The Return of Radio Dramas

*Originally published on 3/4/10



Decades ago, before every household had a television, people would gather around the radio and listen to shows that would spark the imagination and keep listeners in suspense. While radio is still a pretty strong media outlet, the entertainment style has faded into a fringe interest. Leonard Nimoy has done his part to keep it alive with his Alien Voices productions and a few come out now and again, but it hasn't caught on.

My roommate brought up his interest and I mentioned that with the prevalence of podcasts, it was odd that someone didn't try to do their own sort of radio drama. My roommate thought about it for a second before beginning to search.

As it turns out, people had come up with the idea to do radio drama podcasts. They even went ahead and made them; they even posted them online so that people could listen. My roommate's been listening to them pretty much nonstop since he found out about them.

I've listened to a handful of episodes (of a zombie epic called We're Alive) and they are quite gripping. Not only are there people putting out original content of their own, but you can actually find the older radio dramas like The Shadow or Orson Welles' infamous War of the Worlds presentation.

These make great background music. My roommate (as well as his coworkers who he has gotten hooked) listens to it while he's at work. If you're the type of person who has the television on while they surf the Internet, I would suggest checking these out. You get the same sense while saving electricity.

I would also suggest checking these out if you are a fan of audiobooks. They're similar, but very different at the same time. The dialogue is handled better as you have actors and actresses as opposed to one person trying to come up with distinct voices for each character (they usually do a good job, but having multiple people works better).

They also have the advantage of sound effects and soundtracks. It's like a hybrid between a movie and an audiobook.

It's kind of interesting how, even though this format seemingly died decades ago, people of my generation are still interested in it. My aforementioned roommate really digs these things and the Internet critic known as "The Spoony One" stated his interest in these sorts of productions when he discussed a film called Pontypool.

You can find these simply by searching on Google, but searching through iTunes can also produce results. As these guys get paid based on subscriptions (or at the very least make more through them) this is the recommended way to go when it comes to finding these.

If you're into these sorts of productions, I definitely recommend looking for them. If you have never heard one, check it out, I think you'll dig it. They're entertaining and more engrossing than you'd think.