Soundings (radio drama)
Encyclopedia
Soundings is an award-winning radio drama
series produced from 1980 to 1989 in Ottawa
by multimedia artist Jeff Green
. Episodes were generally in the science fiction
genre.
Seven of the eleven plays in the series are 45 minutes in length, which Green chose to allow listeners to record episodes with the prevalent cassette
home recording technology of the time.. The original pilot for the series, "Epiphanies", is the only one that is an hour in length. The remaining three plays "Psychotherapy", "Vigilante" and "Plague" are each 30 minutes in length, and were first broadcast as a mini-series of horror tales on CHEZ-FM
called Weird Words.
Some distributed versions of “Soundings” also include a ten-minute play called “Bomb” that is not technically part of the series, but was recorded using binaural
technology for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
experimental radio program.
's campus radio station CKCU-FM
while it was still an AM carrier current
and closed circuit station. In 1980 he applied for and received a Canada Council
Explorations grant to produce a pilot for a series of radio drama works called “Epiphanies”. In 1982 he presented the pilot to Ottawa
album-oriented rock station CHEZ-FM
and they agreed to air a series of plays.
In 1989 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
aired several of the plays as part of their “Vanishing Point
” drama series. In 1990 America’s National Public Radio aired the series. Also in 1990, the play “Somebody Talking To You” was aired on London
, England’s LBC
station, and referenced in Tim Crook’s book “Radio Drama – Theory and Practice”. In 1991, several plays were aired on Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s
national network. Green's work is occasionally broadcast and streamed in the U.S. as part of the prominent audio theatre program, "Sound Affects: A Radio Playground," which is featured on KFAI
as part of their "spoken word groove." The radio plays were featured on XM Satellite Radio’s former Sonic Theater channel.
comedy that stars Green as the title character, a sci-fi Raymond Chandler gumshoe fitted with a hi-tech head implant (“the meld”) conveying telepathic capabilities, who goes up against a super-villain who has styled himself as an Egyptian god, has purchased and refitted the Great Pyramid at Giza, and is using adapted meld technology to steal the creative essence from the world’s great minds in order to fuel his ascendance to true deity status.
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 45 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 60 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 30 minutes
Cast
Running Length: 10 minutes
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
series produced from 1980 to 1989 in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
by multimedia artist Jeff Green
Jeff Green (multimedia artist)
Jeffrey Stuart Green is a Canadian author, playwright, producer, and director, who has worked in a variety of media including radio, television, computer, DVD-based multimedia, and in live nightclub settings. His work has earned him critical acclaim and a number of awards...
. Episodes were generally in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
genre.
Overview
All the plays in the series were written, produced, directed and engineered by Green, with the exception of “Epiphanies” which was engineered by Charles Fairfield. All of the music in the series was composed and engineered by Fairfield, with the exception of songs in "Flash" and "She Dreams of Atlantis".Seven of the eleven plays in the series are 45 minutes in length, which Green chose to allow listeners to record episodes with the prevalent cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
home recording technology of the time.. The original pilot for the series, "Epiphanies", is the only one that is an hour in length. The remaining three plays "Psychotherapy", "Vigilante" and "Plague" are each 30 minutes in length, and were first broadcast as a mini-series of horror tales on CHEZ-FM
Chez
Chez may refer to:* CHEZ-FM, a Canadian radio stationPeople* Anthony Chez, American college football coach* Chez Starbuck, American actor...
called Weird Words.
Some distributed versions of “Soundings” also include a ten-minute play called “Bomb” that is not technically part of the series, but was recorded using binaural
Binaural recording
Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. This effect is often created using a technique known as "Dummy head...
technology for a 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...
experimental radio program.
History
Green’s first radio drama work was done while a volunteer at Carleton UniversityCarleton University
Carleton University is a comprehensive university located in the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. The enabling legislation is The Carleton University Act, 1952, S.O. 1952. Founded as a small college in 1942, Carleton now offers over 65 programs in a diverse range of disciplines. Carleton has...
's campus radio station CKCU-FM
CKCU-FM
CKCU-FM is a Canadian community-based campus radio station, broadcasting at 93.1 FM in Ottawa, and offering a live Real Audio stream and MP3 stream from its website. The station broadcasts 24 hours per day, 365 days per year....
while it was still an AM carrier current
Carrier current
Carrier current is a method of low power AM radio transmission that uses the AC electrical system of a building to propagate a medium frequency, AM signal to a relatively small area, such as a building or a group of buildings...
and closed circuit station. In 1980 he applied for and received a Canada Council
Canada Council
The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
Explorations grant to produce a pilot for a series of radio drama works called “Epiphanies”. In 1982 he presented the pilot to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
album-oriented rock station CHEZ-FM
Chez
Chez may refer to:* CHEZ-FM, a Canadian radio stationPeople* Anthony Chez, American college football coach* Chez Starbuck, American actor...
and they agreed to air a series of plays.
In 1989 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...
aired several of the plays as part of their “Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point (CBC)
Vanishing Point is the title of a science fiction anthology series that ran on CBC Radio from 1984 until 1986, and then under a varying array of sub-titles until 1991....
” drama series. In 1990 America’s National Public Radio aired the series. Also in 1990, the play “Somebody Talking To You” was aired on London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England’s LBC
LBC
LBC Radio operates two London-based radio stations, with news and talk formats. LBC was Britain's first legal commercial Independent Local Radio station, providing a service of news and information to London. It began broadcasting on 8 October 1973, a week ahead of Capital Radio...
station, and referenced in Tim Crook’s book “Radio Drama – Theory and Practice”. In 1991, several plays were aired on Australia Broadcasting Corporation’s
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
national network. Green's work is occasionally broadcast and streamed in the U.S. as part of the prominent audio theatre program, "Sound Affects: A Radio Playground," which is featured on KFAI
KFAI
KFAI is a community radio station in Minnesota. The station broadcasts a wide variety of music, and also airs programming catering to many of the diverse ethnic groups of the region...
as part of their "spoken word groove." The radio plays were featured on XM Satellite Radio’s former Sonic Theater channel.
Awards
- 1988 — Best Radio Program of the Year, Ottawa (ACTRAACTRAThe Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists is a Canadian labour union representing performers in English-language media. It has 22,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media....
) for "Xmas Is Coming To The District Of Drudge" - 1989 — Best Radio Program of the Year, Ottawa (ACTRAACTRAThe Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists is a Canadian labour union representing performers in English-language media. It has 22,000 members working in film, television, radio, and all other recorded media....
) for "Plague" - 1990 — Silver Medal (New York International Radio Festival) for the series as aired on NPR under the title "The Weird Worlds of Jeff Green"
- Inductee, ASFSFA Hall of Fame for "Spaxter" (American Society for Science Fiction Audio)
Awarded a Mark Time AwardMark Time AwardsThe Mark Time Awards are the most prominent radio drama awards worldwide in conjunction with the Ogle Awards. The awards are granted by the MISFITS Minnesota Society For Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy and judged by a panel of five distinguished radio producers. Each year there are new...
for Best in Science Fiction Radio and Audio in the History of Recorded Sound
Spaxter (1986)
Spaxter is a cyberpunkCyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
comedy that stars Green as the title character, a sci-fi Raymond Chandler gumshoe fitted with a hi-tech head implant (“the meld”) conveying telepathic capabilities, who goes up against a super-villain who has styled himself as an Egyptian god, has purchased and refitted the Great Pyramid at Giza, and is using adapted meld technology to steal the creative essence from the world’s great minds in order to fuel his ascendance to true deity status.
Cast
- Jeff_Green: Spaxter
- John Koensgen: Graft
- Shelley Hartman: Louella
- Rick Jones: Osiris
- Catherine Anka: Mae Westar
- John Tarswell: Newsbyte
- Robert Bockstael: Ahkenaton
Running Length: 45 minutes
Spaxterback (1987)
Spaxterback, the sequel to Spaxter, has a globe-spanning mega-computer named MARS create Spaxter as a cloned agent based on his fictional personality in order to have him help determine why the world is undergoing an explosion of UFO activity. It turns out that a rogue group of aliens has been selling breeding rights for humankind to other species, and when Spaxter tricks them into calling in their “Overlord” this mysterious entity solves the problem by invoking a program called “Everything’s True”. The "protocol" includes a massive concert starring “The Callers” where a crowd of neo-hippies attempt to contact the aliens.Cast
- Jeff Green: Spaxter
- John Koensgen: Mars
- Shelley Hartman: Louella
- Mike Giunta: Borado Nikto
- Mike O’Reilly: The Aliens
Running Length: 45 minutes
Flash (1986)
Flash is a drama set in Algonquin Park in Ontario where three individuals flee in canoes in an attempt to avoid a global nuclear war. While they are on the lakes they experience mysterious flashes that seem to trigger individual supernatural events that may link them to past or future lives. In the end they determine that the force of their wills can cause them to save special individuals who have been vaporized by nuclear blasts and so begin rebuilding society.Cast
- John Koensgen: Indy
- Shelley Irvine: Tara
- Terence Scammell: Ray
- Shelley Hartmen: the girl from Berlin
- Featuring original music by Ian TamblynIan TamblynIan Tamblyn in is a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter and record producer, adventurer, and playwright.-Music career:...
with Lynn MilesLynn MilesLynn Miles is a Canadian singer-songwriter and winner of the 2003 Juno Award.-Early life and education:Miles was born outside Montreal in the town of Sweetsburg, Quebec. Her father was a harmonica player and jazz fan while her mother listened to both opera and country music. Miles learned to...
Running Length: 45 minutes
She Dreams of Atlantis (1987)
She Dreams of Atlantis tells the story of Victoria Doubleday, a successful ad executive who just landed the lucrative Metacorps contract promoting their latest achievement—an array of power satellites in geosynchronous orbit that will solve all mankind's energy needs. But Victoria has dreams where she is a queen in ancient Atlantis who is being asked to decide on a power project by the mages. She becomes convinced that Atlantis was destroyed by her past-life decision to allow the mage project, that the Metacorps project will similarly destroy civilization, and that through her dreams she can go into the past and solve both problems at once.Cast
- Shelley Irvine: Victoria Doubleday, Elna
- Gerard Lepage: Max, Kyros
- Jim Bradford: Axworthy, Mage Manalon
- Jackson Baker: Proteus
- Featuring members of the St.Matthew’s Boy’s Choir directed by Richard Dacey
Running Length: 45 minutes
Somebody Talking To You (1986)
Somebody Talking To You pits a multi-talented media consultant against an inexplicable invasion of his world by some kind of addictive cassettes, marked with only the simple phrase “Somebody Talking To You”. Everyone except him apparently hears something perfectly personally compelling, and eventually they disappear completely. When their cassette is then played their voice can be heard, “talking to you”. In the end he is the only one left, uncertain as to what has occurred.Cast
- Geoff Gruson: Hal Mercury
- Beverly Wolfe: Selena Silence
- Dan Lalonde: Doctor Sid
- Ayden Suatac: John Revel
Running Length: 45 minutes
Xmas Is Coming To The District of Drudge (1988)
Xmas Is Coming To The District of Drudge is an unusual Christmas story set in the dystopian world of Drudge where anything remotely exciting or interesting is forbidden. One man comes across a strange substance called “Christmas” that appears to be just a piece of fruitcake but when eaten causes him to briefly experience a parallel world filled with Yuletide cheer. He has it analyzed and discovers it has an element that somehow “activates” its component water. He hatches a plan to first administer it to his brutal boss (who experiences it as a Dickensian visit with his past, present and future), and then transform the entire world.Cast
- Rob Welch: Joe Carpenter
- Geoff Gruson: Herodius Bruse
- Heather Esdon: Marie
- Alan Templeton: Matthew
- Bill Lee: The Announcer
Running Length: 45 minutes
The Tuning (1986)
The Tuning is a science fantasy based in a bizarre future where the primary entertainment is a full-immersion interactive experiential media called “tuning”. Artemus Tamerlane is a talented tuner who discovers that there are powerful forces behind the scenes and that if he can defeat them he is destined to lead his society into a transcendental age.Cast
- Terence Scammell: Artemus Tamerlane
- Les LyeLes LyeLeslie Earnest "Les" Lye was a Canadian actor. Best known for his numerous roles as one of the two adults on the children's program, You Can't Do That On Television , he enjoyed a television and radio career spanning nearly half a century.-Career:Following a stint in the armed forces after high...
: The Prime Players - Bridget Robinson: Wanda Betty June
- Robert Bockstael: Captain Video
Running Length: 45 minutes
Epiphanies (1980)
Epiphanies tells the story of Joshua Bellows, a small-time politician who happens into a small town to discover it in the grip of an AM deejay who apparently has the power to manipulate sound. The more he investigates the more convinced he is that a supernatural force has manifested itself, and he decides his destiny is to confront it. In an encounter at a local bar he engages in a psychic battle with the force and defeats it, or is himself defeated.Cast
- Jim Bradford: Joshua Bellows
- Gary Paige: Sonny, The Auditor
- Anna MacCormack: Anna Chambers
- Bernie McManus: Bobby Stocks
- John Nolan: Professor Malleus
- Shelley Hartman: June Oasis
- Bruce Feather: The Narrator
Running Length: 60 minutes
Vigilante (1988)
Vigilante is about an autistic savant who is obsessed with one particular newscaster on a local TV station, and discovers that he has the power to go to the site of ongoing crimes and telekinetically affect events, causing the criminals to end their lives in ways appropriate to their evils. In time this vigilante spree spreads to any malfeasance mentioned on the newscast, and the newscaster comes to realize that he is the nexus of the supernatural activity. By naming the vigilante as the number one criminal on his newscast he ends both their careers.Cast
- Rob Eastland: Ward
- Ray Stone: James Gospel
- Nancy Clark: The Mother
- Shelley Aaron: Vicki
- Barry Blake: The Barber
- Chuck Collins: Peter Witness
Running Length: 30 minutes
Psychotherapy (1988)
Psychotherapy is an homage to Edgar Allan Poe. Mark Allen is a troubled man who on the advice of his psychiatrist decides to undertake a radical new therapy offered at a remote sanatorium, but when he gets there discovers that the inmates have taken over the facility, obsessed with recreating the horrors in the work of Poe. To escape he must convince them he is sympathetic to their cause, and in the end finds the experience has affected his own cure.Cast
- Dave Hudson: Mark Allen
- Chuck Collins: Dr. Pilar, Officer Fin
- Neil Kelly: Dr.Shock
- Mitzi Hauser: The Receptionist
Running Length: 30 minutes
Plague (1989)
Plague is a grim depiction of a future time when the world has succumbed to a global plague that has forced the remnants of humanity into vast sealed domes, but even this precaution is proving only a delay to their ultimate doom. Mannie is a dome officer who suffers repeated personal calamities but is obsessed with rumours of certain individuals who have through an experimental process become immune to the plague, and in particular a Woman In White who has been seen walking contaminated streets unprotected. In the end he finds the woman has been looking for him, and he is himself one of the immune.Cast
- Robert Bockstael: Mannie
- Mary Ellis: Lotta
- Tim O’Ray: Peter Semblen
- Chris Shoemaker: Abel
- Shelley Aaron: The Voice of Dome Control
Running Length: 30 minutes
Bomb (2003)
In a dark future where an aggressive America has annexed parts of Canada. Northern terrorists are using something called the SEMP, a nanotechnology pill that causes an individual's atoms to align to turn their body into a short range electromagnetic pulse bomb (killing them in the process), attacking the American occupiers by wiping out key computer and control systems. Zyla Jova is a Canadian government functionary who witnesses a retaliatory American urban attack then is called upon to oversee the matter transportation of the Prime Minister to a U.S. location where she is expected to capitulate to further imposed restrictions. But there is a rumour of a "MegaSEMP", a pill that can trigger an exponential chain reaction in any other individuals nearby, potentially killing millions. Just before she is sent, did the PM swallow something?Cast
- Christopher Handfield: Maylon
- Leslie Crate: Zyla Jova
- Alan Neil: Bran Parlan
- Lorraine Ansell: Lucinda Tantelus
- Music: Little Joker
Running Length: 10 minutes