Radio drama - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance

Performance

A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...

, broadcast on radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story. “It is auditory in the physical dimension but equally powerful as a visual force in the psychological dimension.”

“Seneca

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...

has been claimed as a forerunner of radio drama because his plays were performed by readers as sound plays, not by actors as stage plays; but in this respect Seneca had no significant successors until 20th-century technology made possible the widespread dissemination of sound plays.” Radio drama achieved widespread popularity within a decade of its initial development in the 1920s. By the 1940s, it was a leading international popular entertainment. With the advent of television in the 1950s, however, radio drama lost some of its popularity, and in some countries, has never regained large audiences. However, recordings of OTR (old-time radio

Old-time radio

Old-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...

) survive today in the audio archives of collectors and museums, as well as several online sites such as Internet Archive

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

.

As of 2011, radio drama has a minimal presence on terrestrial radio in the United States. Much of American radio drama is restricted to rebroadcasts or podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

s of programs from previous decades. However, other nations still have thriving traditions of radio drama. In the United Kingdom, for example, the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

produces and broadcasts hundreds of new radio plays each year on Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

, Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

, and Radio 4 Extra. Drama is aired daily on Radio 4 in the form of afternoon plays, a Friday evening play, short dramas included in the daily Woman's Hour

Woman's Hour

Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...

program, Saturday plays and Sunday classic serials. On Radio 3 there is Sunday evening drama and, in the slot reserved for experimental drama, The Wire. The drama output on Radio 4 Extra (formerly Radio 7), which consists predominantly of archived programs and a few extended versions of radio 4 programs, is chiefly composed of comedy, thrillers and science fiction. Podcasting has also offered the means of creating new radio dramas, in addition to the distribution of vintage programs.

The terms "audio drama" or "audio theatre" are sometimes used synonymously with "radio drama" with one notable distinction: audio drama or audio theatre is not intended specifically for broadcast on radio. Audio drama, whether newly produced or OTR classics, can be found on CDs, cassette tapes, podcast

Podcast

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

s, webcast

Webcast

A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...

s and conventional broadcast radio. Radio drama documentaries are also called "feature

Radio documentary

A radio documentary or feature is a purely acoustic performance devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures. It is broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD...

".

Thanks to advances in digital recording and internet distribution, radio drama is experiencing a revival.

Early years

Radio drama traces its roots back to the 1880s. “In 1881 French engineer Clement Ader had filed a patent for ‘improvements of Telephone Equipment in Theatres’” (Théâtrophone

Théâtrophone

Théâtrophone was a telephonic distribution system that allowed the subscribers to listen to opera and theatre performances over the telephone lines. The théâtrophone evolved from a Clément Ader invention, which was first demonstrated in 1881, in Paris...

). English language radio drama seems to have started in the United States. A Rural Line on Education, a brief sketch specifically written for radio, aired on Pittsbugh's KDKA

KDKA (AM)

KDKA is a radio station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Created by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation on November 2, 1920, it is one of the world's first modern radio stations , a distinction that has also been challenged by other stations, although it has claimed to be the first in...

in 1921, according to historian Bill Jaker. Newspaper accounts of the era report on a number of other drama experiments by America's commercial radio stations: KYW

KYW (AM)

KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...

broadcast a season of complete operas from Chicago starting in November 1921. In February 1922, entire Broadway musical comedies with the original casts aired from WJZ's Newark studios. Actors Grace George and Herbert Hayes performed an entire play from a San Francisco station in the summer of 1922.

An important turning point in radio drama came when Schenectady, New York

Schenectady, New York

Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...

's WGY, after a successful tryout on August 3, 1922, began weekly studio broadcasts of full-length stage plays in September 1922, using music, sound effects and a regular troupe of actors, The WGY Players. Aware of this series, the director of Cincinnati's WLW began regularly broadcasting one-acts (as well as excerpts from longer works) in November. The success of these projects led to imitators at other stations. By the spring of 1923, original dramatic pieces written specially for radio were airing on stations in Cincinnati (When Love Wakens by WLW's Fred Smith), Philadelphia (The Secret Wave by Clyde A. Criswell) and Los Angeles (At Home over KHJ). That same year, WLW (in May) and WGY (in September) sponsored scripting contests, inviting listeners to create original plays to be performed by those stations' dramatic troupes.

Listings in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and other sources for May 1923 reveal at least 20 dramatic offerings were scheduled (including one-acts, excerpts from longer dramas, complete three- and four-act plays, operettas and a Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

adaptation), either as in-studio productions or by remote broadcast from local theaters and opera houses.

Serious study of American radio drama of the 1920s and early 1930s is, at best, very limited. Unsung pioneers of the art include: WLW's Fred Smith; Freeman Gosden

Freeman Gosden

Freeman Fisher "Gozzie" Gosden was an American radio comedian, and pioneer in the development of the situation comedy form. He is best known for his work in the Amos 'n' Andy series.-Biography:...

and Charles Correll

Charles Correll

Charles James Correll was an American radio comedian, best known for his work on the Amos 'n' Andy show with Freeman S. Gosden. Correll voiced the central character of Andy Brown, along with various supporting characters. Before teaming up with Gosden, Correll worked as a stenographer and a...

(who popularized the dramatic serial); The Eveready Hour

The Eveready Hour

The Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the history of broadcasting. It premiered December 4, 1923 on WEAF Radio in New York. Radio's first sponsored network program. it was paid for by the National Carbon Company, which at the time owned Eveready Battery...

creative team (which began with one-act plays but was soon experimenting with hour-long combinations of drama and music on its weekly variety program); the various acting troupes at stations like WLW, WGY, KGO

KGO (AM)

KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area...

and a number of others, frequently run by women like Helen Schuster Martin and Wilda Wilson Church; early network continuity writers like Henry Fisk Carlton, William Ford Manley and Don Clark; producers and directors like Clarence Menser and Gerald Stopp; and a long list of others who were credited at the time with any number of innovations but who are largely forgotten or undiscussed today. Elizabeth McLeod's 2005 book on Gosden and Correll's early work is a major exception, as is Richard J. Hand's 2006 study of horror radio, which examines some programs from the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Another notable early radio drama, one of the first specially written for the medium in the UK, was Danger by Richard Hughes

Richard Hughes (writer)

Richard Arthur Warren Hughes OBE was a British writer of poems, short stories, novels and plays.He was born in Weybridge, Surrey. His father was a civil servant Arthur Hughes, and his mother Louisa Grace Warren who had been brought up in Jamaica...

, broadcast by the BBC

BBC

on January 15, 1924, about a group of people trapped in a Welsh coal mine. One of the earliest and most influential French radio plays was the prize-winning "Marémoto" ("Seaquake"), by Gabriel Germinet and Pierre Cusy, which presents a realistic account of a sinking ship before revealing that the characters are actually actors rehearsing for a broadcast. Translated and broadcast in Germany and England by 1925, the play was originally scheduled by Radio-Paris to air on October 23, 1924 but was instead banned from French radio until 1937 because the government feared that the dramatic SOS

SOS

SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...

messages would be mistaken for genuine distress signals.

In 1951, American writer and producer Arch Oboler

Arch Oboler

Arch Oboler was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period...

suggested that Wyllis Cooper

Wyllis Cooper

Wyllis Oswald Cooper was an American writer and producer.He is best remembered for creating and writing the old time radio programs Lights Out and Quiet, Please -Biography:...

's Lights Out

Lights Out (radio show)

Lights Out is an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum...

(1934–47) was the first true radio drama to make use of the unique qualities of radio:

Radio drama (as distinguished from theatre plays boiled down to kilocycle size) began at midnight, in the middle thirties, on one of the upper floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart. The pappy was a rotund writer by the name of Wyllis Cooper.

Though the series is often remembered solely for its gruesome stories and sound effects, Cooper's scripts for Lights Out were well-written and offered innovations seldom heard in early radio dramas, including multiple first person narrators, stream of consciousness monologue

Monologue

In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...

s and scripts that contrasted a duplicitious character's internal monologue

Internal monologue

Internal monologue, also known as inner voice, internal speech, or verbal stream of consciousness is thinking in words. It also refers to the semi-constant internal monologue one has with oneself at a conscious or semi-conscious level....

and his spoken words.

The question of who was the first to write stream-of-consciousness drama for radio is a difficult one to answer. By 1930, Tyrone Guthrie

Tyrone Guthrie

Sir William Tyrone Guthrie was an English theatrical director instrumental in the founding of the Stratford Festival of Canada, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, at his family's home, Annaghmakerrig, in County Monaghan, Ireland.-Life and career:Guthrie...

had written plays for the BBC like Matrimonial News (which consists entirely of the thoughts of a shopgirl awaiting a blind date) and The Flowers Are Not for You to Pick (which takes place inside the mind of a drowning man). After they were published in 1931, Guthrie's plays aired on the American networks. Around the same time, Guthrie himself also worked for the Canadian National Railway radio network, producing plays written by Merrill Denison that used similar techniques. A 1940 article in Variety credited a 1932 NBC play, Drink Deep by Don Johnson, as the first stream-of-consciousness play written for American radio. The climax of Lawrence Holcomb's 1931 NBC play Skyscraper also uses a variation of the technique (so that the listener can hear the final thoughts and relived memories of a man falling to his death from the title building).

There were probably earlier examples of stream-of-consciousness drama on the radio. For example, in December 1924, actor Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...

, then appearing in a revival of Eugene O'Neill

Eugene O'Neill

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...

's The Emperor Jones

The Emperor Jones

The Emperor Jones is a 1920 play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill which tells the tale of Brutus Jones, an African-American man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a Caribbean island, and sets himself up as emperor...

, performed a scene from the play over New York's WGBS to critical acclaim. Some of the many storytellers and monologists on early 1920s American radio might be able to claim even earlier dates.

Widespread popularity

Perhaps America's most famous radio drama broadcast is Orson Welles

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

's The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds (radio)

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938, and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by actor and future filmmaker...

, a 1938 version of the H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

novel

The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...

, which convinced large numbers of listeners that an actual invasion from Mars was taking place.

By the late 1930s, radio drama was widely popular in the United States (and also in other parts of the world). There were dozens of programs in many different genres, from mysteries and thrillers, to soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

s and comedies. There were occasional efforts at more literary works, such as Under Milk Wood

Under Milk Wood

Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, adapted later as a stage play. A movie version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released during 1972....

(1954) and "Play for Voices" by Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

. Many playwrights, screenwriters and novelists got their start in radio drama, including Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...

, Rod Serling

Rod Serling

Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...

, Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...

and Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...

Decline in the United States

After the advent of television, radio drama never recovered its popularity in the United States. Most remaining CBS and NBC radio dramas were cancelled in 1960. The last network radio dramas to originate during American radio′s “Golden Age”, Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar was a radio drama of "the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account — America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator." The show aired on CBS Radio from January 14, 1949 to September 30, 1962...

, ended on September 30, 1962.

There have been some efforts at radio drama since then. In the 1960s, Dick Orkin

Dick Orkin

Dick Orkin is an award-winning voice actor and commercial radio producer who created the series Chickenman and The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy...

created the popular syndicated comic adventure series Chicken Man. Inspired by The Goon Show

The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

, “the four or five crazy guys” of the Firesign Theatre built a large following with their satirical plays on recordings exploring the dramatic possibilities inherent in stereo. A brief resurgence of production beginning in the early 1970s yielded the Mutual Broadcasting System

Mutual Broadcasting System

The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...

's The Zero Hour

The Zero Hour (Rod Serling series)

The Zero Hour was a 1973-74 radio drama anthology series hosted by Rod Serling. With tales of mystery, adventure and suspense, the program aired in stereo for two seasons...

(hosted by Rod Serling

Rod Serling

), National Public Radio's Earplay

Earplay

Earplay was the longest-running of the formal series of radio drama anthologies on National Public Radio, heard from 1972 into the 1990s. It approached radio drama as an art form with scripts written by such leading playwrights as Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit, Archibald MacLeish and David...

, and veteran Himan Brown

Himan Brown

Himan Brown , also known as Hi Brown and Mende Brown, was an American producer of radio programs. Producing for the major radio networks and also for syndication, Brown worked with such actors as Helen Hayes, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra and Orson Welles while creating...

's CBS Radio Mystery Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater

CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS affiliates from 1974 to 1982....

and General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, later followed by the Sears/Mutual Radio Theater

Sears Radio Theater

Sears Radio Theater was a radio drama anthology series which ran weeknightly on CBS Radio in 1979, sponsored by the Sears chain. Often paired with The CBS Radio Mystery Theater during its first season, the program offered a different genre of drama for each day's broadcast.In 1980, the program...

, The National Radio Theater of Chicago

The National Radio Theater of Chicago

The National Radio Theater of Chicago was an anthology radio drama series that began as a local program in 1973, but always had national aspirations . Episodes consisted of original radio plays, adaptations of fiction and stage plays, and radio plays from Europe and the Far East...

, NPR Playhouse

NPR Playhouse

NPR Playhouse was a series of radio dramas from National Public Radio. The series was a successor to the NPR series Earplay and was discontinued in September 2002....

, a newly produced episode of the former 1950s series X Minus One

X Minus One

X Minus One was a half-hour science fiction radio drama series broadcast from April 24, 1955 to January 9, 1958 in various timeslots on NBC.-Overview:...

, and works by a new generation of dramatists, notably Yuri Rasovsky

Yuri Rasovsky

Yuri Rasovsky is an American award-winning writer and producer working in the field of radio drama in the United States....

, Thomas Lopez

Thomas Lopez

Thomas Lopez, aka Meatball Fulton, is one of the founders and president of the ZBS Foundation. He writes and produces the ZBS Foundation's audio drama productions. Some of these aired in 1984-85 as part of ZBS' stereo radio series The Cabinet of Dr. Fritz.His output includes the entire Jack...

of ZBS

ZBS Foundation

ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune based on a donated farm in Upstate New York...

and the dramatic sketches heard on humorist Garrison Keillor

Garrison Keillor

Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...

's A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion is a live radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor. The show runs on Saturdays from 5 to 7 p.m. Central Time, and usually originates from the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, although it is frequently taken on the road...

. Thanks in large part to the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, public radio continued to air a smattering of audio drama until the mid-1980s. From 1986 to 2002, NPR's most consistent producer of radio drama was the idiosyncratic Joe Frank

Joe Frank

Joe Frank is an American radio personality, known best for his often philosophical, humorous, surrealist, and sometimes absurd monologues and radio dramas.-Early life:...

, working out of KCRW

KCRW

KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...

in Santa Monica. The Sci Fi Channel

Syfy

Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

presented an audio drama series, Seeing Ear Theatre, on its website from 1997 to 2001. Also, the dramatic serial It's Your World airs twice daily on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show.

Radio drama today

Radio drama remains popular in much of the world. Stations producing radio drama often commission a large number of scripts. The relatively low cost of producing a radio play enables them to take chances with works by unknown writers. Radio can be a good training ground for beginning drama writers as the words written form a much greater part of the finished product; bad lines cannot be obscured with stage business.

Because of the external circumstances in postwar Germany, in which most of the theaters were destroyed, the radio drama boomed. Between 1945-1960 it have been played more than 500 radio plays every year. Until today Germany is the country where the most radio dramas are produced and listened to.

On the BBC there are two ongoing radio soap opera

Soap opera

s: The Archers

The Archers

The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...

on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

and Silver Street

Silver Street

Silver Street was a radio soap opera, the first such to be aimed at the British South Asian community, and was broadcast on the BBC Asian Network. It was introduced in 2004 as part of the Sonia Deol show, which was replaced from 24 April 2006 by the Anita Rani show, and until 12 May 2006 each...

on the Asian Network

BBC Asian Network

BBC Asian Network is a British radio station serving those originating from and around the Indian subcontinent. The music and news comes out of the main urban areas where there are significant communities with these backgrounds. The station has production centres in Birmingham, Leicester and London...

. A third soap, Westway

Westway (soap opera)

Westway was a radio soap opera broadcast twice a week on the BBC World Service from 1997 to October 2005. It focused on life in and around the fictional Westway Health Centre in west London, and was named after the main route into London from the north west....

on the World Service

BBC World Service

The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...

ended in October 2005.

In September, 2010 Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand

Radio New Zealand is a New Zealand public service radio broadcaster and Crown entity formed by the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news, current affairs and arts network Radio New Zealand National and classical music and jazz network Radio New Zealand Concert with full government funding...

began airing it's first ongoing soap opera

Soap opera

: You Me Now

You Me Now

You Me ... Now is New Zealand's first radio soap opera written and created by All The Way Home Productions. Season One was 25 episodes long and originally aired on Radio New Zealand in 2010...

which won the Best New Drama Award in the 2011 New Zealand Radio Awards.

The audio drama format exists side-by-side with books presented on radio

Books on the radio

Putting Books on the radio makes the audio book format cheaply available to a wide audience. The books given this form of presentation include both fiction and non-fiction and are read either by an actor or by the author...

, read by actors or by the author. In Britain and other countries there is also a quite a bit of radio comedy (both stand-up and sitcom). Together, these programs provide entertainment where television is either not wanted or would be distracting (such as while driving or operating machinery).

The lack of visuals also enable fantastical settings and effects to be used in radio plays where the cost would be prohibitive for movies or television. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...

was first produced as radio drama, and was not adapted for television until much later, when its popularity would ensure an appropriate return for the high cost of the futuristic setting.

On occasion television series can be revived as radio series. For example, a long-running but no longer popular television series can be continued as a radio series because the reduced production costs make it cost-effective with a much smaller audience. When an organization owns both television and radio channels, such as the BBC

BBC

, the fact that no royalties have to be paid makes this even more attractive. Radio revivals can also use actors reprising their television roles even after decades as they still sound roughly the same. Series that have had this treatment include Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, Dad's Army

Dad's Army

Dad's Army is a British sitcom about the Home Guard during the Second World War. It was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and broadcast on BBC television between 1968 and 1977. The series ran for 9 series and 80 episodes in total, plus a radio series, a feature film and a stage show...

, Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds (TV series)

Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...

and The Tomorrow People

The Tomorrow People

The Tomorrow People is a British children's science fiction television series, devised by Roger Price. Produced by Thames Television for the ITV Network, the series first ran between 1973 and 1979. The series was re-imagined in 1992, Roger Price acting as executive producer...

.

Regular broadcasts of radio drama in English can be heard on the BBC's Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

, Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

and Radio 4 Extra (formerly Radio 7), on Radio 1 from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, and on RTÉ Radio 1

RTÉ Radio 1

RTÉ Radio 1 is the principal radio channel of Irish public-service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926...

in Ireland. BBC Radio 4 in particular is noted for its radio drama, broadcasting hundreds of new, one-off plays per year in strands such as The Afternoon Play, in addition to serial

Serial (radio and television)

Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...

s and soap operas. Radio 4 Extra broadcast a variety of radio plays from the BBC`s vast archives and a few extended versions of Radio 4 programs. The British commercial station Oneword

Oneword

Oneword Radio was a British commercial digital radio station featuring books, drama, comedy, children's programming, and discussion. The station was available in the UK via digital radio and digital television and was streamed on the internet 24 hours a day worldwide...

, though broadcasting mostly book readings, also transmitted a number of radio plays in installments until it closed in 2008.

In the U.S., old-time radio drama can be found on ACB radio, produced by the American Council of the Blind

American Council of the Blind

The American Council of the Blind is a nationwide organization in the United States. It is an organization mainly made up of blind and visually impaired people who want to achieve independence and equality .-History:The American Council of the Blind was formed out of the dissolution of the...

and on XM Radio, and occasionally syndicated, as with Jim French's production Imagination Theater

Imagination Theater

Imagination Theater is an American syndicated radio drama program produced by Jim French Productions. It airs on FM and AM radio stations across the United States and also on XM satellite radio. It features modern radio dramas, the most popular of which are The Adventures of Harry Nile and The...

. A growing number of religious radio stations air daily or weekly programs usually geared to younger audiences, such as Adventures in Odyssey

Adventures in Odyssey

Adventures in Odyssey , or simply Odyssey, is an Evangelical Christian-themed radio drama/comedy series created by Focus on the Family in 1987. The show's daily audience averages around 1.2 million within North America. The Odyssey series also includes several spin-off items, including a home-video...

(1,700+ syndicated stations), or Unshackled!

Unshackled!

Unshackled! is a radio drama series produced by Pacific Garden Mission, in Chicago, Illinois, that first aired in 1950. It is the longest-running radio drama in history and one of very few still in production in the United States...

(1,800 syndicated stations - the longest running radio drama of all time), which is geared to adults. The networks sometime sell transcripts of their shows on cassette tapes or CDs or make the shows available for listening or downloading over the Internet. Transcription recordings of many pre-television shows have been preserved. They are collected, re-recorded onto audio CDs and/or MP3 files and traded by hobbyists today as old-time radio programs. Meanwhile, veterans such as Yuri Rasovsky

Yuri Rasovsky

Yuri Rasovsky is an American award-winning writer and producer working in the field of radio drama in the United States....

(The National Radio Theater of Chicago

The National Radio Theater of Chicago

) and Thomas Lopez

Thomas Lopez

(ZBS Foundation

ZBS Foundation

ZBS Foundation, a small non-profit audio production company, was founded by Thomas Lopez in 1970 with a grant from Robert E. Durand as a working commune based on a donated farm in Upstate New York...

) have gained new listeners on cassettes, CDs and downloads. In the mid-1980s, the non-profit L.A. Theatre Works launched its radio series recorded before live audiences, which maintains a tenuous hold in public radio, while marketing its productions on compact disc.

With 21st-century technology, modern radio drama, also known as audio theater, has experienced a revival, with a growing number of independent producers who are able to build an audience through internet distribution. While there are few academic programs in the United States that offer training in radio drama production, organizations such as the National Audio Theatre Festival

National Audio Theatre Festival

The National Audio Theatre Festivals, Inc. is a US-based organization sponsoring a yearly, five-day workshop on radio drama, voiceover and the audio arts, as well as other special training. Participants take classes on subjects such as voiceover and voice acting, audio engineering, Foley and...

teach the craft to new producers.

The digital age has also resulted in recording styles that differ from the studio recordings of radio drama's Golden Age

Old-time radio

. Not From Space

Not From Space

Not From Space is a feature-length radio drama broadcast on XM Satellite Radio from 2003. It was the first Internet-based production recording its actors through email, rather than the traditional studio setting. -Plot:...

(2003) on XM Satellite Radio was the first national radio play recorded exclusively through the Internet in which the voice actors were all in separate locations. XM continues to air modern radio dramas on its Book Radio channel (formerly Sonic Theatre).

Currently, podcasts are the most promising distribution format for independent radio drama producers. Podcasts provides a good alternative to mainstream television and radio because they have no restrictions regarding program length or content.

Radio drama around the world

Radio drama in Japan
Radio drama in Japan
Radio drama in Japan has a history as long as that of radio broadcasting in that country, which began in 1925. Some consider the first Japanese radio drama to have been "" which was a radio broadcast of a stage play. Others consider the Japanese translation of Richard Hughes's "Danger" or to be...
Vividh Bharati
Vividh Bharati
The Vividh Bharati Service of All India Radio was conceptualized to combat Radio Ceylon in 1957. Within no time it proved to be a popular channel of every household. Vividh Bharati radio channel was launched on October 3, 1957. The service provides entertainment for nearly 15 to 17 hours a day...

a service of All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

has a long running Hindi radio-drama program Hawa Mahal
Hawa Mahal (radio program)
Hawa Mahal is a popular nightly radio show in India broadcast on the Vividh Bharati service. It has a skit-format, where stories from various writers were dramatized into plays...
Farm Radio International
Farm Radio International
Farm Radio International, or Radios Rurales Internationales , is a Canadian non-profit organization based in Ottawa, Ontario...
African Radio Drama Association in Nigeria

External links

Audio-Drama.com A wiki encyclopedia of audio drama websites
The Audio Drama Directory A directory of modern works of audio drama
The Well-tempered Audio Dramatist Treatise on writing, producing, performing and directing audio plays in the 21st century.
Necrology of Old Radio Personalities
BBC Radio Drama on the Diversity website

On-line audio drama

Washington Audio Theater Free streaming and downloadable original audio theater.
Wireless Theatre Company Free radio drama for MP3 Players
Free Old Time Radio For The Blind and Disabled Over 40,000 shows serving since 2004, 4,000 members.
The OTRR Library The internet's largest site for free downloads of old time radio.
Camp Shohola Radio Information about the only summer camp that is producing and providing instruction in the performance of radio drama.
Scenario Productions CBC radio drama from 1940s-1960s.
Radio Drama Revival Weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to radio drama
ACB radio Old-time radio from the American Council of the Blind.
http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A677631%20|%20Number%3A677630%20|%20Number%3A677629%20|%20Number%3A677627%20|%20Number%3A677011%20|%20Number%3A676406%20|%20Number%3A676405%20|%20Number%3A675872%20|%20Number%3A674761%20|%20Number%3A671223%20|%20Number%3A671176%20|%20Number%3A671153%20|%20Number%3A671145%20|%20Number%3A671133;querytype=;resCount=10Theatre of the Mind] at the National Film and Sound Archive.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early years

Widespread popularity

Decline in the United States

Radio drama today

Radio drama around the world

Further reading

See also

External links

On-line audio drama