Welcome to Night Vale – The Sonic Society

The Ages of Radio/Audio Drama

There have been three waves of Radio Drama and now three waves of Audio Drama as well.

As technology and time advance new ideas and audio stories have taken the forefront.

What are the Ages of Radio Drama?

Golden Age of Radio

The Golden Age of Radio lasted from the 1920’s to the 1950’s:

Was the first mass-market entertainment as people listened on their radios at their homes
Had no real competition until television arose in the 50’s
Began with many Hollywood stars, actors, producers, writers, who moved through movies, radio and sometimes into television
Identified that audio drama could be adapted from stage plays, movies, literary fiction, or original story concepts
Was the first time many comedians made their way into the homes of the nation
Created new opportunities for story and formats including sponsorships, and commercial breaks

Silver Age of Radio

Often thought as roughly running between as early as the 1960’s to the mid-90’s but most examples are in the seventies and eighties:

Mostly broadcast through public radio.
The most popular were The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (BBC) and The Star Wars Radio Drama Saga (NPR)
Other examples were CBS Mystery Theatre (CBS), Nightfall and Vanishing Point (CBC), The Zero Hour (Rod Serling, Mutual Broadcasting System)
Full-Range sound effects, music, and “movie-like” quality

Modern Age of Audio Drama

The Modern Age of Audio Drama arrived as early as the Internet but was slow in taking shape from late 1990’s to the present day.

Beginning with the ability to download from a website, user groups, or stream from an online radio, to Youtube, and most popular podcast streams as the main means of distribution
Shows are edited digitally as opposed to previous with reel-to-reel tape which makes for faster production times
Groups of fans of old time radio and who grew up inspired by the best of the Silver Age began producing mostly fan audio fiction (Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who etc…) and then created original audio drama and their own fan base
Remote or Satellite actors would send in lines and an audio drama could be truly a global enterprise between like-minded writers, actors, and producers (Audio Drama Talk, Audio Drama/Radio Drama Lovers groups)
Websites began creating sharing original music and sound effects to aid in production (The Free Sound Project)

The Three Ages of Modern Audio Drama

As radio drama has had three ages, the rapid pace of change in technology has seen three very distinct ages of the modern audio drama movement:

The Golden Age of Audio Drama- Beginning in the early 2000’s. A small group of fans dedicated to the audio drama medium produced and shared from a variety of user groups and websites. Word of mouth provided the most distribution and groups blossomed and grew creating fan-fiction audio and some original works with sound quality of voices varying as digital editing technology was in its infancy
The Silver Age of Audio Drama- Began around 2008 and continued to around 2013. This era represented a group of fans who also appreciated old time radio but were mostly inspired by the Golden Age of Modern Audio Dramatists and created works that reflected extensions to the kind of shows that they had experienced.
The Bronze (Current) Age of Audio Drama- Beginning in 2011-2012 with shows like The No Sleep Podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, or 2014’s Serial, the creators of these audio dramas by and large are unaware of the old time radio of the past or even the Gold and Silver audio dramas of the Modern Age. Instead they gain their inspiration from three different sources including Youtube confessionals, NPR style radio shows, and the rapid popularity of podcasts. Bronze Age audio dramas have also been given the misnomer “audio fiction” by some creators. Due to the most popular format that includes a “host” who talks through a story of some sort and engages “guests” either in studio or at some location. The host acts as a central narrator in these Bronze Age features. The Bronze Age does not usually draw inspiration from theatrical framing such as movies, television, radio drama, or the stage.

It’s been ten years in the Society and nearly a hundred years since the art form began. Most of us who have delved into the latest medium- podcasting have loved every minute of the “on demand” style of listening to stories.

Most recently, some audio stories have achieved a real massive fan following. Shows like Welcome to Night Vale and Serial have certainly hit the big time. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Serial” has been downloaded an average 1.26 million times each episode. With twelve episodes that’s more than 15 million pairs of ears listening each episode, and if that’s a meaningless number, consider 15 million is just roughly under half of all the people who live in Canada.

Serial is a spinoff mini-series from the popular This American Life, an NPR show out of WBEZ Chicago, and focuses on the non-fiction murder of Hae Min Lee and the conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Masud Syed for the crime. The story is framed and provided from the first person perspective of Sarah Koenig an award winning journalist and producer of the show.

Serial is certainly compelling- especially knowing that everything you’re getting in the story is the truth, and while Koenig offers no definitive answers, she raises a lot of important questions as to who truly is responsible for Ms. Lee’s murder.

What I find also interesting is the number of people who have introduced shows like Serial and Night Vale to me as audio drama. But when I go to listen to the stories, as much as I appreciate what they are doing- they really aren’t audio drama as we know it.

First, let’s look at the similarities to audio drama as we know it. All of these shows have a story. They also have characters that tend to speak for themselves, although Night Vale usually works with its own mythical radio host. But this is where the similarity ends.

Another good example of this style is Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein, on CBC radio. Goldstein provides a first person narrative of different aspects of his life and invites his friends and family to speak on these issues through the phone. While scripted, these comedic and often surreal vignettes follow the themes in Goldstein’s life and provide a kind of post-modern critique of the world. There’s an intimacy to this kind of storytelling. It’s the main ingredient in why so many people enjoy listening to their favourite podcasts again and again. While radio has long had a distance of projecting to the masses, podcasting brings the listener up close, with the host of each show almost whispering into the ears.

It’s that sense of being let in on something that makes these shows so compelling for the listener. The modern age has so little connection, and these kinds of audio stories connect.

But they aren’t audio drama. Here’s why.

If Serial were a true radio drama, we wouldn’t be treated to Koenig’s reporter style commentary through out. We’re keenly aware she’s in a studio, and her thoughts are organized in an essay to present information to you- albeit in a relaxed format. Serial, the radio drama would have the sound effects added. The pushing of the recording button. The accidental bumping of the microphone. The nervous little blemishes of real life. Koenig would be unveiling the story for herself as much as for the audience, and we’d walk with her in her explorations for the truth.

Good audio drama is immediate. The listener feels like they are in the room with the action. The story, like a good movie, presents that willing suspension of disbelief that sweeps the listeners away- sometimes to entirely different worlds. While Wiretap, Night Vale, and Serial draw us into the story, we’re keenly aware that we are listening to stories, fashioned and written, not drama while involves us in the deepest of levels. It is the difference between listening to a novel about your parents arguing, and listening to a cassette tape of an incident of your parents arguing. The former will deepen your understanding, the latter will involve you. Make you laugh, cry, and cringe in the real-time unveiling of the narrative.

I enjoyed the serious true crime nature of Serial and the comedic everyman Wiretap, and I love the compelling nature of the podcast medium, but when it comes to investing myself, its audio drama that captivates me.

Tag: Welcome to Night Vale

The Ages of Radio/Audio Drama

The Rise of the Audio Story