We have often talked about the curious fact that, while many Part 15 radio stations present vintage playlists of oldies music, almost none of them turn on a microphone and host the music as disc jockies (DJs). Then there's Old Time Radio (OTR), perhaps the second most common type programming in Part15 Land, yet we never hear of stations staging their own radio dramas with homemade scripts.
We make note of the fact that a minority of station operators, Artisan Radio for example, do produce hosted music shows, but no one we have ever heard of does radio dramas.
So, I have been thinking of writing some scripts and submitting them for Part15 people to produce using family members and neighbors as actors.
Remember 'soap operas'? Ya, in the early days of radio, weekday time brought a whole batch of so-called 'soap operas', so-named because soap products sponsored them, i.e. Rinso White and Ivory Soap, the continuing episodes including 'Our Gal Sunday', 'One Man's Family', 'As the World Turns'; many of which migrated to television and may still be running.
So let me start here and now to submit into the Part 15 Domain a new soap opera titled:
ANNOUCER: 'Another Day'... brought to you be Bubbly Facial Wash, good for ears, neck and face.
As our story opens, Carl Blare, in his dual role as play-writer and actor, speaks to a room full of friends and neighbors, each holding a fat copy of today's script, saying...
CARL: Welcome to my living room in real life which will also be the fictitious town of Trackside Hills, once a major stop along the railroad mainline, but today only served by one unkempt bus, the only connection with the outside world running only once a week. Today high speed tanker trains clatter their way through town pulling tons of toxic crude oil. In fact, here comes the oil train now, so loud that I'll need to withhold the rest of my introduction until tomorrow, when it will be 'Another Day'.
SOUND EFFECT: [Super-loud passing train]
Interesting! I would like to hear what you can do. Homegrown OTR is not easy I would assume as there's writing a script, story line, sound effects, actors that cannot just read lines but make it sound real with emotions, and willing to do it. But I like it.
Is that true that OTR is the second type of part 15 programming? Never thought. I know a lot do oldies but didn't think OTR shows. That's good to hear.
Here from 1953 is an actual soap opera that had just transitioned from radio to TV:
Long before I ever pondered Part 15, back as a kid my dad and I did radio shows of our own using a tape recorder. Circa 1972. Good times! Also, in middle school we did 5 minute radio shows for a class assignment and I recall annoying the teacher with my 9v battery operated, solid-state - made from a kit, button synthesizer. Circa 1978. I used the noise maker for sound affects.
I'm overqualified for a part.
Anyway, Carl. I'll put in for a dramatic reading on an episode or two if the script has directions for the voice actor. I'll even throw in my best Monty Python falsetto or imitate Peter Lorre.
While Carl's post is obviously tongue in cheek, I was thinking that a good first step in doing modern OTR would be dramatic readings of public domain works, i.e., audiobooks. There are some great examples over at librivox.org, and unfortunately some not so great examples.
The worse case scenario is someone who reads the books in a monotone-like fashion with a singular voice. There are some that attempt to do different voices for the various characters, and 'act' out the parts. There is one reader for Sherlock Holmes in particular that is excellent, and I've run across several others. Librivox also has dramatic readings of books, but again, the quality varies quite a lot.
Otherwise, as Mark notes, you will have to write original scripts, have different actors voice the various parts, and ideally produce sound effects.
Imagination Theatre is a modern source of audio dramas (doing such characters as Harry Nile). There are others; if you go into a library in the audiobook section, you can usually find full cast dramatic readings of either existing or new stories. Unfortunately, with all of these there are copyright issues. That's where homegrown has the advantage - you don't have to get permission to broadcast over the air.
I have to say that I'm intrigued by the notion of writing and then producing a modern OTR show. The more I think about it, the more I might just give it a try. Or at the very least write a script to see what I can come up with.
I'm living my dream running a radio station (no matter how small it is) and producing radio shows. And I've always wanted to try my hand at writing fiction. Maybe there is match here.
I broadcast a modern OTR style program "Barnaby Druthers" produced by these people.
It's a good program. I air it on Sunday evenings.
Yes indeed! Like Mark says, it's great to see activity in the home-brewed NTR (New Time Radio) department. If producers would like I can air their work here on KDX where we are always friendly to carrying creative projects from among the membership, so long as no royalty payment is required. I'll also think about producing something to offer to other stations.
I've generally avoided the dramatic readings on Librivox but I think I'm going to start there, and investigate further, see how they do them and what they sound like.
The biggest issue I see with doing new, homegrown (or public domain) plays is finding enough voices to fill the roles, given that usually it's just one individual running a Part 15 station. Adding sound effects and even incidental music should be eminently doable, even after the fact.
Maybe get a local drama group interested? Maybe even a school project - I know the drama class for one of my relatives did short radio plays as projects. Or something similar?
Carl,
This goes for any station operator that would like to carry the program. AM1700WEFR get the program through Pacifica's audioport affilates website. AM1700WEFR is a Pacifica Network Affiliate. But there is contact link on the website, I'm sure they would probably allow you to air the program.
@artisan-radio Actual "production" of even a simple reading is actually an undertaking.
One friend led another friend to me years ago, asking if I'd be interested in film. We learned what we did not know. In my case, the business end of production. It all fell apart about the time we were formally going to do it for profit or not for profit. Was a serious enterprise.
I mention that because it ends up being "work" and not a nice hobby. Also, in my case, it ended up being expensive because I ended up with a complete iMac set-up complete with a pro Adobe suite and full Final Cut suite.
Then, like now, time is expensive even if it's not actual out of pocket dollars.
KDX does not have membership with the Pacifica Network resource, although a number of the programs we carry are also carried by Pacifica, but we are tied with PRX, the Public Radio Exchange, which has tons of programs ABOUT radio plays, and probably a few actual plays, but some of it has a price tag. The programs we actually use from PRX are without cost.
To clarify our interest, KDX is not seeking a radio play as such, but we are open to carrying programs produced by Part 15 radio stations. So if YOU produce something, you have a hall pass and can roam around in our air space. The material at Pacifica is not produced by part 15ers and not eligible to be placed on KDX.
I have a new idea for a part 15 soap opera... titled: "This Broadcast Is Coming To You From Across The Street". It will focus on the relations and misunderstandings with neighbors who have trouble believing that an unlicensed station can be legal.
@centinel I do recognize the amount of work involved in even a semi-professional or volunteer undertaking such as Librivox. Whatever each of those terms really mean.
I do radio because I enjoy it. I produce radio shows because I have fun doing it and learn a lot. That, to me, overshadows the work aspect, and also what others might think of the end quality of the shows. I probably spend a good 4-6+ hours doing the research, another few actually recording and editing the each original hour.
The research entails:
- Coming up with a theme, not always easy when you want to be original
- Choosing songs that fit within that theme, and I try not to repeat material. Then coming up with a playlist that makes sense
- Researching both the artists and the songs. I try to stay off the beaten path, so once again, not always easy. Not everything can be found on the Internet, at least not easily. I also have a lot of music reference books such as Whitburn, Billboard, etc.
- I used to write a script that I pretty much adhered to. Now I script some detailed parts that I don't want to forget, have some ideas around which I can improvise, and finally just wing it sometimes. It might be just me, but I find I can say a whole lot about nothing if I don't write some things down, and I don't want the show(s) to have that feel.
Then you get to the recording aspect. I use a decent USB microphone and Audacity for recording/editing. I have a dynamic microphone/preamp/mixer setup as well, but find I prefer the former.
I attempt to do everything in one take, with no editing, but sometimes it's just not possible. I don't want to sound that bad.
The sources for the music vary widely, from 45 RPM records and LP's to CD rips (sometimes their sources are 45's or LP's). Consequently, although I do little audio processing, I do normalize, and keep lead-in's and lead-out's consistent and short (to avoid dead air space). I record to mono, and keep end bitrates fairly low since FM doesn't require high bitrates, and I want to maximize the number of potential streaming users (64KB/sec mono sounds just fine for both).
As for reading or dramatic reading production, I would imagine many of the same steps (minus existing audio) would be followed. Never mind writing or adapting a script, there are all the aspects of voice acting, of which I am certainly not an expert. For a one person show, there's also deciding (and being consistent with) the voices. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination. I credit the Librivox volunteers for just attempting it, and I'm not surprised at many of the average results. All you have to do is to listen to the real pro's, such as Michael Prichard and his readings of the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe series to appreciate how it should be done.
A full production would require multiple voice actors, sound effects, including incidental music and is way outside my scope at this time.
If I do something along these lines, at first I'll keep it simple with a short reading and see how it goes.