And the Amigos are back and this time it’s with yet another classic and original OTR show “The Finger of God” from a Columbia Workshop production of Percival Wilde‘s adapted play.
Tag: OTR (Page 10 of 27)
Tonight the “Greatest Love Story from British Film” Old Souls Audio and Rachel Rumler bings us “Brief Encounter”
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.
Someone said to me recently that they felt that audio drama folks weren’t as snobby as podnovel folks.
That was a strange comment to make. Looking back, I do notice that Audio Drama has been seen as the ugly step-child of the podcast community somewhat. Through the years there’s even been some suggestions that audio dramatists could “graduate” to audio novelists if they were good writers. It made me wonder if there were similar ideas between stage playwrights and novelists. Or television writers and movie scriptwriter writers.
Is there a kind of hierarchy of writing and production?
When I think of it I have witnessed some strange behavior through the years. Now, I’m the first one to admit I’m a literary snob of some sort. I enjoy story beyond and above everything else. Good story, for me, is key to any writing in any genre.
I have heard some various forms of audio snobbery though from various quarters:
- American audio drama is more valued than Canadian
- British audio drama is more respected than American
- New audio drama is accepted as better than Old Time Radio
- Podficts is more edgy than audio drama
- Heavy narration is worse than no narration
- Lots of special effects (the “Every Blade of Grass” folks) is seen as modern compared to a limited soundscape
- Horror and Comedy is more popular than drama
- Podcast is better than radio, and streaming is better than podcasts
- Social awareness trumps social commentary
These are the forms that come to mind for me. What snobbery do you see in the art form? Is it justified?
The Nepascene has a series of digressions in this article which thrills in the memories of old time radio. Among the great musical hits the author, Tim Thumb, remembers, there’s these fine gems of OTR:
Then, in junior high at a brand new apartment building my mom and I moved into, I discovered “CBS Radio Mystery Theater,” with host E.G. Marshall.
You can listen to many episodes (of varying quality) here. I highly recommend that you do.
Having listened whenever we could find a classic radio show with my gramps – “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “The Shadow,” “Buck Rogers” – I’d already developed a pretty intense love of radio plays.
But “CBS Radio Mystery Theater” was new! It was a first-run show and current! It featured stars like Fred Gwynne (whom I knew from “Car 54, Where Are You?” and “The Musters” and you’ll know as the judge from “My Cousin Vinny”), Ed Ames, Ralph Bell, Joe Campanella, Richard Crenna, and tons more as voice actors. It was a glorious discovery, and the station it was carried on was a country format in the evening leading up to the show, which aired at midnight (I’d have that earphone in, sneaking a listen to avoid an ass whoopin’, and fully prepared to be draggin’ ass the next morning!). Since I always tuned in early so as not to miss the creaking door and “BUM BUM BUMMMMM” opening, radio is also where my love for outlaw country was born.
This and so much more in the Nepascene story. What are your remembrances of days of yore when we prepare for Christmastime?
If you’re in the Chicago area, the Kimball Street Theater will be putting on Crime Classic on October 4th.
“Crime Classic,” an old-time radio drama with Radio Players West and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra trombone section will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Kimball Street Theater of the Elgin Academy, 261 Dundee Ave., Elgin. It is presented by Chamber Music on the Fox. General admission is $20; student tickets $10. For information, go to www.ChamberMusicOnTheFox.org.
So get your ticket while you can, and go watch some incredible live Radio Drama!
There’s a huge discussion in the modern audio drama realms that often ends up being confrontational. The New Time listeners and the Old Time Listeners represent a stark contrast in the listening habits of those who love radio plays. This can be a good thing, in that the medium is growing so large that we are able to break down into smaller groups. However, I’ve always felt that there’s good stories in old time radio shows as much as there is in new time podcasts.
Jay Powell in this Columbia Daily Herald article has also discovered new life in the great OTR shows. Mr. Powell writes about his love of the CBS Mystery Theater series he heard first in his teens:
When I was in my pre-teen years, back when mp3 downloads were still in their infancy, I discovered that there was more out there than just songs and movie soundtracks I could store on my iPod. Some of my favorite memories from those days were nights spent listening to the radio program, “CBS Radio Mystery Theater.”
These were episodic dramas produced between 1974-1982, often with a tinge of horror and the macabre, running between 40 minutes to an hour. The format was a throwback to old time radio shows like “The Shadow” or “The Hall of Fantasy,” complete with sound effects and special guest stars. I still remember the loud creaking door at the start of each episode and host E.G. Marshall saying “Come in…welcome,” before launching the listener into another fear-filled hour.
The stories often involved haunted houses, a killer on the loose, or ghosts from a person’s past. A tale or two from Edgar Allan Poe (my favorite writer at the time) would also pop up on occasion. Listening to those stories was a tradition for me night after night as the lights went out and I crawled into bed, hoping to have the bejeezus scared out of me once more before I went to sleep.
There were other shows I discovered later on, such as “The Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” “Suspense,” even the old Mercury Theater programs starring Orson Welles. Something about having to imagine the scenes as I closed my eyes and put on the headphones had a way of immersing the listener into that world, almost in a dreamlike state.
Read the rest of Mr. Powell’s love letter to the OTR and start listening again with new ears in archive.org
Texas Radio Theatre podcast with Rich Frohlich presents “The Atomic Trap” from Sky King in a live read through performance, while our actors at Electric Vicuña Productions take the stage with Gunsmoke “Sins of the Father” and the guiding hand of Richard Summers. All here on the penultimate episode of Summerstock Playhouse 2016!
David Cummings of the No Sleep Podcast provides a fantastic Lights Out episode this season with “Death Robbery“. David Ault is your announcer!
David Cummings of the No Sleep Podcast provides a fantastic Lights Out episode this season with “Murder Castle“. David Ault is your announcer!