computer voiced by the incredible Chris Wiggins. Chris had the kind of singular voice most actors dream of. While voice acting was certainly a skill, it wasn’t his only. He also played the father in the Canadian series of Swiss Family Robinson in the seventies. Furthermore you might remember him in his later years in the Canadian X-files like series Friday the 13th.
Since Mr. Wiggins had settled in my old hometown of Fergus in his retirement, I tried through many channels and his personal email to arrange an interview for the Sonic Society to no avail. Apparently, his health has not been the best in the last ten years.
According to a recent post from Bloody Disgusting Mr. Wiggins passed yesterday at the age of 87. What a huge loss to Canada, and to drama. According to the article:
Of course, we’re barely scratching the surface of Chris Wiggins’ contributions to the entertainment industry by focusing on “Friday the 13th: The Series.” He has over 142 acting credits on his resume, appearing in countless television shows and TV movies dating back to 1956. Just a small handful of the shows Wiggins starred in and lent his voice to include “Mighty Thor,” “Spider-Man,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” “Star Wars: Droids,” “The Care Bears Family,” “The NeverEnding Story,” and even the animated series “Tales from the Cryptkeeper.”
Rest in Peace good sir, we barely knew you.
Audio Drama is replete with people who put their nose to the grindstone. Many producers work extremely hard to produce incredible productions. But who are the hardest working producer/writers in the modern audio drama movement? To tunnel down the list, it’s important to keep in mind that many producers like Dirk Maggs (Perfectly Normal Productions) and John Ballentine (Campfire Radio Theater) take longer to produce very high level productions. To make our list of hardest working producers/writers we have to look at consistent releases, and a hand involved in all parts of the process from writing, directing, acting, and audio editing.
Here’s our list.
5. Bill Hollweg (Broken Seas Audio)
While Broken Seas has slowed down its production releases from their heyday several years ago. One producer remains tireless in his production grind. Working daily to produce everything from original shows such as Jake Sampson- Monster Hunter, The Saga of the Grog & Gryphon, to 2109 AD, to his beloved recreations and adaptations to Planet of the Apes, Battlestar Galactica, a certain unmentionable dark haired barbarian, and most recently Amity- Dark Waters, Bill continues to tirelessly provide entertainment to the BSA fan crowd. His dedication to all things audio drama extends to his love song to the old time radio days with Swagcast where he painstakingly works to get rid of the buzz from the poor recordings to provide clearer production sounds. Bill works several jobs, and natural insomnia has him up editing and writing late at night and early in the morning before his classic work day begins.
4. Pete Lutz (Narada Radio Company)
Deep into season three, Peter Lutz is following in the footsteps of his hero Orson Welles in creating the anthology series Pulp-Pourri Theatre. In three years, Pete has produced over thirty shows pulled from public domain pulp stories, classic theatre tales, and original scripts. Rumour has it, Mr. Lutz is working steadily on a long series of western stories to be produced by NRC. Award winning, Pete Lutz keeps rolling out more and more hour long and multiple hour long productions that he puts in archive.org for your listening pleasure!
3. Gregg Taylor (Decoder Ring Theatre)
Moving down from our solid second place spot is Gregg Taylor from Decoder Ring Theatre. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in the modern age of radio drama, Gregg used to release a brand new show every other week. A release schedule that was only breeched once since they began eleven years ago (the same time as The Sonic Society by the way). Gregg has moved more recently to a monthly release schedule, but that doesn’t mean he’s become less productive. The author of over a dozen novels and comics, based on his iconic brands The Red Panda and Black Jack Justice as well as other stories, Mr. Taylor epitomizes- the now legendary mantra update- of “how to get to Carnegie Hall” for successful podcasts everywhere, “How do you get listeners? Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.”
2. Jeffrey Adams (Icebox Radio)
If there is one true innovator in the world of free modern podcast audio theatre it is Jeffrey Adams. Jeff created Sound Stages which began initially as a precursor to the Sonic Society and then transformed into the 24 hour, seven days a week live audio drama Internet radio station that you can hear today. Jeff’s original works became the award winning foundation of his stories that he set in “the land of the Icebox” near International Falls. Icebox Radio officially became a non-profit organization with memberships, donations and an executive council. Most recently, Icebox Radio has made the transition to Radio Icebox in which Jeffrey has taken his talented pen, directing skills, and production experience to run a continuous serial about a strange northern town cut off from the rest of civilization.
1. Jerry Robbins (Colonial Radio Theatre)
There are several talented audio drama companies, very few are driven predominately by a single writer, director, producer, and actor. For over two decades Jerry has written and produced hundreds of radio plays- first released on cassettes, then CD’s and now through downloads. Colonial Radio Theatre has been given dozens of awards, and has had the opportunity to work with personalities such as Ray Bradbury and Walter Koenig. Jerry has written and produced well over a hundred episodes of his western saga Powder River and their catalogue includes everything from children’s tales, horror, mystery, drama, comedy, action adventure, historical drama, fantasy, and science fiction. CRT has adapted classic novels, famous plays, comic books, and television shows. Jerry has also created such indelible original series such as Jerry and the Pirates, Beacon Hill, Royall House, The Dibble Show, and Ticonderoga. His production from William Luce‘s radio adaptation of the one man play Jerry became known for Barrymore tops this reviewer’s list of must listen audio. There is little doubt as to why CRT remains at the top of Amazon audio book charts month after month because they are always producing, and always releasing.
This list is far from complete. There are so many writers and producers out there that work extremely hard on their productions but may have more spread out release dates. Some are fairly new on the scene (only a year or two beginning). Many more take long deserved hiatus from their works, and still others find life interrupts their passion for making radio plays.
This list is not meant to overlook the fantastic community of which I happily belong, nor suggest that one radio drama production is arbitrarily better or worse than others, but rather to give my thanks to those who work and release consistently and unendingly in their pursuit to provide to us- the listeners- their audio dramas.
Thanks to all, and may the list above inspire you to get more productions out there!