| It’s an All Canadian Double Feature for our 400th episode of the regular season of the Sonic Society beginning with Dark Road to Nowhere from Voices in the Wind Theatre and David Farquhar and an edit world release of Black Knight from our own Jack Ward and Electric Vicuña Productions! Happy Halloween! |
| Tonight on Sonic Speaks our guest is the Audio Drama entrepreneur and producer David Farquhar. David speaks to us about his love of Audio Drama through his two major productions Voices in the Wind Theatre and the “Netflix of Audio Drama”, Moonlight Audio Theatre! |
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/
David Farquhar’s fantastic channel Moonlight Audio Theatre has listed their top 25 free shows that are most downloaded by their fans. Among our favourites, there’s even a couple of EVP shows too!
Jack and David find themselves walking down the strange halls of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” thanks to the amazing Voices in the Wind starring Georgia Lee Shultz and Barbara Rosenblat and produced by David Farquhar.
Some fantastic news from David Farquhar, Executive Producer of Voices In The Wind Audio Theatre. Audio Drama is going to have yet another fantastic stream to reach out people like it’s never done before:
On Tuesday December 7th 2010 a new and innovative way of delivering audio dramas to a mobile audience was launched on the Blackberry Smart Phone. The Moonlight Audio Theatre Podcast APP on the Blackberry features the best in modern audio drama programming covering all genres. With some 40 million Blackberry users across North America there is potentially a huge audience to tap into. Audio dramas can now be easily listened to while riding on the bus, waiting for your next flight at the airport, on long drives, while waiting at the Doctor’s office or at work. The Blackberry MOONLIGHT AUDIO THEATRE PODCAST is available instantly, anywhere, anyplace at anytime, no PC required.
What that means of course is that those folks who are good with their blackberries but lousy with subscriptions to podcasts and the like can listen any time, anywhere, on demand to audio drama.
How is this not good FANTASTIC news!?
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
THE 1920‟S COME ALIVE AGAIN WITH THE SOUNDS OF RUM SMUGGLERS, HIJACKERS AND CUSTOMS OFFICIALS THIRSTY FOR BRIBES IN THE RADIO BROADCAST PREMIERE OF „RUNNING TO DETROIT‟
CHATHAM, Ontario Canada – July 12, 2010: Voices In The Wind – Audio Theatre and Country 92.9 FM / 630 AM CFCO are pleased to announce the radio broadcast premiere of „Running to Detroit‟ on Saturday July 17th at 1:00 PM on Country 92.9 FM / 630 AM CFCO and simulcast
live from their website.
David Farquhar, the Executive Producer of Voices In The Wind – Audio Theatre is delighted
that the radio broadcast premier of “Running to Detroit‟ is part of the new CK on the edge Summer Arts Festival. The public is also invited to come and listen to the broadcast debut of “Running to Detroit‟ together with the cast at the William Street Cafe on Saturday 17th July 2010
@ 1:00 PM. The William Street Cafe is located near the corner of William and King Streets in downtown Chatham.
Farquhar says, “The radio drama revolves around Meg and her Mom Sandra who are heading to Detroit for a little cross border shopping and a Tigers game. But due to unforeseen circumstances
they are turned back at the border. An odd encounter on the Windsor waterfront leads them into a wild night of time-travel; rum-smuggling; a near-drowning; hijackers; customs officials thirsty for bribes and a chance encounter with controversial baseball legend Ty Cobb. The sound effects and music will take the listeners back from 2010 to the 1920‟s, a time when heading for the Wild West meant sneaking into Michigan with a boatload of Canadian contraband!”
Farquhar notes there are references in the radio drama to Chatham, Windsor and Detroit so the
show will appeal to listeners on both sides of the border.
“Running to Detroit‟ was scripted by Dave Carley one of Canada’s leading Playwrights and Radio Dramatists especially for Voices In The Wind – Audio Theatre. Dave’s works have been produced across Canada and the United States, as well as many countries around the world.
“Running to Detroit” was directed by Joey Ouellette, Artistic Director of the Purple Theatre Company, Windsor.
The Actors include Noelle Dupuis, Michelle Mainwaring, Bob Telfer, Cheri Scratch-Lapain, Keith Burnett, Jason Gale and introducing Rachel Muharrem as Meg.
Artwork by Laura Broadbent, Montreal
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