Reviving Audio Drama in Modern Times

Using modern technology, audio dramas can be downloaded in a way that fits with our changing entertainment lifestyle. And, it offers a new way to market products and services.
The mission of Vermont Audio Drama Podcasting (VTADP) is to translate the literary works of authors into audio drama presentations suitable for broadcast over the Internet or other audio communication channels. Initially, we are working to convert the Vermont-based Joe Gunther mystery novels by Archer Mayor into audio dramas.
Even for those who didn't grow up during radio's golden era, mention radio drama to most Americans and it culls up the image of a family huddled around the radio anxiously on a Saturday night waiting for a program to come on. Most are familiar with the furor over War of the Worlds, and can bring names like "The Shadow" and "The Green Hornet" to the tips of their tongues. These same people are astonished to learn that Orson Welles started (and may have produced his best work!) in radio, and that "The Lone Ranger" existed long before its television debut.
Audio book sales continue to grow. Audio drama allows “readers” used to single-voice narrator stories to the allure of full dramatizations. The Wall Street Journal in an article about us makes this point.
A classic story about the power of audio drama:

A little girl who, when asked whether she preferred television to radio, answered,
"I prefer radio.”
"Why?”
"Because the pictures are better."

There are some great examples of radio theatre sponsorship from the Golden Age of Radio up to the 1980s:

• The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, which last aired over thirty years ago, was produced with a young audience in mind but only lasted a year. It attempted to capture the success of CBS Radio Mystery Theater that continued to air until 1984.
• Hallmark Playhouse, which aired from 1948-1953, was geared to family entertainment and was the basis of the long-running TV series.
• Maxwell House Coffee Time, which aired for over two decades, beautifully combined print and radio campaigns with the message that "Maxwell House Coffee is part of the American Scene."

Ten years ago, Richard Fish predicted “…the invention of the internet and the World-Wide Web has brought a new channel of distribution for audio theatre, “broadcasting on demand,” if you will. Many websites now feature OTR programming available to the properly-equipped browser via RealAudio, MP3, or other software. More and more websites offer brand new audio theatre productions, either in part or in whole. The audio theatre art form is having a renaissance of major proportions, and it is now proper to speak of the “audio theatre Industry.” Kept alive for decades by a few devotees and funded by grants, audio theatre is being weaned off the dole and coming back into the marketplace…”

Charles Osgood, noted broadcaster, said:

No television set that’s made,
no screen that you can find
Can compare with that of radio:
the theatre of the mind
Where the pictures are so vivid,
so spectacular and real
That there isn’t any contest,
or at least that’s how I feel.

Using modern technology, audio dramas can be downloaded in a way that fits with our changing entertainment lifestyle. And, it offers a new way to market products and services.

If you are interested in collaborating on this idea, send me an email.